Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sampo Koski believed himself invincible.

Well, almost. What it meant in practice was that he went into his business with the confidence of a man who knew that gods played in his corner, but also kept in mind that they could have a worse day. That being said, despite his uncanny ability to wriggle his way out of any kind of trouble, he sometimes underestimated how much people wanted him dead. 

This specific target was a rich Belobogian merchant called Petrov who liked his money so much that he started production in a warehouse in the Underworld. It was cheaper, especially after the way between the Overworld and the Underworld was opened and people sought new business opportunities. Unfortunately, a few months prior a group of his workers went missing. Members of Wildfire tried to find them but the business was run by an Overworlder, so messing with it would have had consequences. Petrov made it clear that he didn’t want anyone besides the Silvermane Guards to lead the investigation in his place and that was it. Now, Sampo didn’t exactly consider himself a guy who did charity but Natasha saved his ass so many times he’d figured he owed her, so he agreed when she asked him to discreetly investigate. Plus - if everything went according to plan - Petrov would get locked up, which meant that he wouldn’t need his money in jail. Sampo could keep an eye on it for him. A win-win situation, if he’d ever seen one.

Unfortunately, the nature of plans is that they often don’t go according to plan.

In his calculation, Sampo didn’t include the robots. The robots - as it turned out - were a new trend in the Overworld, especially among the wealthy. Who would bother with people with needs and feelings when you could just buy a bunch of automatons and have them patrol your house? And this, unfortunately, was a fresh batch that hadn’t made it into Sampo’s intel yet and unpleasantly surprised him when he had broken into Petrov’s house to go through his office and assess his safe.

As a result, he ended up curled on the roof of one of the buildings, holding his bleeding side and watching as a bunch of automatons scurried in the streets below, searching for him. His wound - as well as his pride - hurt like a bitch. 

It didn’t seem like they were going to give up either, so Sampo decided on the next logical step - sliding down to a balcony below him with a pained grunt and coming inside through the open door. Who the hell would leave the door open in this temperature was a mystery he was grateful for at the moment. Those expensive houses had so many rooms he could easily wait it out inside and then be on his merry way to come up with another plan. 

The room he found himself in was very tidy and certainly lived in. There was a big bed with dark blue sheets and a soft carpet. Most of the furniture had been built out of dark, rich-colored wood with golden accents. There was a bookshelf, a desk that was the messiest part, a big wardrobe, and a table with two armchairs. Cozy. He hoped he wouldn’t leave bloodstains on the carpet. 

Despite the pain in his side, he approached the desk, curious if the contents would give him any clue about the owner. While he was running away he wasn’t exactly checking directions so while he had some idea where he was, he wanted to assess how much trouble he’d be in if he got caught. 

The first thing he noticed was a cup with a bunch of writing supplies in it. It contained pens, pencils, and even a quill. One of the pencils had a rubber shaped like a lion's head, its shape and empty eyes making it look more grotesque than adorable. 

Then, he moved to examine a stack of files put to the side. All of them were dark blue with a description written in a white box. Sampo read through them and felt his stomach drop. 

They were case files. 

Slowly, he looked around and noticed a picture frame on the nightstand. From the picture, three pairs of eyes looked at Sampo. One he didn’t recognize, but the other two…

He had to get out of here or he’d be fucked.

As if summoned, a loud sound of footsteps came from the hall. Sampo looked around frantically. The balcony was too far to make a dive for it and the robots that wanted him dead were still in the streets. He could dive under the bed but the blood would surely smudge the floor. Wardrobe? It was pretty big but he wasn’t sure if it was big enough.

In a split second, Sampo decided to do what he did best - improvise.

When the door opened and Gepard Landau walked into his room, Sampo was on his bed, sitting as if he belonged there with a playful smile on his face. His strategically placed arm covered the wound and the bloody stains on his clothes, at least for now.

Gepard looked tired. He was still wearing his Guards uniform, armor and all. At first, he didn’t even notice Sampo. He closed the door with a sigh and turned. Then he froze.

“Koski”, he said, the weariness gone in a blink, replaced by a flash of anger. 

“Hello, Geppie. Fancy meeting you here”, Sampo smiled, a picture of pure innocence. 

“You are not meeting me anywhere, this is my room! What are you doing here!? You have five seconds to explain before I arrest you for trespassing”, Gepard - surprisingly enough - wasn’t charmed by his charisma. 

“Alright, alright, five seconds is a bit short you know, I am a fan of wordy explanations-”, he raised one hand defensively, laughing to unload the tension but Gepard wasn’t having any of it.

“Five.”

“Okay! So, Natasha, you know - the doctor from the Underworld, right - she asked me to investigate this guy and you know me, I can’t refuse a friend in need-”, he started.

“Four.”

“So I went to his house, consensually of course and he probably forgot to update the security about me visiting so a bunch of automatons attacked me. And I had to make myself scarce, so I thought what if I surprise Geppie with a visit-”

“Three.”

“Okay, maybe I didn’t think that, but your house was the closest and they’d have my head so I’ll be on my way in a moment and we can pretend this has never happened-”

“Two.”

“Look, we don’t have to make it a bigger issue than it is, you know, I’ll be on my way right this moment-”, he started getting up and hissed when a flash of pain shot through his side. Fucking rich people with their robots. 

It took him a moment to realize “one” hadn’t come.

“Geppie?”, he looked up at the Captain but Gepard’s eyes were on his side, the annoyance gone.

“Are you hurt?”, Gepard asked. 

“Only emotionally, because the hottest Silvermane Guard in town doesn’t want me in his bedroom.”

Gepard wasn't taking it. In a few steps, he closed the distance between them and grabbed Sampo's wrist, pulling his arm away from his side to uncover the wound. He winced at the sight and then sighed. 

"Wait here", he said and walked to the door to the left that led to a small bathroom. Sampo glanced at the open balcony. He could take this chance and run. It was a logical thing to do. He'd be gone and Gepard would be none the wisest and they wouldn't see each other, at least until Sampo got in trouble again. Still, a part of him was curious. The only side of Gepard he knew was the Captain of the Guards, bound by honor and duty, hunter of criminals, and breaker of hearts (that last part he added only for the drama). He was sure there was more if you weren’t one of the people he was trying to put in jail but Sampo’s occupation as Belobog’s most charming and notorious scammer prevented him from ever discovering it. Even their temporary truce during the museum renovation when Pela paired them up together to give tours didn’t give him more insight into the Captain’s personality. And the issue with Sampo was that he liked to know . Liked to crack people open and see what made them tick. It would get him killed someday, he knew. He thought he had Gepard figured out, so the way his anger melted into concern felt rather odd.

The curiosity won and Sampo waited politely until Gepard came back from the bathroom with a first-aid kit. He seemed a little surprised Sampo was still there and Sampo couldn't blame him. He was surprised too. He blamed it on the fact that Gepard was hot.

"Take your shirt off", Gepard said, putting the box on the bed next to him. Sampo noticed that his armor was gone, probably abandoned in the bathroom. He was wearing only light trousers that were a part of his uniform and a dark blue turtleneck that made him look annoyingly casual. 

"Buy me dinner first, Captain", Sampo laughed but did as he was told. Without the clothes, the scratch looked nasty. The blood had drenched his shirt and smudged all over his side. The metallic scent filled the air and Sampo winced. 

“I can clean and bandage it but you will have to get it examined later because it may need stitches”, Gepard said, examining the wound. He looked up at Sampo and for a moment his blue eyes widened, a subtle blush dusting his cheeks. 

“Like what you see?”, Sampo leaned back. It was a mistake because another pang of pain hit him. “Fuck.”

“Don’t move”, Gepard ordered. He took a piece of cloth he had brought along with the first aid kit and started gently cleaning the wound. His embarrassment was gone and he was completely focused now. The blood was staining the cloth red and in the silence that settled, Sampo itched to escape from this room, this situation, his own skin. Whatever let him avoid this weirdly vulnerable position he found himself in. 

Sampo Koski didn’t do vulnerable. 

He stayed still and silent until Gepard finished cleaning and bandaging his wound. It was rare for him. He hoped Gepard could appreciate that. He hoped he would be able to leave soon. He hoped Gepard would keep his hands on him for longer. 

“Alright. That should work”, Gepard said finally, moving away. 

“An outstanding citizen and can patch you up? You’re gonna make me swoon”, Sampo smirked. Gepard just scoffed and moved away, closing the first aid kit and putting away the cloth stained with Sampo’s blood. Sampo watched it from the corner of his eye. This was not the kind of trouble he liked to cause. The effort Gepard put into helping him wasn’t sitting right with him. 

“I have a younger sister. She likes to spend a lot of time outside so she gets roughed up pretty often”, Gepard offered after a moment. Sampo stared at him in disbelief. That was a regular conversation starter. Scammers and captains of the guards didn’t have regular conversations. 

“I’ve heard of her. Lynx, right?”, he wondered how far it would go. Was Gepard just buying time waiting till the other Silvermane Guards got here so he could make his arrest? But when would he have called them? Moreover, Sampo doubted Gepard couldn’t handle him alone. 

What was this small talk for then?

“Yeah. She is an explorer so she is rarely in Belobog”, Was that a little smile he saw on Gepard’s face? How cute. He felt like teasing Gepard about it but some part of him didn’t want to shatter this fragile truce. 

“Were you telling the truth? Are you helping Miss Natasha?”, Gepard looked at him, tilting his head. 

“Never been more honest”, Sampo promised and now that he thought about it, it seemed true. He couldn’t remember a time when he was this honest. Which was very different than entirely honest but that Geppie didn’t need to know. 

“I see”, Sampo didn’t. He had no idea what Gepard meant by that and it felt a little unnerving. The thoughtful expression on the guard’s face revealed mysterious calculations and Sampo couldn’t tell what they were about. 

“Am I allowed to leave, Captain?”, he asked, eager to get out of there before the situation made him even more antsy. Gepard was so easy to rile up that Sampo thought he had him figured out but today humbled him a little. He was allowed a glimpse of Gepard which felt precious. 

“...Yes”, Gepard said quietly. “But do get that wound checked out. It can still get infected if you don’t treat it properly.”

“So caring”, in one smooth move, Sampo moved closer to Gepard, their noses almost touching. 

“What-”, Gepard’s face got all red and he froze, waiting for what was about to come but Sampo just grinned, centimeters away from his lips. Before Gepard managed to utter another word Sampo was on the balcony, giving him one last playful look. 

Then he was gone.

***

That should have been the end of it. For the next few days, Sampo managed to distance himself from the situation. He stayed in Boulder Town, gathering new intel. Natasha had told him not to overdo it with the wound and he didn’t want to risk her wrath so he cooped himself in his hotel room and devoted himself to making plans. A few days passed by without interruption but - unfortunately - peace never lasts for long.

One afternoon, a knock on the door distracted Sampo away from the blueprints of the automatons that the merchant had bought. It wasn’t that uncommon for the Underworlders to seek him out. Well, some of them. Very few that didn’t consider him a total good-for-nothing thief and didn’t doubt his every word. He had himself to blame for it. Either way, sometimes someone came along with the business.

Sampo got up and opened the door. 

“Hey”, Seele said casually. “Someone here to see you.”

She was giving him a weird look that he couldn’t decipher. Something between curiosity and amusement.

“Is that so? Please don’t fight, there is enough Sampo for everybody”, he leaned against the doorway dramatically. Someone cleared their throat behind her and Sampo froze.

“You brought the guy who wants to arrest me to my room?”, he asked Seele in disbelief. 

Gepard was behind Seele. He wasn’t wearing his armor, just a thick coat that protected him from the cold. That was a good sign. It implied that no arrests were in the plan, at least not yet. 

“I’ll leave you guys alone”, Seele said, raising her eyebrows at Sampo and before he managed to stop her - made her way down the hall. When he heard her footsteps growing quieter, he slowly turned to Gepard. 

“I had nothing to do with it”, he said. Gepard blinked.

“Nothing to do with what?”, he asked, confusion clear on his face.

“Whatever you came here about! Come on, Geppie, you wouldn’t seek me out on your own, we both know that. I have been in this room for the last few days, recovering. Whatever you are accusing me of, I am not behind it. Not this time”, Sampo poked his chest with his finger. 

“I’m not accusing you of anything”, Gepard said. “Can I come in and explain?”

Sampo hesitated. It was one thing to crash Gepard’s house on his way out of a job and completely another to invite him into his place. As much as the room wasn’t his, he spent a good amount of time in there and got quite attached to it. 

It was a mess as well. The small space was almost filled with furniture. By the door, there was a hanger for clothes and a wardrobe. A little further stood a desk with a wooden chair on which Sampo had put a pillow to make it more comfortable. On the desk, a small lamp lit up the scattered blueprints. Opposite the desk, pressed against the wall was a small one-person bed with a metal frame. The blankets on it were rolled up and unmade, the pillow somewhere to the side. Sampo wasn’t an elegant sleeper. 

A little further, the room changed into a tiny kitchen with a door leading to the bathroom. The mugs in the sink glared at Sampo almost judgmentally. 

Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of him yet again.

“Make yourself at home”, he said, moving away to let him in. Gepard came in and the curious glances around the room didn’t go unnoticed by Sampo. He let the man have it.

Gepard took off his coat and put it on the hanger along with his thick scarf. His cheeks and nose were pink from the cold. He was wearing a black sweater that nicely hugged his muscular body. Its triangular neckline uncovered parts of his collarbones.

When he was done undressing, he looked at Sampo, his expression unreadable.

“I talked to Miss Natasha. She explained what you were investigating for her”, he said. Oh, so he fact-checked him. Not surprising, but it still stung a little. 

“See? I am a respectable citizen.”

“The point is that you haven’t managed to find anything, have you?”, Sampo had no idea where Gepard was going with that. He didn’t like it. 

“I was busy running from the automatons so yes, you can say it could have gone better”, he admitted. Gepard nodded, just as thoughtful as he was back then. 

“The Silvermane Guards have been investigating him for a while now. We got information about the disappearances and tried to talk to the families and coworkers but the people of the Underworld were distrustful towards us and wouldn’t give us much. We searched the warehouse but we found nothing”, he explained. “Miss Natasha told me where to find you but she said Wildfire didn’t know much either. Those people got hurt and their families deserve to know what happened.”

Sampo stared at him. If he was being honest, he didn’t really get what was going on. Gepard was getting somewhere with this speech and he wasn’t sure if he liked the direction. It was almost surreal. 

“I don’t understand what you are asking of me”, Sampo said after a moment. 

“Help me, Sampo”, Gepard took a step towards him. Sampo took a step back and his calves hit the edge of the bed. He was afraid that’s where this was going. He couldn’t believe he was right. Was Gepard that desperate to ask him of all people for help? 

“Okay, alright - look, Geppie, I think we need to be clear here”, he laughed, raising his hands defensively. “You flatter me and all but I wasn’t entirely honest with you. The only reason I agreed to help Natasha is because it's easy money, alright? If the guy is dealt with no one wonders where his money goes. And it would go to Sampo’s pocket, you catch my drift? Helping is kind of a bonus here.”

“Alright. But I want a part of it to go to the families of the victims”, Gepard nodded. Sampo opened his mouth and then closed it again.

“We are not understanding each other. I am a thief. A scammer. You are Belobog’s golden boy. I’d fuck you over three ways before you even blinked if it benefitted me. If anyone finds out you are working with me, your career will probably be over - that is if I don’t leave you to rot in some back alley before that”, he said. 

“I’m willing to take that bet”, Gepard said. 

Unbelievable. It was like talking to a wall. Sampo wanted to run but this was his room, Aeons be damned. At some point, he’d have to return and he could bet that Mr. Justice for People would be waiting for him on his own bed.

“So you want to work with a criminal just to put that guy away? Must be personal”, he raised his eyebrows, doing his best to play it cool.

“It’s not about it being personal or not. It’s about justice. Something happened to those people and if it’s ignored, there is no guarantee it won’t happen again. But the Guards have no authority here and organized action is more likely to scare people into being silent. You know Underworld better than any of the Guards. You are clever and resourceful-”

“Now, flattery will get you nowhere, Geppie-”

“And you were already working on it, so you know the details. So, what do you say, Sampo? You take half of the money and the people of the Underworld get back their peace”, Gepard extended his hand. A handshake. He was going for a handshake, dammit, like it’s some sort of a job interview. 

“It may not always be legal. We may have to do things we don’t like. Things that could cost you your position if you got caught”, Sampo managed one last weak argument, feeling his resolve slowly crack under the intense look of those blue eyes. 

“With the help of the Captain of the Silvermane Guards, some things may be easier than if you were to do them alone. Besides, maybe I’d be worrying about getting caught if it was with anyone else, but you have proved again and again that you’re not easy to arrest”, Gepard shook his head. Sampo supposed it was fair. He did have a knack for escapes.

And what was the harm in agreeing, anyway? He was already doing the job for Natasha and now he’d have a handsome guard to top it off. If everything went right, he’d have the money. If it went wrong, well, he’d make his escape. He was sure Gepard’s family had enough money to clear his name out of anything.

“Well, if you are so sure you want to entrust your investigation to a lowly criminal like me then I suppose you got yourself a deal, Captain”, he said, reaching out to shake his hand. “We should toast to this hopefully fruitful cooperation, don’t you think?”

“I was hoping we could exchange notes”, Gepard took off the leather bag slung over his shoulder and opened it, taking out one of the dark blue case files Sampo had seen in his room. It wasn’t very thick but when Gepard put out all the papers on his desk, Sampo felt the incoming headache.

“Are you sure I should be seeing those? Aren’t they classified?”, he asked, looking over Gepard’s shoulder. The Captain shook his head.

“You are helping me. I want our cards to be out on the table”, he said. 

Sampo sat on the bed and listened as Gepard described the dent the Silvermane Guards had made in the case. The man in question was called Petrov and came from a wealthy family of merchants. He decided to branch out and rent a warehouse in the Underworld since it was cheaper than in the Overworld. One day, a group of workers he had hired disappeared. They didn’t come back home after work and their families asked the Wildfire for help. Petrov claimed they had left the warehouse for the day but the suspicion was cast on him anyway. The Silvermane Guards searched the warehouse but found no trace of the missing workers and no further proof that could get them a warrant for Petrov’s house. 

Gepard finished talking and looked at Sampo expectantly. He was sitting on the chair, while Sampo was sitting on the bed. Sampo felt like he was still too surprised about the whole situation to give him a cohesive answer so he just gave him an easy smile.

“The way I see it you have done plenty of good work on your own, Geppie”, he said. 

“It’s not enough to solve the case, though”, Gepard hesitated for a moment. 

“Ah, but it is a start, isn’t it? I can talk to the families of the people who were affected and see if they have noticed something”, Sampo offered. 

“Take me with you”, Gepard said, his face full of determination. 

Sampo considered it for a moment. “I would, but you have to consider that not everyone in the Underworld would be willing to talk to a Silvermane Guard. The feelings towards the Overworld vary from lukewarm to very cold and you’re not exactly the trustworthy public figure here.”

Gepard’s face fell. 

“I am aware. Miss Natasha has told as much. But if I don’t at least try, it isn’t going to get better. I’m not going to force anyone to accept my help but if there is something I can do, I want to try”, he said and Sampo felt himself yield. 

“Well… I suppose I’m not much better. My reputation isn’t that great either. People get really mad when you sell them exactly what they were asking for”, he said. “Worst case scenario neither of us will get any intel.”

“Alright. I’ll come to get you tomorrow then. It’s pretty late today”, Gepard got up and started putting the documents back into the file. When he was done, he put on his coat and looked at Sampo. “I appreciate your help. I mean it.”

“Of course you do”, Sampo got up and stepped close enough to be in his space. “I was surprised you were considering the possibility of illegal means but I can see now that it goes on par with your heart of gold, doesn’t it?”

He reached out and fixed Gepard’s collar, watching curiously as the Captain’s eyes followed his hands. He expected Gepard to take a step back or move away but he stayed rooted in place, letting Sampo take care of his clothes. When Sampo was done, Gepard focused back on his face and for a moment Sampo was sure he was going to say something. Instead, he looked away, pulling the strap of his bag higher on his shoulder. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sampo”, he said, and just like that he was gone. Sampo fell back on the bed, looking at the ceiling. He wondered why the room suddenly felt emptier than before.

Chapter Text

The next day, Gepard arrived early, although it wasn’t early enough for Sampo to still be asleep. He managed to wash himself and put on his vest when he heard a knock on the door. He hurried to open it, almost tripping over one of the blankets that had ended up on the ground sometime during the morning. The floor was cold under his feet and when he opened the door, a cold draft from the hall made him shiver. The wind was his friend but the one in Belobog felt more like a cruel mistress.

He scooped a small amulet lying on his desk before opening the door.

Gepard was standing in the hall again, dressed in his casual clothes. In his hand, he was holding a paper bag with the logo of a certain bakery in the Overworld. Sampo remembered it because he had almost managed to sell the owner a recipe for self-baking dough. 

“Come in, will you? It’s freezing outside”, he let Gepard in, not missing the way the Captain’s eyes lingered on him as he passed. He probably wondered if Sampo was going to flirt with him again, but Sampo knew he had to keep it down a little. The day before he clearly scared the poor man off. He didn’t want him to be uncomfortable, just watch him squirm a bit.

“Your hair is wet”, Gepard said and Sampo almost rolled his eyes. 

“Your investigation skills are high from the very morning, Captain”, he smiled. “I’m afraid you will have to wait a moment because I’m not as much of a morning person as you seem to be.”

He started putting on his trousers and jacket while Gepard took his place on the chair. 

“I don’t mind. I also brought something to eat in case you haven’t had breakfast yet”, he said, putting the paper bag on the table. Sampo blinked, watching it as if it was going to explode.

“You brought food for me?”, he asked.

“Well, I haven’t eaten either so it’s not all for you. I bought more than necessary since I wasn’t sure what you like”, Gepard ‘s cheeks got a little redder and Sampo wondered when was the last time someone had shown this amount of consideration towards him. He finished dressing up and sat on the bed, taking a peek into the paper bag. It was filled with a bunch of smaller paper bags that contained different kinds of doughy goodness. There were sweet buns with cheese and pudding toppings, savory ones with vegetable filling, and ones with yellow cheese on top. Sampo fished the pudding one out, his fingers getting dirty from the frosting. Despite Gepard carrying it all the way from the Overworld, the dough wasn’t dry or stale. Quite the opposite, the frosting and the putting in the middle made it pleasantly soft. Sampo consumed most of the crust first until he had just the piece with the pudding left. Gepard watched him curiously, the bun with sweet cheese half-eaten in his hands. 

“What? Best for last and all that”, Sampo said between bites. Was that a smile on the Captain’s face? 

“Of course”, Gepard went back to his bun and Sampo suddenly felt a little self-conscious. 

“Want some tea or coffee?” he asked after a moment. Gepard brought him breakfast so he could at least offer him some refreshments. 

“You don’t have to”, Gepard protested, but Sampo was already heading to the little kitchen segment in his room. Gepard sighed. “Alright. Coffee then.”

“Milk or sugar?

“Both.”

Sampo returned with two mismatched mugs and put them on the table. Then, he leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. 

“Alright, boss. Let’s get to business”, he said. Business was easy. It distracted him from thinking how it felt nice to eat breakfast with Gepard. 

***

They decided to start by talking to people. Sampo suggested Natasha and some of the other Petrov’s employees and Gepard decided to also look for the person who rented the warehouses in the first place. 

When Natasha let them into the clinic, Sampo could feel the eyes of her patients following him, especially Gepard. Despite Gepard wearing his casual clothes, he still couldn’t pass for an Underworlder. Natasha seemed to know that because she invited them over to her office instead and closed the door. 

“Miss Natasha. Nice to see you again”, Gepard said, nodding. She raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment. 

“What can I do for you, boys?”, she said, turning to Sampo. He laughed, rubbing his hands together.

“Well, you see - me and Geppie here are on the case together now. We were wondering if that is something you could help us with. Did the families say anything to Wildfire? Do you know who the owner of the warehouse is?”

Natasha sighed, rubbing her face with her hand. She was tired and Sampo couldn’t blame her. If there was anyone in the Underworld who should get a break, it was her. The place would probably have fallen apart a long time ago without her. 

“They don’t know anything. Each of the workers needed a job and the opportunity was great. It was tough and the hours were long but that’s not much different from any other job around here. A few of the family members mentioned how they had complained about the draft and said it was rather cold but that’s also not surprising. Bosses often save up on heating. Then one day they just didn’t return home. Petrov claims they left work that day but he doesn’t have much proof of that.”

“My guards didn’t hear anything about the cold”, Gepard said.

“Of course they didn’t”, Natasha said, crossing her arms on her chest. Gepard looked down, his lips pressed into a line. “Either way, the guards didn’t find anything in the warehouse. The workers’ things were as if they left for the day, aside from a little teddy bear they found in one of the rooms. It belonged to a daughter of one of the workers and she had given it to her father so he wouldn’t be lonely. They assumed he must have lost it.”

“But you think otherwise”, Gepard said. Natasha gave him a long, unreadable look. 

“Yes”, she said finally. “I knew this man and his daughter too. They have lived with his mother ever since his wife passed away. The girl had a lot of anxiety about her father going to a new job so he would always carry this teddy like an amulet. I don’t think he’d just lose it.”

Gepard nodded, deep in thought. Then, he looked at Natasha.

“We will do our best to help”, he promised. Sampo didn’t argue with that, although he had a feeling his best and Gepard’s best were quite different. 

“Would you mind waiting outside, Geppie? I want a word with Natasha”, he said. Gepard hesitated for a moment but then nodded and did as he was told. 

Natasha watched him as he was leaving, arms crossed on her chest. Sampo knew she didn’t expect their investigation to go well. 

“Any intel you want to share for my ears only?”, he asked.

“I gave you what I know already, Sampo. Asking the third time isn’t going to change anything. But… I guess you can have this”, she passed him a piece of paper with a name and an address. “This man is the owner of the warehouse. He is scared of getting in trouble with the guards and doesn’t trust the Overworlders so try to be delicate. I don’t think he knows anything and if I hear he is in any trouble because of this, we will have a talk but if there’s even a small chance he knows something…”

Sampo took the piece of paper and nodded. It seemed weird to him that a person so distrustful would rent a warehouse to an Overworlder but he didn’t comment.

“I can see it in your face”, he said instead, tilting his head with a smirk. “You don’t like entrusting this to Geppie, do you?”

“I know he is dutiful”, Natasha sighed. “But these are our people and I feel responsible for them. I’m glad to at least have you keeping an eye on him.”

“I think he should be keeping an eye on me”, Sampo laughed. “But he is a good man. His heart is in the right place, you know? Terribly stuck-up but kind.”

“Is that so?”, Natasha gave him a look. He wasn’t sure what it meant but he didn’t like it. “It’s not like you to vouch for someone like that.”

“Hey, I caused him enough trouble to know that if he was a worse man, I’d already be locked up. Give him a chance.”

He took out one of the leftover buns and slid the paper bag along the desk towards her.  She rolled her eyes. 

“This will get you nowhere”, she said, taking it. 

“Well, thank you anyway for sparing a minute for me. Have a good day”, Sampo pretended to tip his hat and only then Natasha smiled a bit.

“Good luck. Don’t put yourself in trouble”, she said. 

“Oh, you know me. Trouble is my second name.”

***

When he left the clinic, Gepard was nowhere to be found. That was concerning. The man was a fully grown adult but Sampo was the one who knew the nooks and crannies of the Underworld. He would never forgive himself if Geppie fell victim to some back-alley scammer. A scammer that wasn’t him, obviously. 

He looked around for any possible suspects but the only one he found was a young boy running around the street, peeking into different places. Hide-and-seek, Sampo assumed and with a heightened attention towards everything around him, the kid must have seen where Gepard had gone. Sampo approached.

“Hello, friend”, he called. The kid turned to look at him and he vaguely recognized him - it was Julian, one of the members of The Moles. “Have you lost anything?”

“We are playing hide-and-seek, Sampo, go away”, Julian rolled his eyes. “ I don’t have time for your business.”

Sampo laughed in what he considered a friendly and approachable way. 

“Of course not! I was just wondering… Have you seen a tall blond man anywhere? He was wearing a dark blue coat and stuck out like a sore thumb.”

Julian’s unamused expression changed to a mischievous smile. 

“Well… That depends”, he said. “What do you have to offer in exchange?”

“Oh, you wound me. I’m just seeking help and you are trying to take advantage of that? Who is a scammer now?”, Sampo sighed dramatically. 

“Hey, it’s just business, right? The Moles have the intel and you have the goods. Fair is fair.”

“Fair is fair”, Sampo agreed, shaking his head. “What’s your price then, boss?”

“What have you got?”, the kid looked smug, and Sampo had to try very hard not to break his act and laugh. The Moles might be a menace but they sure were an adorable one. 

“How about some of this”, he pulled out another two paper bags with buns. It was lucky Gepard had gotten so many of them - he could sell the leftovers for info now. And Gepard dared to doubt him when he was packing them. 

“What’s in it?”, Julian asked and Sampo opened one of the bags to show him. 

“Best buns in the Overworld. This one is with jam and the other one has some sweet cheese. I can trade both if you tell me where did my friend go.”

He knew he got him the moment Julian’s eyes lit up when he saw the baked goods. He tried to play it cool but the excitement was almost radiating out of him. He gestured at Sampo to come closer and then whispered into his ear.

“He’s behind the trash cans in the back alley. We got him to play hide-and-seek but he is terrible at hiding so I found him first but felt kinda bad.”

Sampo snorted. He shook Julian’s hand at the deal well-made and passed him the paper bags. As he was walking away, he could hear him call for the other Moles to come out of hiding and look at his loot. 

He quickly got what Julian meant. The hiding spot Gepard took might have been good for a kid but a man his size was sticking out rather visibly. Sampo easily spotted his golden hair contrasting with the dark walls. Despite that, he chose to play it cool and approached slowly. He leaned against one of the trashcans and sighed. 

“Where did Geppie go, I wonder. I hope he isn’t doing anything silly while we are investigating a very important case…”, he said to nobody in particular. Almost immediately, there was a shuffle, and Gepard’s disheveled head stuck out from behind the trash cans. 

“Sampo”, he said, pink blush dusting his cheeks. 

“The one and only, Captain”, Sampo grinned. “I leave you for five minutes and you get manipulated by children?”

“I thought…”,  Gepard walked out from behind the trashcans and stood next to Sampo, brushing off the dust from his coat. “They are kids, you know? Kids run around and they see a lot. They seemed like they knew something but wouldn’t budge until I played with them.”

“I understand. Lucky for you, I have bought your freedom with two sweet buns”, Sampo patted his shoulder. “And they always act like they know something. They want you to think that.”

“What did you stay behind for?”, Gepard asked and Sampo granted him the mercy of changing the topic.

“I was hoping Natasha had some more intel. You know how it is. Some things are not meant for the eyes of a guard”, he joked, elbowing Gepard’s side lightly. “Come now. Wildfire had investigated some of the places the workers liked to go to after they were done. Supposedly nothing came out of it but I want to check them myself. As much as they are capable, a criminal’s eye is sharper.”

Gepard’s embarrassment was gone and he was back in the work mode, ready to investigate. 

“Let’s go.”

***

The bar at this hour was mostly empty at this time. Some patrons were eating late breakfast, huddled somewhere in the corner of the room. Sampo noticed Gepard glancing around as they walked in. He could imagine this wasn’t the usual place where Gepard would frequent. 

The bartender watched them, his eyes lingering on Gepard. Sampo pretended not to notice it and approached casually, sitting by the bar. He ordered a drink - a light and fruity one, enough to seem like a customer but not strong enough to cloud his judgment. Gepard took a glass of water and looked at Sampo when the man turned away. 

“We are not here for pleasure”, he said quietly. Sampo smirked. 

“Relax, boss. Nobody likes being interrogated. You have to be casual”, he said, leaning against the counter. 

Gepard looked doubtful but didn’t protest. When the barman brought them their drinks, Sampo gave him an easy smile and started chatting about everything and nothing. Slowly, the barman’s suspicion faded into something more friendly. Gepard mostly kept to himself, watching the conversation, his eyes not leaving Sampo. 

“Say, friend”, Sampo said finally, when he and the barman were already chatting like good old pals. “I got my buddy here, and heard he picked up a new gig recently. Haven’t seen him in a while but he told me about this place - has he been here recently?”

Then, he proceeded to describe one of the workers he’d seen in the pictures Natasha had shown him. The barman’s eyes widened and he glanced around before leaning closer. 

“Sorry to be the one to break the news, mate, but I think your friend is done for”, he said. “He and a bunch of others disappeared a while ago. They say something bad happened that night at that warehouse but the bigshots from the Overworld are covering it up.”

“Oh no, that’s terrible!”, Sampo moved closer, making sure his body language was screaming ‘Oh please tell me more!’. “When have you seen him last?”

“The day or two before they disappeared. I was even wondering what happened since he and his friends were regulars but I figured something came up. Then I have never seen them again”, the guy clearly needed something exciting to happen in his life. Such people were so easy to manipulate.

“It must have been so thrilling! Have you been questioned by the guards?”, he asked. He could almost feel Gepard scoff. 

“The guards? No, they didn’t come here. Besides, I wouldn't tell them anything anyway. They don’t know shit about the Underworld. They wouldn’t be able to find their way around, not to mention a missing person.”

“You’re probably right”, Sampo sighed dramatically. “Still, it’s so sad to think no one is looking for them. Those poor families.”

“It is what it is”, the barman shook his head. 

The man left to serve other customers after that and when they were done, Sampo paid for the drinks. He and Gepard got up and left the bar, walking down the street of Boulder Town. Gepard was silent, his brows furrowed. Sampo glanced at him and then gently bumped into his shoulder.

“A penny for your thoughts, Captain?”, he asked.

“I think it is very likely that something had happened during their work hours and Petrov is covering it up”, Gepard said. “I feel like we should talk to the people he is hiring now but… The way this man was far more suspicious with me around wasn’t exactly making it easier.”

“You still look like a posh boy from a good family, Geppie. You can’t exactly blame them”, Sampo said, a little amused. Gepard didn’t seem to share that sentiment, his face growing more clouded. 

“Am I really doing the right thing?”, he asked. “I want to help you out but I may just end up causing more issues.”

Sampo examined him for a moment, He knew Gepard was probably right. He knew it would be far easier to conduct his investigation without a guard looking over his shoulder, let alone their Captain. However, he could also tell that Gepard genuinely wanted to help. He couldn’t ever fathom where such amounts of compassion come from but it was growing on him. He’d traveled around a lot and he knew men like Gepard Landau were a rare find. 

He also wanted to keep him around a little longer, just out of curiosity.

“Look, Geppie, you’re not perfect for this job. But then again, neither am I. This one didn’t want to talk to you, the next one may chase us with a pickaxe because I scammed his brother-in-law or something. We both kind of suck at this and that’s why we can help each other out”, he said. 

Gepard looked at him, his expression somewhere between curiosity and gratefulness. 

“You know, that’s… Pretty comforting, actually”, he said, the corners of his mouth rising just a bit. 

Maybe it was because they were walking by a more well-heated area or maybe Sampo needed to wear more revealing clothes but at that moment he felt some kind of warmth crawl its way up to his chest. It nested there and stayed all the way back to the hotel. 

***

Gepard’s work hours gave Sampo time to go around and investigate a little on his own. He took Natasha’s suggestion and went to visit the owner of the warehouse, pretending to be a Wildfire member. He quickly realized Natasha wasn’t kidding. The man was not just distrustful, he was paranoid. Sampo barely convinced him to say anything and that still wasn’t much. The warehouse was in his family for generations but when the money got tight, he had to start renting it. No, he would not give out the plans for the warehouse. There was nothing in it that could interest Wildfire or the guards anyway. It would be perfect if Sampo fucked off.

Due to the lack of useful information and the overall annoyance the man provided, Sampo decided to wait till he left the house and rob the guy. He didn’t have much time and the man’s house didn’t look like he had anything of interest to steal, so he only focused on the office. The man seemed to be a history nut and had a lot of books about Belobog’s mythology and past. Sampo ignored them and started going through the desk first.

He’d gone through some documents and finally found what he was looking for. He pulled out the plans of the warehouse and straightened them out on the desk. To his annoyance, a piece of the paper was torn, a part of it gone. Sampo scoffed and looked around, hoping that maybe the rest was stuffed somewhere into the drawers but he couldn’t find it. The man must have given the undamaged one to Petrov while keeping this one to himself. 

Sampo took a few photos of the plan with his phone before stashing it back into the drawer. He made sure everything was in place as if he had never been there and then left.

***

Sampo was used to working alone, so seeking Gepard out not for the sake of annoying him felt weird. He had no crimes on his conscience for now (aside from the break-in but Geppie didn’t need to know about that) but he still suspected some of the guards would try to arrest him on the spot. He couldn’t blame them, really. Everyone wanted a piece of Sampo Koski.

That day he was in a hurry, sneaking between the shadows of the buildings. Dusk was painting the streets of Belobog gray, accompanied by the lazily falling snow. It was still light but the sky was growing darker in the East. As Sampo passed between the buildings he could see groups of the guards going home in little groups. Gepard wasn’t a part of any of them. Briefly, Sampo considered if Gepard might have gone home early but from his adventures in the city, he knew vaguely around what time the Captain could be encountered in the streets. 

He checked the guards' headquarters as well as the training grounds but Gepard was nowhere to be found. Sampo was about to go and check his house when he heard a few guards leaving the training grounds. 

“...the Captain?”

“Not today. He left early and went to the monument. It’s the anniversary, you know.”

“Right! He always does that, doesn’t he?”

The monument. Sampo knew which monument they meant. A few years prior there was an especially grand battle with the Fragmentum monsters, and many guards lost their lives during it. To honor them, Supreme Guardian Cocolia raised a monument with their names and organized three days of festivities to celebrate their glorious win. Sampo always felt it was in bad taste but he wasn’t the one to judge the mourning traditions of a country. At least not out loud. 

Gepard probably knew many of the people who had died that day. 

Before he knew it, Sampo’s legs carried him through the narrow streets all the way to the square with the monument. As he turned the corner, he realized that the gray of the dusk was bathed in the warm light of fire here. Groups of people surrounded the monuments, some of them holding flowers, some lighting a candle to put it on the stone below the metal plaques with dozens of names engraved. All of the groups stood apart from one another, their members huddled together, quiet in their grief. For a moment, Sampo felt like an intruder but he quickly realized no one was paying attention to him.

Then, he spotted a lonely figure up front. 

Gepard was kneeling by the base of the monument. He was still wearing his uniform, the light of the fire dancing in the metal parts of the armor. His shield was slung over his shoulder. In his hands, he was holding a grave candle that he was trying to light but the match went out with a strong gust of wind. Gepard cursed under his breath. 

Sampo walked up to him, lowering himself so their eyes would be on the same level. 

“Need help, Captain?”, he asked. Gepard’s gaze snapped up and his eyes widened when he saw Sampo. For a moment Sampo expected him to tell him to leave but when the initial surprise passed, Gepard just nodded. 

“Cover it from the wind, please”, he said and Sampo did. He put his hands around the candle, keeping the little flame safe until it was happily flickering in its glass container. Then Gepard put the metal cover on top of it and placed it on the stone base around the monument next to a flower wreath. They stood up, Gepard’s gaze lingering on the candle and then the metal plaques with the names. 

Sampo knew all about wearing masks but the way Gepard’s slipped to reveal such deep, profound grief still took him aback. He pushed his hands into his pockets and turned away, giving the Captain a moment alone with his feelings.

“Let’s go”, Gepard said after a moment. The sadness was gone, replaced with something wistful and unguarded. Sampo followed the Captain into one of the alleys, away from the warm light of the square. They walked side by side, Sampo’s hands pushed into his pockets since he didn’t know what else to do with them. If he didn’t keep them busy he would end up doing something out of the line, like hugging Gepard or trying to otherwise comfort him. 

“How did you know where to look for me?”, Gepard saved him from his dilemma by speaking up. 

“You know nothing and no one can hide from Sampo Koski. If I want to find you, you should consider yourself found”, Sampo laughed, winking at him. “And so I just happened to overhear two little birds saying that you always come to the monument during the anniversary of the battle.”

“I see”, Gepard nodded. Another moment of silence fell. Gepard didn’t seem to mind it but it was loaded with so much emotion Sampo was itching to break it. 

“So do you? Go there, that is”, he asked.

Gepard was quiet for a moment and Sampo started thinking that he wasn’t going to answer but then he sighed. 

“I do. Every year I leave a candle and some flowers”, he said. 

“Aw, you really have a heart of gold under all that ice”, Sampo bumped into him lightly. “People of Belobog are lucky to have you protecting them from criminals like me.”

Gepard let out something between a laugh and a scoff. 

“Not always. I can’t always protect them. All those people died because I wasn’t able to do that. They died when I was standing back, listening to orders. If I didn’t, we’d drown in a full-blown war. But I did and I got a medal and they didn’t live to see it because they sacrificed themselves so all of this” He made a vague gesture with his arm. “Could be safe. We were celebrating their deaths as if it was something that we should be happy about because yes, they died but we got to live thanks to that.”

Sampo was quiet, surprised by the sudden outburst. The hurt and bitterness in Gepard’s voice felt like something he’d held back for a long time. He knew the price for Belobog’s safety was paid in blood. 

“I’m sorry. You didn’t come here to listen to this”, Gepard shook his head. 

“It’s alright”, Sampo said and his voice sounded softer than he intended. “Being a great listener just happens to be on my resume.”

This time there was no mistaking it - Gepard let out a breathy laugh. It sounded as if he wasn’t used to doing so. 

“I don’t know, it sounds as if you were going to send me an invoice after you’re done listening. Can I really afford that?”, he said.

“Aeons, Geppie, was that a joke? I didn’t know you could make those!”, Sampo gasped dramatically. 

“Nobody’s going to believe you if you tell them”, Gepard said. Then, his gaze softened. “Thank you, Sampo. For coming to find me.”

Sampo didn’t know what to do with this new Gepard. Each time he would suddenly turn all nice, Sampo was thrown off his loop. It wasn’t that he thought Gepard was incapable of being anything but a stuck-up workaholic. He just couldn’t see a reason why he would ever show this side to him. It made him feel weird, those unexpected moments making his heart skip a beat. He really hoped he wasn’t developing heart issues.

“Don’t mention it”, he waved his hand, trying to cover up this mess of feelings inside him. “I just had some business with you.”

“Alright, what’s the business?”, Gepard asked. 

Sampo thought about the warehouse pictures on his phone and about the names of the current employees of Petrov that he wanted to talk to. Then he thought about how it was still snowing and how Gepard always put the people of Belobog first, even in his free time. 

“It’s nothing urgent”, he said. “It’s too late to deal with it today anyway. Say, Geppie, there is a pierogi place not far from here. I wanted to try if it’s any good. Want to tag along?”

“Well… Alright”, Gepard said, confused. “But you will tell me what it is about when we eat.”

“Sir, yes sir!”, Sampo gave him a playful salute and they walked on, the snow dusting their hair with tiny white stars.

***

They spent the next few days questioning the people Petrov was currently hiring. It wasn’t an easy task. They either didn’t know anything or were very good at pretending they didn’t. All of them got to work in the morning and went back in the late evening. The job was tough but then again in the Underworld most of them were. They didn’t see Petrov much, if at all. 

One day, their luck took a turn for the worse and one of the workers turned out to be Sampo’s old customer. The man chased them off his property, letting his dogs out on them and since Gepard had insisted they didn’t harm the civilians or reveal their identity, they had to make a run for it. 

They returned to Boulder Town with low spirits. Gepard, because he was not a step closer to helping people of the Underworld, and Sampo because it seemed like the merchant’s money would still have to wait for him. 

They were walking down the street near the Fight Club when someone called out to them. 

“Oh shit! Are you the Captain of the Silvermane Guards?”

Sampo saw Gepard turn around so he did the same. A kid was walking towards them, a confident stroll full of determination. Well, Sampo called him a kid but Luka was as tall as him and he could pack a mean punch. Sampo knew that best - he’d lost a few bets because of that punch. 

Now there was excitement written all over Luka’s face. He stopped in front of Gepard, chest out and arms on his hips. Gepart looked confused - he probably had no idea who this young man was. 

“Is there a problem with that?”, he asked. Sampo wondered the same. What would Luka want with Gepard? He didn’t strike Sampo as someone with a grudge against them, although he was quite protective of the people in the Underworld. 

“Fight me”, Luka said. 

Gepard seemed taken aback. He glanced at Sampo, question in his eyes. Sampo barely held back the laugh. 

“Luka is the boxing Champion here in the Underworld. He’s good, too. Your pal Sampo learned that the hard way”, he explained. Gepard’s eyes widened as he looked at the kid. 

“The hard way…?”, he asked and his face darkened dangerously. Luka raised his hands in defense.

“Hey, I didn’t beat him up or anything! My “pal” Sampo here-”, Sampo felt a little offended at the way he said it. “Just bet a lot of money against me and I proved him wrong.”

“Oh”, Gepard relaxed a bit. “I see.”

“You can’t blame me. The automatons seemed a pretty safe bet”, Sampo shrugged. “But don’t waste your time, kid. Captain is all business, there isn’t time for distractions.”

“Actually…”, Gepard regarded Luka for a moment. “I’d like to try.”

“Alright! Man, you shouldn’t do betting anymore, you’d have lost again”, he grinned at Sampo (that little shit) and then gestured towards the Fight Club. “Shall we then?”

“Are you coming?”, Gepard looked at Sampo. 

“Oh, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

***

He quickly realized he got more than he bargained for. Inside the Fight Club, some people were crowding around the arena where two guys were cheering on their automatons fighting each other. The heaters were blazing hot air into the room and Sampo wasn’t surprised that Luka wore such thin clothes if he spent most of his time here. It seemed logical that when he finally got to the arena, he took off his shirt. 

Sampo, however, somehow didn’t realize Gepard would do the same. He did expect him to take off the coat, obviously, but he didn’t think he’d find himself holding his goddamn sweater with Gepard asking him if he’d keep an eye on it. 

He must have agreed because Gepard gave him a little smile and went back to the arena, where Luka was already waiting. Sampo examined Gepard’s back. It was dark, muscular, and scarred in a few places. Sampo wondered how those scars would feel under his fingers. 

“We fight without any powers allowed”, Luka said. “So don’t go freezing me over, Captain.”

“I agree. And you can call me Gepard. “

“Well, Gepard, I’m about to kick your ass.”

Gepard laughed, clearly unbothered by the taunt. It wasn’t mocking or mean. He was enjoying himself. 

“Hey, Sampo!”, he called, looking over his shoulder at the audience. “This time you will win your bet.”

For a second there was just Sampo, Gepard, and the metal net separating the arena from the audience. He wanted to kiss him, he realized, and the whole world came crashing down. He’d always thought Gepard was handsome and he wouldn’t mind keeping his bed warm for a night but ever since they started working together he was having those… Feelings. The warmth when Gepard smiled, the excitement to see him the next day. He didn’t want to think what it meant so he chose to ignore it altogether but the gates of denial could only stand so much. And when the understanding came, it came with a bang. Aeons, was he actually starting to fall for Gepard? That was just unfair. They were from two different worlds, the noble captain of the guards and an interstellar mercenary. Gepard was the sun that would burn Sampo if he flew too close. And people like Sampo needed wings to never stay still for too long. 

Why did the warmth feel so good, then?

He wanted to tell Gepard he hadn’t made any bets but the sound of the bell pierced through the air, announcing the start of the fight and the captain turned away to his opponent. Luka was grinning, his fists raised. Gepard didn’t hesitate. He lunged and his fist flew right next to Luka when the boy ducked at the last moment. He tried using this opportunity to attack but Gepard blocked his hit with his other arm. They started circling each other, exchanging and dodging blows as if choreographed. Sampo noticed more and more people gathering around the arena, curious. Some were cheering for Luka but if it bothered Gepard, he didn’t let it show. 

Luka, to his credit, was keeping up with the captain quite well. He landed a few hard punches and Gepard was bleeding in a few places where the metal arm scratched his skin. Despite that, he was perfectly focused, even though Luka had him cornered a few times. 

Finally, when they both were already sweaty, bruised, and tired, Gepard found an opening. He dodged Luka’s outstretched arm and his fist connected with Luka’s jaw, sending him to the ground. He was laying there for a moment and Sampo felt the audience whisper and exchange concerned glances but then Luka’s chest shook and he started laughing. He raised his hand with his thumb up, showing them that he was alright. 

“Alright. You win”, he said, putting his arm over his eyes and breathing heavily. Gepard smiled - a bright, genuine smile - and reached out his hand to Luka. The boy grabbed it and let himself be pulled up. 

“Good fight”, Gepard said. 

“I will want a second round”, Luka answered. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The audience was cheering when they left the arena, some grabbing onto Luka and congratulating him on the good fight, some following Gepard with their eyes, their faces filled with more curiosity than disdain now. Gepard didn’t pay them much attention. He looked around the crowd and when he spotted Sampo, he made his way towards him.

“Good fight, Captain”, Sampo teased, handing him his sweater. 

“He was a good opponent. Kept me on my toes”, Gepard said. “Sorry you had to wait.”

“I didn’t have to. I could have given your sweater up to someone and told them to pass it to you later. Though, looking at the views I’m not sure they would”, Sampo looked him up and down with a cat-like smile. There was no metal net between them anymore and it would be enough for Sampo to take a few steps and enter his space. He told himself he didn’t want to scare Gepard off again or ruin his moment with some unwanted advances. He let the moment slip away. 

“Then it looks like you are a more honest man than them”, Gepard said. Sampo blinked, taken aback, and then burst into laughter.

“Aeons, Captain, did Luka hit you too hard? We have talked about this. I am a thief and a scammer. You chase me around Belobog at least once a week”, he shook his head. 

“I feel fine, Sampo. And I know who you are. But I also think there's more to you than you say.”

Sampo froze as Gepard slowly reached out and brushed his hand against his cheek. He felt like a deer in the headlights. His mask was slipping and there was nowhere to run. All the control he thought he had was gone and he hated it, hated having his game turned against him. He knew he should turn around and make a run for it, gather his thoughts, and regain composure but he was stuck. 

“You had some tar on your cheek”, he was saved when Gepard looked away first. Sampo touched his cheek where Gepard’s hand had just been. Some tar. Of course. That made sense. 

“Right. It’s everywhere in the Underworld”, he let out an empty laugh, his heart still hammering in his chest. “Dress up, Captain, it isn’t that warm outside and we should get going before the crowd eats you up.”

Gepard nodded and pulled the sweater over his head. Then he put on the coat and they headed towards the exit. Before they managed to leave, though, someone called Gepard and Luka made his way towards them. 

“Are you guys leaving?” he asked, his eyes drifting from Gepard to Sampo curiously. 

“You scratched up the captain pretty badly, I have to patch him up before I send him back to the Overworld”, Sampo answered. 

“You are the last person I expected to hang out with the Captain of the Guards”, Luka laughed, patting Sampo’s shoulder. 

“Do you need something more, Luka?”, Gepard asked. 

“Oh, right! Do you want my number? We could set up another round”, Luka pulled out his phone. 

“That makes sense. Here”, they exchanged numbers and Luka put his phone back into his pocket. 

“Thanks. Don’t be a stranger”, he winked at Gepard and was gone before the man managed to answer.

***

Gepard walked Sampo to the hotel. It was bizarre, Sampo thought, as he watched their shoulders almost brush against each other from time to time. Usually, Gepard was behind him, always chasing. Now, finally, he’d caught up, and yet Sampo was still free. 

“I meant what I said to Luka, you know. Your pal Sampo has many talents and patching people up is one of them. Well, mostly myself but if I can patch myself up, I can also patch others up, right? Right”, he said as they stopped in front of the entrance. 

Gepard seemed to consider it. He looked towards the station where the train to the Overworld was and then back at Sampo. 

“I’d have to borrow the shower”, he said. 

“As I said, make yourself at home”, Sampo opened his arms wide with what he considered to be a smile full of hospitality. 

When they were in the room, Gepard disappeared into the shower. Since he'd been there a few times already, he moved around with ease and there was a certain familiarity in his presence. That feeling was another one that had sneaked up on Sampo out of nowhere. He didn’t like how easily Gepard was starting to fit into his life.

He pulled out a disinfectant and some band-aids. There was no need for more since Gepard didn’t have any serious wounds. 

The closed door muffled the sound of water coming from the bathroom and Sampo thought how strange it was. Usually, the only people who stayed longer were the ones he’d slept with and they still left right after. He didn’t like letting strangers use his shower or invade his personal space and yet he invited Gepard himself. His jacket was hanging next to Sampo’s and he was singing in the shower, probably thinking Sampo couldn’t hear. 

It felt almost comfortable

To keep himself busy, Sampo made some tea in mismatched cups and by the time Gepard was out, it was standing on the desk. He had one of the towels Sampo had given him around his neck and he was wearing a white tank top and sweatpants. They were similar sizes so he had no problem fitting into Sampo’s clothes. 

There were droplets of water dripping from his hair and his skin was reddish from the hot water. For his sanity, Sampo decided to look away. 

“Come here, Captain, let’s take a look at that pretty face of yours”, he said instead, moving to the end of the bed to make some place for him. Gepard gave him a sheepish smile, looking far more relaxed after the shower. He sat down next to Sampo, putting the towel away. 

“It’s not terrible, now that you’ve washed it”, Sampo moved closer to examine the scratches and then sprayed some disinfectant on the gause and gently patted it in. Gepard winced at the stinging sensation but he didn’t move away. He let Sampo put some band-aids on his scratches, as a few of them were still bleeding. When he was done, Sampo moved away a bit, looking at the fruits of his work. 

“I think you will live to see another day”, he decided. “You were quite impressive there, Captain. It’s not every day that someone beats the Champion.”

“I have more years of training and experience but he was good. I’m not surprised Underworld can hold up on its own with fighters like Luka”, Gepard said. 

Sampo watched him, his newly discovered feelings like a thorn in the back of his mind. He should cut this short. The investigation clearly wasn’t doing him any good if he started developing feelings for the Captain of the Guards out of all people. But he promised Natasha and Gepard seemed to need a win in the Underworld. And Sampo Koski kept his word. Well, most of the time. He’d see this through till the end and then he and Gepard would go back to chasing each other around the Overworld. He could handle a little crush. And maybe if he was lucky, he’d convince Gepard to spend a celebratory night together before they went their separate ways. It didn’t have to be a disaster. 

“What can I say? The Underworld is full of surprises, Geppie”, he said, leaning back with a cat-like smile.

Yes, Sampo Koski could handle a little crush. After all, there was no way Gepard would ever reciprocate such feelings.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks passed in a blur. Sampo felt as if he and Gepard had stumbled into each other’s orbits and weren’t able to leave. If Gepard wasn’t at Sampo’s place, Sampo was at Gepard’s. The research they did and the places they visited always turned into breakfasts or dinners together. Sampo was starting to understand that despite having a big house and two siblings, Gepard was rather lonely. His company was either his family or other guards - the latter were mostly consumed by undying adoration, which seemed like a difficult basis for forming a genuine connection. It must have been really bad if he purposefully sought out people like Sampo. 

Ever since the afternoon in Fight Club, Sampo felt his mask slip more and more. It was the little things that undid him - Gepard with his hair wet going out of the shower, Gepard sharing his food with Sampo, Gepard coming back from work and giving Sampo a tired smile when he saw him in his room. Sampo still refused to use the door and somehow every time he was supposed to go see Gepard in the Overworld, the balcony door to his room was mysteriously open. It felt so comfortable that Sampo knew he should retreat. Those feelings reminded him of when he was on a job and knew he was pushing his luck. The feelings right before the fall. It wasn’t really helping his stupid infatuation with the man either. The casual domesticity wasn’t something he’d ever experienced with a lover, not to mention a man he wasn’t even sleeping with. 

He had always considered Gepard attractive, obviously. Anyone with eyes would. He would be more than happy to sleep with him if Gepard expressed interest. Maybe that was where the problem came from. If they fucked, Sampo could just cross this out of his to-do list and move on without looking back, but all this weird dancing around each other was giving him second thoughts. And it wasn’t like Gepard wasn’t interested in men. When Gepard took him downstairs once, the butler spotted Sampo and told him it had been a while since the young master brought a man over. Moreover, Sampo caught Gepard watching him more than once. At this point, he was convinced that Gepard was not only interested in men but he was interested in him specifically. It was in Sampo’s best interest to solve this case, take Gepard to bed, and clean up this whole mess.

And yet, he kept hesitating. 

There were two options, really. Either Gepard refused him, driven by his noble upbringing and social standing (it would sting, but Sampo lived through worse) or Gepard agreed to have a night of mindblowing sex after which Sampo disappeared out of his life. They would go back to their cat-and-mouse chase like nothing had ever happened. The second one was the perfect option on paper but it came with two issues - one, Gepard didn’t strike Sampo as a person who did one-night-stands and wasn’t extremely awkward about it later. Two, it somehow didn’t sit right with Sampo. As much as it would solve his problems regarding Gepard, fucking and leaving felt somehow dirty. It was a terrible time to grow a conscience, he knew, and yet every time he would have already struck with someone else, he let the moment pass. He still needed time, he told himself. The sex should be the last thing between them. If they were still in the middle of the case, things would turn awkward. Or worse, they’d fall into bed again. Sampo was a firm believer that one time was fine, two times was a mistake but three times meant something more. And Sampo Koski avoided more like fire.

That fucking crush would be the death of him.

He didn’t even consider the third option. In that option, he stayed the night and woke up by Gepard’s side in the morning. They ate breakfast and discussed what was next - openly, without playing pretend. No wall of ice, no mask, just the two of them. The third option was terrifying in its simplicity. It could shatter so easily with just one mistake and besides that, Sampo didn’t do feelings. It was too easy to fuck up. Too easy to see the disdain on the other person’s face once the mask was off.

The belief that Gepard would never feel the same was the only thing keeping him from fleeing anyway. 

***

“Sampo. Catch.”

Sampo was sitting by the table in a tiny restaurant in the Overworld and Gepard had just come in, his cheeks flushed from the cold. He’d changed from his uniform after work, which wasn’t always the case, as Sampo had seen him walk into his room still wearing it many times before. He threw something at him and Sampo had to use all his roguish agility to catch it before it landed in his borscht. 

“You need to have a little more respect for my soup, Geppie”, he said, holding it in both hands. Gepard pulled up a chair and sat next to him. Sampo opened his hold on the mysterious thing and blinked in surprise. It was a phone charm shaped like a cat. Not just any cat too. A blue cat with a black burglar mask on its face. It was a little ugly but even the ugliness had some charm to it. 

“I saw it and it reminded me of you”, Gepard said, watching his reaction closely. Sampo opened his mouth and then closed it. Did Gepard buy it for him? Just randomly? Aeons, would the man ever stop surprising him?

“My, you think about little old me even at work, Captain? You must like me so much”, he gave Gepard a cat-like smile to mask the stubborn fuzzy feeling in his chest. He looped the charm’s strap to his phone and showed it to Gepard. “I think it fits perfectly. Although I’m not a burglar, you know. I’m a man of many talents and what I do is art, not some common thievery. It’s important to see the difference. But thanks anyway, I’ll cherish it forever now.”

“You’re welcome.”

He watched as Gepard ordered another bowl of borscht for himself. The waiter gave them a curious look but didn’t say anything. Gepard was a public figure and many people seemed to recognize him when they were out. Despite that, he didn’t seem to mind being seen with Sampo. 

“So, how was work? Anything exciting? Probably not. After all, I have been in the Underworld the whole day”, Sampo asked when Gepard finished ordering. 

“There have been reports of increased Fragmentum activity in one part of the city. We will have to investigate it tomorrow. Other than that, it was rather peaceful”, Gepard shrugged. 

“That does sound exciting. Have fun hunting down monsters, my handsome knight”, Sampo teased and the little blush on Gepard’s face didn’t escape his attention.

They ate dinner together and then Sampo walked Gepard back to his house, before returning to the Underworld. He tried to ignore that they didn’t even mention the case for the whole meeting.

***

The next evening Sampo slid into Gepard's room. Belobog was dark already and he knew Gepard should be home soon. There wasn’t any pressing matter for Sampo to be here and if anyone would ask, he’d say it’s just because the Landau cook is a master of his craft. He’d be lying.

Half an hour passed, then another. Sampo was lying on Gepard’s huge bed, using his phone to light up the book he snatched from one of the shelves but when the heavy chime of the old grandfather clock broke the silence, he’d lost his patience. He abandoned the book on the bed and left the room the way he came - through the open balcony.

There was no reason for concern, he told himself. Gepard could have just gone somewhere after work. Maybe he had some more errands to run. Maybe they got stuck on some last-minute case. But he’d left the window open. He knew Sampo would come and he was polite enough not to make him wait. 

“...there have been reports of increased Fragmentum activity in one part of the city…”

Sampo had the intuition of the thief and over the years he’d learned to trust it - if his gut told him something was wrong, then he had to investigate. 

He briefly checked the places Gepard could be - the main square, the training grounds which were ghostly quiet in the evening, and the guards' headquarters. When he found nothing, he made his way towards the outer walls. Soon enough, he spotted a commotion, a bunch of Silvermane Guards cooped up by the entrance to one of the streets infested by the Fragmentum. They were talking to each other feverishly, some gathered around the leader and some helping out a bunch of injured guards to the side. Sampo hesitated just for a moment. He had no guarantee they wouldn’t arrest him on the spot. 

“What’s the commotion, gentlemen?” he called. The guards grew quiet, turning to him. A few seemed to recognize him, their faces twisting in suspicion. 

“What’s it to you, Koski?” the guard in the bucket-like helm asked. He was big and clearly in charge but Sampo knew big confident boys were all bark and no bite. He decided the most logical option was to play stupid and tell the truth. 

“I was searching for your Captain, commander. Have you seen him around?”, he straightened a bit as if trying to peek over their shoulders. He noticed some of them looked at each other. They knew something.

“And what business does a street rat like you have with Captain Gepard? Get out of here before I arrest you. We have other things to deal with”, the commander said and Sampo could almost feel his freezing glare. Almost. 

“He is in the Fragmentum”, a weak voice said. The commander turned on his heel towards the soldiers who were getting their wounds treated. “He told us to run for it and stayed behind to stop the monsters. They came out of nowhere-”, the soldier’s voice broke and they hid their face in their hands, the woman next to them comforting them quietly. Sampo felt his stomach drop. He’d seen the horrors of the Fragmentum. The pointless streets, the echoes of the dead, crooked bodies fueled by the lingering power of the Stellaron. He didn’t doubt Gepard’s strength but even he was only human and had some limits. 

“We sent the message to the Headquarters. The reinforcements will be here soon”, the commander said to the soldier. Their expression was clear - they didn’t suspect they would make it on time. Sampo thought about the little cat keychain dangling from his phone.

“I’ll go get him”, he heard himself say. The guards stared at him in silence. 

“Sit down and let the professionals work. Scammer or not, we can’t endanger civilians, Koski”, the commander shook his head. Sampo tilted his head with a smile. 

“Good thing I wasn’t asking for permission then.”

The guards were trained well but most of them were hurt and they didn’t expect Sampo to suddenly duck under the commander’s arm and make a run for the Fragmentum. He was faster than them, the swiftness of the wind easily defeating the heaviness of ice. He heard shouting and calls but when the Fragmentum embraced him, it felt as if he had sunk underwater. Every sound from the outside was distant and only eerie stillness surrounded him. Sampo pulled out his daggers and started walking forward. No matter how many times he passed by the Fragmentum, the wrongness of it always unnerved him. It was easy to get lost in the endless streets. The cold sun shone overhead despite it being dark where he had come from. The only thing that seemed real was the cold stinging his cheeks. 

The silence of the Fragmentum didn’t hint at any battle happening there recently but Sampo knew better. He took a few turns and soon noticed what he was looking for - the red splatters on the stone. Some pointed towards the way he came from but the bigger ones led further into the Fragmentum. The sight of so much blood made Sampo’s throat tighten. 

A few steps later, he saw frozen Fragmentum monsters forever still in their chase. As he passed, their misshapen maws and crooked fingers seemed to reach for him, ready to strike at any moment. Gepard’s ice, however, kept them at bay. For the time being, it was safe. 

“Geppie? It’s your buddy Sampo, here to bring you home”, Sampo called into the cold, his tone joking. He wanted Gepard to know it wasn’t serious. If he wasn’t worried, they would be fine. He would bring him back to safety and the healers would take care of his wounds and they’d laugh about it in a few days. 

But the truth was that from all the times he’d been in the Fragmentum, this was the only one when he was truly scared. 

Gepard was tough. He could handle some monsters and some bleeding. 

Sampo followed the blood trail for a while. Another turn, another destroyed street. More frozen monsters. He walked like this until finally, the road led to a dead end. The blood on the ground ended here in a few big splotches and Sampo felt anxiety rising in his chest. Was this a trick? Did he fall for the Fragmentum’s mirage?

He didn’t get a chance to investigate more because suddenly something tackled him. His back hit the wall so hard it knocked the breath out of his lungs. He grabbed his dagger and without hesitation pressed it against the attacker’s throat. Then he blinked, recognition dawning on him. 

“Geppie?”, he uttered with the strong forearm pressed against his throat. Gepard’s eyes were wild, unseeing, his fist raised to land a punch, his hair a mess. He didn’t look like a predator that’d caught its prey but like a wounded animal cornered by a hunter. 

“I’m not gonna be fooled-”, he growled and Sampo hid his dagger, raising his hands in defeat. 

“Wait, wait! It’s me, promise! Take a better look”, he said, trying to sound as calm as the arm against his throat allowed. 

Gepard blinked, taking in his face, and finally came to himself. 

“Sampo? Is this really you?” he asked and Sampo wondered what the Fragmentum showed him.

“The one and only”, he said softer than intended, gently moving Gepard’s arm away from his throat. Gepard took a few steps back, breathing heavily and Sampo noticed the red stain on his thigh. The gray trousers were torn and underneath a nasty, gaping wound oozed blood. Another one was on Gepard’s shoulder where the collarbone ended. It looked bad, but not deadly, if they managed to get it treated soon enough. 

“Shit. Sorry. I’m… What are you doing here?”, Gepard looked at him in confusion but Sampo just shook his head. 

“We will have time for this later, don’t you think? Can you walk?”

“I will manage”, Gepard said which sounded more like ‘I don’t have a choice’. Sampo wasn’t going to argue. 

“Let’s go then. They said reinforcements are on their way but I don’t have much faith in the Guards’ capabilities. No offense”, he took Gepard’s arm and threw it over his shoulder, wrapping his other one around the man’s waist. 

“Hey now”, Gepard protested weakly.

“I’m right! They haven’t even managed to catch your good pal Sampo!”

“Sampo.”

“Oh, I know, they are probably good people but losing their captain in the Fragmentum is-”

“No, Sampo, behind!”

Sampo looked back just in time to throw Gepard to the side when one of the Fragmentum monsters lunged forward with its flaming lance. The lance scratched his arm but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He pulled out his daggers, stuck them together, and threw them into the group of upcoming monsters. The wind howled as it cut through their forms and then it came back to Sampo’s hand.

“Come on, run!”, he helped Gepard up and pulled towards the exit. The Captain stumbled but kept up with him, his face contorted in a pained grimace. They sprinted ahead, the monsters hot on their heels. Gepard couldn’t run fast, not when the wound on his thigh kept bleeding. He almost stumbled and stopped. Sampo’s protest died in his throat when he turned around to face the monsters. 

Gepard leaned down with a desperate shout, driving his gloved hand into the ground. 

A layer of ice exploded from that point, rushing towards the approaching monsters. When it reached them, a huge wall of solid ice burst out from that point, blocking the whole alley. It shimmered in the cold rays of the Fragmentum sun. 

“It’s not going to last forever”, Gepard told Sampo. Sampo let him lean against him and they went on. They could hear the monsters banging against the wall, trying to crush it, they could hear the inevitable cracking of the ice. Sampo didn’t look back. He didn’t want to know how close they were to breaking it. 

“It’s not that far from here”, he told Gepard. The man was pale, his breathing shallow. He didn’t answer, just kept walking on. 

They were almost at the end of the alley when the loud crack and the crash of falling ice let them know the monsters had made it through. There was a moment of silence and then the shades rushed towards them. 

“Sampo… Get out of here”, Gepard whispered and there was no way Sampo was doing that, no way he was leaving him behind. He was a coward, a scammer, and a thief but if he left Gepard in the Fragmentum to die, he’d also be a real piece of shit and that was not happening. Besides, it wasn't like he was helpless. A good jester always had a trick up his sleeve.

He reached into his pocket and his fingers touched what he was looking for. An oval shape, smooth and hard. Gepard would have questions that wouldn’t be answered and maybe Sampo would be in trouble later with something far greater than the law enforcement but at least they would get out of the Fragmentum safely. He started pulling it out when the air crackled with static. The sound of an electric guitar rolled through the alley and rain of purple lightning fell upon the monsters. Their bodies convulsed, the shocks running through them as they fell to the ground one by one. Sampo pushed the thing in his pocket deeper in. They were safe. 

“We are dead”, Gepard murmured.

***

Serval, as expected, gave them both a scolding. After she and the group of guards she came with escorted them back to safety, she made sure to lecture Geppie about being a self-sacrificial idiot and then when she was done, moved on to Sampo. Finally, she gave them both a hug and stayed as the guards' medics took care of their injuries. After that, she walked them back to Gepard’s house.

“Are you coming in?”, Gepard asked. Serval seemed hesitant. She looked at him and then at the house and finally shook her head. 

“I will visit you tomorrow”, she said, ruffling his hair. “And you”, she poked Sampo with her finger. “Thanks. For going in after him. It was stupid but brave.”

“Ready to admit that good old Sampo isn’t so bad after all?”, he grinned. Serval rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. If you try to scam me again, I will kick your ass, no matter how many times you help Gepard out.”

“Oh come on, that was once-”

“Goodnight, Serval”, Gepard interrupted. Serval’s gaze softened.

“Goodnight. Let me know if you need something. I’ll tell Pela to let them know you won’t be around tomorrow.”

With that, she left. Gepard sighed and opened the door, letting Sampo in. It was nearing midnight already so the butler had long left. Sampo helped Gepard upstairs to his room and seated him on the bed. Then he moved away.

“I should be going”, Sampo said quietly. He didn’t want to leave. Only when he started coming down from the adrenaline rush, he understood how close he was to losing Gepard. If he waited another half an hour… He’d rather not think about it. Nor about the implications of what such concern told him about his feelings for Gepard. 

“Stay”, Gepard said quietly, not opening his eyes. “There are no trains to Overworld at this hour.”

“You know I have other ways of going there and back”, Instead of moving towards the balcony, Sampo approached the bed and sat on the edge next to Gepard. 

“You can stay in one of the rooms here”, Gepard said. 

Here he was, asking Sampo to stay the night. Any other night Sampo would take advantage of it and make sure he gets fucked until the morning comes but with Gepard almost bleeding out in the Fragmentum that wasn’t an option. Therefore, there was no reason for him to stay, was there? 

Sampo moved further on the bed until his face was over Gepard’s. He reached out and brushed the messy blond hair out of his forehead. He had no idea what he was doing but he needed to feel that Gepard was there, solid and alive by his side. Gepard’s eyes opened as Sampo’s fingers traced his cheek, his jaw, and then, hesitantly, his lip. 

“Sampo”, Gepard said, his voice heavy with longing.

“How do you feel, Captain?”, Sampo asked. 

“Dizzy”, Gepard nuzzled against Sampo’s palm. 

“I have no choice then. If something happens to the Captain when he was left under my care, I’ll have to put myself in jail”, Sampo sighed theatrically and Gepard huffed out a small laugh. 

“If Serval doesn’t get you first.”

“She would hide my body so well nobody would ever know.”

Another laugh. Sampo felt something alarmingly similar to affection settle in his chest. He should leave. Every day he spent with Gepard pushed him down into uncharted territory. He had no map or plan on how to proceed. He knew flirting, he knew seduction and lust but this was different, this was true and heartfelt and troubling. For the first time, he wondered if Gepard could feel it too. 

“I think I’ll just make myself at home in one of the other rooms”, Sampo said quietly. Gepard looked up at him. 

“But there are no sheets and covers on those beds. This is one of the few that are regularly made and the butler will be back only in the morning. I’d do it for you but I don’t think I can move much right now”, he said. 

“Aw, that’s sweet, but I’ve slept in worse, trust me”, Sampo waved his hand dismissively. 

“I’m asking you to sleep here with me tonight, Sampo”, with those words, Gepard reached out to catch Sampo’s wrist. Sampo watched him pull it towards his face. He felt the brush of Gepard’s lips against his skin. 

Oh. Oh. 

Sampo swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. This was dangerous. In his position, going back to the Fragmentum and facing all the monsters felt less risky than spending the night in Gepard Landau’s bed, sleeping by his side. Soft, vulnerable, comfortable. No, the only reason Sampo would stay in another man’s bed was to fuck. None of that tender shit was in question. He’d be a fool to agree.

And a fool he was. 

He helped Gepard with his clothes, careful not to disturb the wounds. Then, he took off his jacket and belts before slowly unbuttoning his vest and letting the cold air sting his skin. Gepard watched him, his icy blue eyes darkening as Sampo undressed. Sampo made sure he could see. He stretched like a cat, his stomach, muscles, and the surgery scars on his chest visible in the dim light coming from the street below. Then, he unbuttoned his trousers and got up, pushing them down slowly and bending to make sure his underwear was hugging his ass just right. If he had to do something this vulnerable, he would at least make it horny. That gave him a semblance of control. 

When he was done, he climbed up to the bed next to Gepard and buried himself under the blanket. His leg brushed against Gepard’s and the captain shivered. 

“Cold.”

“I thought you didn’t mind”, Sampo smirked, although his heart was hammering in his chest. The bed seemed huge before but when they were lying like this, Gepard was close. Close enough for Sampo to reach out and pull him in. Close enough for a kiss. 

“I do. It’s cold enough outside”, Gepard grumbled. He seemed to be rethinking this too, his cheeks slightly darker than usual. That made Sampo feel a bit better. He wasn’t the only one with no idea what to do. 

“Are you not worried I’m going to kick you during the night? Or elbow your wound? You can never trust a criminal, you know. Surprised you haven’t learned that by now, Captain”, he laughed.

“I may regret it in the morning, but right now I’d rather have you here than worry about my wounds”, Gepard said. It sounded soft, affectionate. Sampo felt a pang in his chest.

“You should rest, Captain. Goodnight”, he said. Gepard sighed and nuzzled into the pillow. It didn’t take long for his breath to settle into a steady rhythm. 

The sleep that claimed him took far longer to come for Sampo. 

***

He was woken up by the kind of chill that settles in your bones. For a moment hung between dream and reality, he thought he was in the Fragmentum again, dragging Gepard away from the monsters. He gasped, lunging desperately for the exit that was almost at arm’s length but there was just air. He was sitting on the bed, chest heaving. Next to him, Gepard slept peacefully on his side, golden hair scattered on the pillow. He was beautiful. Without thinking, Sampo reached out to touch his cheek gently but he froze midway. It was nice. He liked waking up by Gepard’s side, he liked seeing this side of him. It felt good to be allowed so close. He had been telling himself it was okay to stay around because there was no way Gepard would ever reciprocate his feelings but after the evening before he wasn’t so sure anymore. Gepard had kissed his hand. He looked at Sampo not just with lust but with care and affection, as if Sampo was someone precious. Sampo didn’t have many friends but he knew that whatever Gepard felt went beyond that. 

He could get used to it and it terrified him. 

That was it. No matter what happened now, Sampo needed to keep his distance. If he got pulled in too deep, he’d doom himself or Gepard to an unavoidable heartbreak. And it was already too late to pretend Sampo Koski had no heart to break.

He could move quietly when he wanted to. He passed through the room like a ghost, putting on his clothes and glancing from time to time at Gepard to check if he was still asleep. The deep shame felt heavy in his stomach but he kept telling himself he wasn’t doing anything wrong. There was nothing weird about running away from somebody’s room at five in the morning. It was fine. 

When he was dressed, he stopped at the open door of the balcony. For once he was grateful for Belobog’s freezing mornings. It felt refreshing and kept his mind sharp. No thoughts of Gepard and how he would feel waking up to an empty bed. No wondering if it was too late to turn back. 

He made his way to the Underworld and when he was already in his room, he crawled into his bed. He looked at his phone and wondered if he should write something to Gepard. 

“ I had to do something in the Underworld, let’s not meet for a while. ”

“ Sorry that I left, I think I started falling for you and I’m terrified of my feelings. ”

“ I realized that you may like me too and if I stayed any longer I might end up staying for good. ”

No. It was better to leave things unsaid. Let Gepard be mad and then move on. 

He closed his eyes and let the uneasy sleep overtake him for the few hours still left in the night. The cat keychain dangled from the edge of the nightstand, still attached to his phone.

Chapter Text

The next few days were silent. Gepard didn’t try to contact or visit him, either for personal reasons or for the case. The word between the guards was that he was still resting after his injury. Sampo did some investigating on his own to keep his mind busy but it turned out fruitless. 

His initial plan to not think about Gepard seemed to get more difficult as time passed. Sampo went from checking his phone suspiciously often to straying into the Overworld more than necessary in hopes of catching a glimpse of Gepard, at least in passing. He was just concerned that Gepard went back to work without having fully healed, he told himself. He needed to see him okay and then he could move on. 

That would have probably gone on for much longer if not for Seele, who burst into his room one morning. Sampo and Seele had… A relationship. She found him extremely annoying and he liked to test how long it would take for her to punch him. Natasha once told him that Seele wanted to be able to depend on him but she wasn’t stupid enough to do so.

Despite that when shit went down in the Underworld, Sampo was the first one who knew and it was usually from her. 

“Haven’t you heard?”, she said from the door. “The bastard is throwing a party.”

Sampo frowned. There was some context he was missing in this conversation. 

“The guy you were investigating with Gepard? The warehouse guy”, she sat down on the chair and took a paper bag from the table, pulling out a sweet bun. Sampo wanted to protest. He got those specifically for himself, all the way from the Overworld. He’d been eating them regularly ever since Gepard brought them for breakfast. Seele, however, seemed to want a payment for her info, so he allowed her to take one. 

“Nobles throw parties all the time. You’d know if you were as well-traveled as your buddy Sampo.”

Seele made a ball out of the paper bag and threw it at him. It made a perfect arch and hit him right on the forehead. 

“This one is special, though. He invited both the Overworlders and the Underworlders”, she said when he was cursing and trying to get the fondant out of his hair.

“How do you know that?”, he asked when he finally managed. Seele scoffed but her cheeks were a little red. 

“You have your sources, I have mine”, she said. ”Either way it’s a good opportunity for you and your boyfriend to find some new leads.”

“Miss Seele, I think you are mistaken. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh don’t worry, Luka told me about your little scene in the Fight Club. But if he was wrong, I’ll let him know. He would be happy to get a piece of that for himself”, Seele took a bite of the bun, her embarrassment replaced with a sprinkle of mischief. 

“I think he should go after men who aren’t ten years older than him”, Sampo murmured, suddenly annoyed. Seele laughed.

“Either way, it’s a good opportunity to get something out of him. There may not be another”, she said and Sampo knew she was right. 

He wasn’t going to pull Gepard into it, though. The man didn’t strike him as a type who liked those kinds of parties anyway. The case was the only thing still connecting him to Gepard and if it was solved he could stop thinking about the weird relationship they had going on. He’d hand the guy on a silver platter to the guards, steal his money, and be done with it. 

***

The evening of the party Sampo found himself in front of Petrov’s house. It was a small mansion surrounded by a garden, much bigger than where Gepard lived. While Sampo suspected the Landau family mansion was far more impressive, Gepard settled for a small two-story house pressed between others like it. Petrov on the other hand flaunted his wealth even in a seemingly friendly gesture like celebrating two parts of Belobog becoming one. The light was pouring out of the open door and pooling on the stairs and the path leading from the gate. People in fancy clothes were walking in, some in groups or pairs, some alone. Petrov was by the door, greeting everyone personally. It was the first time he saw him outside of Gepard’s case files and he had to admit, the man wasn’t bad-looking. If Sampo remembered well, he was a little over forty and despite not having a noble background, he held himself as one. He wore a suit flashy enough to stand out but not extravagant enough to look out of place. His hair was elegantly slicked back and his goatee perfectly trimmed. 

His automatons were nowhere to be seen. 

Such an occasion required a costume. Sampo Koski wasn’t the type of guy who appeared at fancy parties. Moreover, his intel showed that Petrov had multiple one-night-stands with women but showed no interest in men and if he did it was very discreet. If Sampo wanted to get close to him, he needed a proper alias. He’d spent the whole day deciding on the most appealing outfit and was very satisfied with the result. His dark red dress hugged his chest and hips but flowed loosely below his knees. His natural hair was covered by a black wig that curled against his cheeks and neck, falling on his uncovered shoulders. The heels clicked against the marble tiles as he walked up the stairs leading to the main door. He enjoyed the way people’s heads turned when he passed. He rewarded a few especially handsome admirers with a wink from under his lashes. His cleavage was tastefully uncovered and fake since the real one had been gone for a while now. Despite that, he didn’t mind posing as a woman for a night. He’d always consider gender to be yet another performance people put up. And looking at how many people looked after him today, he was damn good at performing it.

Maybe, if the whole thing went well, he’d leave this place with some eye candy on his arm. 

When he reached Petrov, the man’s gaze slid down his neck towards his chest for a moment. He cleared his throat, reaching his hand out to him and letting him kiss his glove. 

“I hope you enjoy your evening, madam'', Petrov said, his lips lingering longer than necessary. Sampo remembered Gepard’s lips pressed against his wrist just a few days ago and felt the urge to take his hand away. Instead, he just rewarded the man with a nod. 

“So do I”, he said, freeing himself gently and going inside without looking back. He could feel Petrov’s gaze burning a hole in his back. 

When he reached the ballroom, he realized it could match Belobogian's finest. The mighty columns held up the painted ceiling. Plates with appetizers covered the long tables with alluring colors and shapes of rare dishes and imported fruit. On the white marble dancefloor couples were already twirling to the orchestra’s music. The tablecloths and windows were decorated with silver flowers that matched the pins on the waiters’ lapels. It was the best Overworld had to offer. 

How much of a snob did you have to be to build yourself a house with a ballroom like this?

Despite all the splendor, Sampo could feel that the mood was tense. There was a visible difference between the expensive suits and dresses of the Overworlders and the elegant but modest outfits of the Underworlders. The latter stuck to their groups and didn’t seem to eagerly take a place on the dancefloor. A lot of the former pretended not to notice them. The whole event felt more like a boast party than a show of unity. 

Sampo himself didn’t fit with either of the groups. His dress and his style were far too provocative for the Overworld fashion but far too fancy for the Underworld. Tonight he was Madame Brughel Poisson, a rich outworlder searching for a fruitful connection be it in body or business. During the party, Mister Petrov leaves with this mysterious yet alluring woman and happily gives Sampo all his secrets. A perfect plan.

He mingled for a while, exchanging short but polite conversations with people. A few men asked him to dance, which he allowed as it let him have a better view of the ballroom without looking suspicious. One or two of them were rather nice to look at and surprisingly good conversationalists but Sampo still let them go after one dance. A few months ago he’d have already jumped on the occasion to pass the time until Petrov was done greeting everybody on getting close and personal with either of the men in some backroom. Today, however, his main focus was the case. 

It had nothing to do with how his eyes betrayed him and looked for Gepard in the crowd. 

He was at his fifth dance when Petrov finally appeared inside. He was accompanied by a young woman Sampo recognized from a while ago - Bronya Rand, the young Supreme Guardian. Such occasions had to attract the authorities of the highest rank. If they didn’t show, people would think they didn’t care about the reunion of the Overworld and the Underworld. 

Along with Bronya, there was a young man Sampo didn’t recognize. However, he didn’t get much time to examine him because something else caught his attention. A familiar trio of blondes walked in after Bronya and her companion. The three Landaus dressed up all nicely for the party. 

As Gepard’s gaze swept the crowd, Sampo dove between the people and hurried up towards one of the tables with appetizers pretending to be very personally invested in the salmon. What was he even thinking, coming here? Of course, Gepard would come as well. It was a big event, the first one made for the Overworld and Underworld alike. And he put himself there in the middle of all of it. He knew that Gepard couldn’t see him from so far away, especially not when he was all dressed up but guilt welled up inside him anyway. The further from that unfortunate morning he was the more he thought he could have handled it better. Leaving Gepard without a word felt cruel now. Sampo realized he might have lost something he hadn’t even fully grasped but he was too much of a coward to face the consequences.

He took a glass of wine from the table and sipped it, watching the crowd. He couldn’t see the Landaus anymore, which gave him some room to think clearly. He was disguised. Gepard couldn’t possibly tell it was him even if he caught a glimpse of him in the crowd. There were so many people it was easy to disappear. Coming face-to-face with the Captain wasn’t that much of a risk. If he proceeded with his plan and seduced Petrov out of the ballroom fast enough, he’d be out of here in no time and Gepard would be none the wisest. He had to do it before Gepard managed to bump into him because Aeons knew what he would do then. 

Well, it wasn’t entirely true - he knew that if Gepard gave him any indication he still had a chance, he’d yield instantly.

Soon enough, Sampo spotted Petrov surrounded by a bunch of Overworlders. He made his way into his circle, a glass of wine in his hand and a bored expression on his face. He listened for a moment and then started looking around, taking a sip of wine from time to time. He could see Petrov steal glances at him, as he slowly noticed the contrast between his behavior and the swooning of his other listeners. 

“Have you got anything to add, Madame?”, he finally asked, addressing Sampo directly. It was so easy.

Now that the attention of the whole group was focused on him, Sampo looked Petrov up and down slowly, playing with a strand of his wig. 

“I would, if I had any interest in the way amateurs were doing things”, he said. Petrov scowled, his pleasantness gone in a blink of an eye. 

“I remember you from the entrance but I don’t believe we’ve met before that. Who are you?”, he asked.

“Madame Brughel Poisson. The pleasure is all yours”, Sampo said, batting his eyelashes with a cat-like smile. “I came to this planet seeking new opportunities to expand my business but I only see a bunch of small-minded simpletons.”

The Overworlders were openly glaring at him now. Usually, they were the ones who got to look down at others. People from outside Jarilo-VI had rarely made their way to Belobog before. It must hurt to meet someone whose world was so much bigger than yours and they made sure you knew it. 

“I assure you, Madam, I am no simpleton. I have my sights set so much higher than Belobog”, Petrov said and Sampo knew he had him. Men loved to prove their worth to beautiful women, especially the ones who seemed to not give a damn about them. 

“Is that so?”, he allowed, raising his perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Care to elaborate, sir?”

Petrov passed next to his bewildered fans to get to Sampo. So determined to prove himself. If Sampo tried hard enough, he probably would give him all his money on a silver platter. That, however, wasn’t fun at all. 

“Let us walk, Madam Poisson”, he said, offering Sampo his arm. Sampo made a show of considering it for a moment, before taking mercy on the man and hooking their arms together. 

“You have one round around the ballroom to change my mind, sir”, he said and Petrov smirked. 

“That’s plenty”, he said. 

They started walking and while Petrov was talking, Sampo scanned the room. He spotted some familiar faces - people who were a part of his scams - and hoped his makeup would be enough for them to not recognize him. He let Petrov’s words pass through his mind without leaving a trace. Most of it he’d already known from his investigation with Gepard. He needed Petrov to work harder, to give him something spicier. 

Busy looking bored and watching the rest of the partygoers, Sampo had no time to react when he heard Petrov say: “Captain Landau! Here you are! We didn’t have time to talk much when you came in!”

Sampo froze. He thought about running, preferably away fromJarilo-VI at all but Petrov was there, waiting for his normal answer to the normal act of being introduced to someone. Because of that, Sampo slowly turned, ready to face his death. 

Only now he could properly take a look at Gepard’s outfit. He looked different than usual. His blond hair was elegantly slicked back and instead of his casual clothes or guard uniform he was wearing a dark blue suit with a baby blue tie that matched his eyes. Despite himself, Sampo felt a knot loosen within his chest. Gepard looked… Good. Strong. Healthy.  

His expression when he saw Sampo remained unchanged. 

“Truly a shame”, he said politely but Sampo knew him enough to see he didn’t regret it at all. 

“Madame Poisson”, Petrov turned to Sampo. “This is Captain Gepard Landau, the head of the Silvermane Guards. They are the protectors of the realm and our bastion against the Fragmentum monsters.”

“Impressive”, Sampo said, extending his hand to Gepard. Gepard took it and kissed the top. Once again Sampo was transported to that evening in Gepard’s bedroom but this time he wished he wasn’t wearing a glove.

“Madame Poisson is an outworlder. She came here to seek business opportunities'', Petrov continued, unaware of the storm going on inside Sampo’s head. Gepard’s face remained neutral, only as interested as it was necessary to be socially accepted. He didn’t recognize Sampo. And if he did, he decided to ignore him. Relief flooded Sampo, followed very quickly by disappointment. He didn’t know what he expected but it wasn’t this. 

“I’m sure she will find plenty with a businessman like you, Mister Petrov”, Gepard said. “Now, if you will excuse me. I have to find my sister.”

He gave Petrov a short nod and passed them by without another word. Sampo wouldn’t look after him. He wouldn’t do this to himself. 

“Madame, are you alright? You look pale”, Petrov took his hand. 

“I think I need a drink, sir. It’s awfully stuffy here”, he said. 

“Of course. I’ll be back in a moment”, Petrov let him go and rushed towards the tables. When Sampo was sure he was gone, he went in another direction, disappearing in the crowd. He needed to get lost. He needed to be away from Petrov and away from Gepard. He thought some distance would be helpful in dealing with his unfortunate infatuation with Gepard but as he had stood there, burning under his uncaring gaze, so many thoughts fluttered in his mind, so many meaningless questions. 

“Madam Poisson”, someone caught his wrist in their steel grip. He turned around and was met with the familiar pair of icy-blue eyes. “I think Mister Petrov is looking for you.”

“Well”, Sampo laughed, unable to keep Gepard’s gaze longer. “Looks like I’ve made my escape for now.”

“That seems like a bad habit”, Gepard said and Sampo’s heart skipped a beat. 

He recognized him after all.

“I-”, Sampo started but Gepard seemed to notice something over his shoulder. 

“He’s coming this way. Dance with me”, he said and before Sampo knew what was going on, he was pulled to the dancefloor.

“Madame Poisson”, Gepard said, one of his hands finding Sampo’s and the other settling on his waist. “I thought I may see you here.”

Sampo pushed down all the conflicting feelings. He could do dancing. It was an act like any other and if Sampo was good at something, it was performance. Meeting Gepard here was a calculated risk and now he had to face it.

“Captain Landau. I have to say quite the opposite”, he answered, letting Gepard lead.

“What brings you here?”

Oh, so that’s what they were doing. A witty back-and-forth between strangers, filled with underlying meaning. Sampo could do that. 

“Unfinished business, nothing more.”

Gepard scoffed and Sampo realized he was not the only one who could wear masks. Under the carefully leveled neutrality, there were flashes of annoyance. It made Sampo feel thrilled. He wanted to rile Gepard up and see how far he could take it. Let him scream, let him roar, let him let loose all those pent-up emotions. Sampo could take it.

Sampo deserved it.

“Was it all there was? Business?”, Gepard asked. 

“Of course.”

Gepard let go and pressed their open palms together. They circled each other slowly, not breaking eye contact.

“Most people wouldn’t charge into the Fragmentum for just business”, Gepard pointed out. 

“Most people aren’t as daring as I, Captain”, Sampo answered. 

There was a moment of silence between them that was filled with just music. 

“Liar”, Gepard said quietly, his blue eyes intense. Sampo couldn’t stand it. He broke eye contact and looked away again.

“Look at this ball, Captain”, he said after a moment. “The people from the Overworld and Underworld gathered under one roof for the night. For just one night, they can taste what life would feel like if they were born somewhere else. But at the end of the day, it’s all an illusion. They are still from the Underworld and Overworld respectively and nothing will ever change that. It’s the same with us. A fool will always stay a fool and a king will always be a king. He may imagine how it would be if it were different for a while, but the illusion will crack.”

Gepard twirled him around and pulled closer, Sampo’s back pressing against his chest. 

“We don’t have to be kings or fools, Sampo”, he said, his breath warm in Sampo's ear. “We can just be men.”

Sampo’s fingers tightened on his arm for just a moment before he moved away, distancing himself for an arm’s length, their fingers still intertwined. How could he have ever thought it was just an attraction to Gepard? Gepard didn’t do anything halfway. But he was naive. The roles they all played couldn’t be simply ignored when it was convenient. 

He opened his mouth to answer but Petrov, who’d finally found them, appeared behind Gepard on the dancefloor. He was holding onto a drink he fetched from one of the waiters. 

“You have found her, Captain!”, he called, completely unaware of the tension that filled the air. “Madame, I have brought you a drink-”

“The song isn’t over yet. I suggest you wait your turn, Mr. Petrov”, Gepard interrupted, pulling Sampo close again. His hand tightened on Sampo’s waist. Petrov looked taken aback for a moment and then his face twisted into a grimace. 

“I think Madame has the right to say who she wants to dance with”, he said. Sampo had to give it to him - he was persistent and incredibly stubborn. And while Sampo would rather stay with Gepard for the rest of the evening, there was work to do. 

“He’s right, Captain”, he said, gently moving Gepard’s hand away from his waist. “I promised Mr. Petrov one round around the ballroom so we could talk business and I like to keep my word when it comes to deals like this.”

Gepard’s eyes narrowed and he took a step away, reluctantly letting go of Sampo.

“I must apologize. I have severely overstepped-”, he started, but Sampo stopped him by putting his hand on his chest with a cat-like smile.

“Not at all. But as I said, I’m the kind of person who cannot let an opportunity go to waste. If you want to, you may find me later, if Mr. Petrov doesn’t steal me away, that is', he was trying really hard to search for understanding in Gepard’s eyes. It was a chance to learn something more from Petrov, one that may not come again. Their personal business had to wait a little longer. 

“Of course. Enjoy your evening, Madame. I hope we will catch each other again”, Gepard said, taking his hand and kissing it again. As he was letting go, their eyes met and he gave Sampo the slightest nod. Sampo watched as he walked away, leaving him alone with Petrov. 

“Shall we continue, Madame?”, Petrov asked, offering Sampo his arm. Sampo took it and they went back to the edge of the ballroom where they’d stopped their stroll before. 

“I must warn you, Madame. Although Captain Landau is very handsome, his reasons for pursuing you may not be entirely pure. I don’t think anyone in Belobog has ever seen him express interest in women”, Petrov said. 

“Is that so?”, Sampo raised his eyebrows. He wanted to show Petrov that petty gossip wasn’t what he was here for but the man must have mistaken his reaction for curiosity because he continued eagerly.

“It is. Moreover, even if that wasn’t the case, the man is quite literally married to his job. Forgive me my assumptions but you don’t seem like the type who’d be happy with someone so boring”, he said. Sampo felt a pang of annoyance in his chest.

“Do you know what I don’t like even more, Mr. Petrov? A man who badmouths others because he has nothing outstanding to offer”, he said. It sounded harsher than he intended, his casual snark colored with irritation. Aeons, he wasn’t winning himself any points. He needed to get a grip before he sabotaged this chance. 

“You are wrong, Madame. I’m merely warning you. But if you’d rather listen about me, I’m sure I have a lot I can impress you with”, Petrov looked at him, wounded and Sampo almost rolled his eyes. 

“Get to it, then”, he said. This was going nowhere so far and he was starting to think he was wasting his time.

Petrov looked around before leaning closer to Sampo. When he talked, his voice was merely a whisper as if he was sharing some great conspiracy. 

“You’ve probably heard about our Geomarrow mines, Madame”, he said. “They are a great potential source of income if we were to export Geomarrow and products powered by it but mining is dangerous and takes a long time.”

Sampo nodded. He knew Petrov’s company dealt with the production of many geomarrow-powered machines so it would make sense that the efficiency of mining would be of interest to him. 

“Well, we may be able to find a more efficient way of obtaining geomarrow. We are close to a great discovery that could change Belobog completely and establish us as a serious interplanetary exporter. We could push the technology forward and reach the stars.”

“That sounds like wishful thinking. I like the details, Mr. Petrov”, Sampo said, although he had to admit Petrov got his attention. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get anything more, because someone called Petrov’s name from the crowd, and before Sampo knew it, he was roughly pushed away.

“Excuse me-”, he said but his voice died down when he recognized the man who’d pushed him. It was the owner of the warehouse from whom he’d stolen the plans. He was dressed up and it was clear his dislike towards Overworlders didn’t extend to their parties.  

“You’ve never said the Landaus would be here”, he growled. Petrov gave Sampo a panicked look. “You’re here mingling with women when we are putting out necks out for your operation-”

“Madame, please, if you wouldn’t mind… My colleague here needs a moment of my time. I’ll find you when I’m done”, Petrov said and only then the man bothered to look at Sampo. He gave him a glare, clearly not recognizing him, and turned back to Petrov.

“Work calls. I understand”, Sampo smiled mercifully. “I wil see you around, Mr. Petrov.”

He watched as Petrov led the man out. He tried to follow them but he was too much in the open. Instead, he opted for another option. 

As he suspected, Gepard didn’t go far. He perked up, seeing Sampo approach him, his eyes searching for any sort of injury or distress. Having him so concerned after Sampo just left and ignored him for a few days felt even worse than if he was mad. 

“I’m alright”, Sampo said quickly. “But I think this is our chance. Petrov left with the man who owns the warehouse. I couldn’t follow them but we could go and search his office now.”

Gepard furrowed his eyebrows.

“How do you know they didn’t go into his office?”, he asked. Sampo waved his hand.

“Oh please, the first thing I got before trying to break- Pay Petrov a visit were the plans of his house. I know where his office is and it’s nowhere in that direction. So, Captain? Ready to break some laws?”, he smiled at him, trying to mask how uneasy he was about working together again. He fucked up and he wanted to make up for it somehow but he didn’t know if Gepard would allow it. 

Gepard looked around but no one was paying any attention to them. Sampo doubted anyone would. They’d be just another one of those couples who’d sneaked out to take advantage of Petrov’s fancy rooms and spice up their boring sex life. And yet Geppie was always prepared and always careful. 

When he was sure nobody was listening, he nodded. Sampo looked at him with a mischievous smile on his face. This was good. Working side by side felt easy. He missed this. Missed Gepard. 

“Then let’s go, Captain”, he said. He reached out and took his hand, just to keep up the appearances, and felt Gepard’s fingers intertwine with his. They left the ballroom, disappearing into one of the halls.

When the music and voices grew muffled by the distance, Sampo let go of Gepard’s hand. They shared a look, a moment of understanding blossoming between them. No matter what came next, they were seeing this thing through together. 

They were on the first floor of the house, the only one currently open for the guests. The long hall was covered with a carpet that silenced the sound of Sampo’s heels. When they reached the stairs, they noticed two robots standing guard, their machinery whirring quietly.

“Shit”, Gepard said.

“Oh, don’t worry, this time I came prepared”, Sampo reached into his bag and pulled out a bomb. He swung and threw it at the robots. The impact released a cloud of smoke. The robots beeped in confusion, their little legs moving around. Sampo pulled Gepard with him and they snuck next to them, going up the stairs before the cloud settled. 

The hall upstairs was empty but from a distance, they could hear the sound of robotic steps. Sampo groaned. 

“He really thinks he’s hot shit, having robots scout his house”, he said. 

“Well, to be fair, we are trying to break in so he has reasons to be wary”, Gepard answered, a little amused. Sampo elbowed him. 

When the footsteps started to grow quieter, they sneaked towards the end of the hall where the door to Petrov’s office was. The walls on this floor were decorated with paintings of snowy plains and views from the Overworld. The floor underneath was polished stone and Sampo had to remove his heels so they wouldn’t click against it. 

As he had expected, the door to the room was obviously locked. He pulled out another bomb and passed it to Gepard. 

“I’ll take care of this. Throw it if the robot comes closer, will you?”, he whispered and got to work. The lock looked simple enough but as soon as he put the lockpick in he realized it wasn’t going to be that easy. He started maneuvering inside, his brows furrowed, fully focused. Minutes passed and he could hear the robot’s sounds slowly approaching from around the corner.

“Sampo…”, Gepard warned, his body strained next to Sampo, ready to act at any moment. 

“Doin’ my best here… Come on, open for daddy…”, finally, a click and the lock let go. Sampo pushed the door and he and Gepard stumbled inside, falling on the carpet. Sampo kicked it with his foot, closing it behind them just in time. 

“That was a close one”, Gepard mumbled, getting up and offering him his hand. Sampo took it and let Gepard pull him to his feet. 

“Nothing to worry about when I have you with me”, he said. He could see the way Gepard’s eyes slid to his lips but then he turned away abruptly. 

“Let’s search the drawers”, he said, going towards the desk. Sampo felt his stomach drop but he pushed down his disappointment. He was the one who ran away. Gepard had every right to want nothing to do with him anymore. 

“Alright, let’s see what dirty secrets Mr. Petrov’s hiding”, he sat in the chair while Gepard opened the drawers and started going through the files on the desk. Mostly finances, nothing interesting. No mention of the missing workers. Not surprising, since Sampo couldn’t imagine what kind of documents could even refer to a situation like that. 

He put the files back where they came from and was about to get to the drawers on the other side of the desk when Gepard’s hand landed on his elbow. 

“Look at this”, he said, getting up with a large piece of paper in his hands. He rolled it out on the surface of the desk and Sampo immediately recognized it. It was the plans of the warehouse, identical to the ones he’d seen in the owner’s house. Those, however, were not missing a part.

“There’s a hidden part of the warehouse”, Gepard said, looking at Sampo. “Like stairs or an elevator.”

“And if there are stairs, they probably lead somewhere”, Sampo nodded. “And that’s probably where our missing workers went.”

“Do you think they may still be alive?”, Gepard asked. 

“Unless Petrov is literally keeping them captive there, I doubt it. I feel like they got down there and something happened”, Sampo shook his head. 

“You’re probably right”, Gepard nodded but his face looked so sad Sampo couldn’t help himself. He reached out and took his hand.

“You can still help by giving their families closure”, he said. Gepard sighed. 

“Let’s go before someone finds us here”, he said. He didn’t push Sampo away but his hand slid out of Sampo’s grasp as he moved away from the desk. Sampo watched him go towards the door and listen carefully for the sounds of the patrolling robot. Then, he shook his head and took photos of the other plan before putting it back in the drawer. Every time he reached out, Gepard retreated. It was frustrating. Despite being physically there, Gepard was keeping his distance. Aeons, he had fucked up badly. He wished he could turn back time because he had no idea if there was any way to fix this mess. 

“It’s clear”, Gepard said from the door. Sampo nodded and soon they were sneaking down the hall again. Sampo used his bomb to confuse the robots and they were getting close to the ballroom when they heard Petrov’s voice coming from ahead. 

“I’ll check in my office and be back in a moment, sir!”

Then his hurried footsteps got closer to where they were. 

“Here! Come on”, Sampo felt Gepard pull him towards one of the doors. They dove inside and the darkness surrounded them. It quickly became clear that it wasn’t any of the rooms but rather a storage closet. It smelled like chemicals and dust and Sampo could feel something suspiciously close to a bucket press against his leg. It was tiny and the two of them barely fit in, their bodies squeezed together. Gepard’s hand was on the wall next to Sampo’s head, their quickened breaths mixing. Was Gepard wearing cologne? Aeons save him. 

The footsteps outside passed by and Gepard sighed in relief, moving away a bit.

“We should be safe now”, he said quickly. Sampo had no idea why they weren't leaving yet but he wasn’t going to complain.

“I told you my investigation skills would let us find new clues'', he said instead, pressing his hand against Gepard’s chest and finding his tie. “Say “thank you, Sampo”, Geppie.”

“Breaking and entering is hardly an investigative skill”, Gepard pointed out, a little amused. 

“Oh come on, I made myself wear heels for this and I got a ton of new information”, Sampo said dramatically. “Here I am, my skills underappreciated.”

“I appreciate them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked for your help”, Gepard answered and the honesty in his voice caused something to warm inside Sampo. He just couldn’t win, could he? Every time he thought he was on safe ground, Gepard threw him off his loop.

“We should go back”, he said. “We don’t want him to catch us when he’s coming back.”

“Technically, this floor is open for guests-”, Gepard started but Sampo pressed his fingers against his lips, shushing him. Someone was coming. Two sets of footsteps, getting closer and closer. Was Petrov coming back with someone? The owner of the warehouse? But where did he come from?

The footsteps stopped right in front of the door to the closet. 

“Shit”, Sampo cursed under his breath and then turned to Gepard. “Don’t freak out.”

And then before the captain managed to utter a word, he pushed him against the wall and pressed their lips together. He felt Gepard go stiff against him and shut his eyes, ready to be pushed away. 

Instead, Gepard turned around so Sampo would be the one pressed against the wall and kissed him harder. Sampo forgot about the ball, about the mission, about the footsteps outside. He melted against Gepard, pushing his fingers into the soft, golden hair. Aeons, he wanted this more than he’d thought. 

The bliss didn’t last long because the lock on the door behind them clicked and a ray of light from the hall slipped inside, along with the shadows of the people who stood in the doorway. Gepard’s arm was wrapped around Sampo’s waist, the other one in his wig. The way he groaned when Sampo moved away made heat pull in his navel. 

“Gepard? And- A woman?”, a surprised, feminine voice came from the door, almost immediately accompanied by “Sampo?” from another one, this time familiar. 

Sampo looked over his shoulder. It wasn’t Petrov standing in the doorway. It was the Supreme Guardian, Lady Bronya with the same companion he’d seen come into the party with her before. The two of them were holding hands and Bronya was blushing slightly. Only now that Sampo took a good look at her companion he realized she wasn’t a stranger at all.

“Miss Seele?”, he asked, eyeing her suit with a butterfly pin on the lapel.

“Lady Bronya”, Gepard said from behind Sampo. 

Well, shit. 

There was a moment of silence when the two couples stared at each other, completely at a loss of words. Finally, Sampo decided to take it into his own hands. 

“This is a little awkward”, he said, putting his hands up. There wasn’t a point in pretending so he dropped the alluring Madam Poisson act. “Supreme Guardian, it’s a pleasure to see you, despite the circumstances.”

“Aeons, Sampo, just shut up”, Seele groaned, rubbing her face with her hand. “Are you going to fuck in this closet or are you getting out?”

“Out”, Gepard said, glancing at Sampo. “Let’s go.”

As they were leaving, Sampo noticed Lady Bronya giving him a curious look. Down the corridor, he could still hear Seele complaining about how they had ruined the mood. 

***

They didn’t go back to the ball. Gepard took him back to his house, unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt and loosening his tie the moment the door to his bedroom closed behind them. Sampo sat on the bed, crossing his legs and pulling off his wig. He wanted Gepard to push him down and kiss him again and hell, he was going to let him do anything, consequences be damned. Instead, the Captain stopped by the desk and pulled out the case files from one of the drawers. He opened it and placed all the documents on the desk so he could see each one of them. Sampo furrowed his eyebrows. Aeons, were they really doing that now? Geppie still had his lipstick smudged in the corner of his mouth.

“Let’s sum up what we know. He wants to find a more efficient method of obtaining geomarrow than mining and the warehouse has a secret part below which Petrov knows about. Whatever he is planning, the answer is probably there”, he said, gesturing at Sampo to come closer. 

Sampo had to accept that there wasn’t going to be a makeout session. Gepard was back on the case now. He sighed, got up, kicked off his heels, and stood by his side, leaning against his shoulder slightly. He took out the phone with the photos and put it on top of the table. Gepard took it and examined the plans. Then, he crossed his arms on his chest, deep in thought. Sampo watched him, comfortably close. It didn’t seem like the proximity bothered Gepard, so he didn’t try moving away.

“We won’t figure it out ”, Gepard said finally. “We’d have to go into the warehouse because right now we can just speculate what’s under it. “

Sampo was quiet for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Geppie”, he said. “Are you suggesting we break in?”

“No. At least not yet. I don’t know how, but Petrov somehow managed to avoid showing the plans of the warehouse to the guards. If he does it willingly, we will have a reason to search the property again”, Gepard shook his head and only then he turned to Sampo. “If he somehow manages to worm his way out of this, I suppose then we break in.”

“I really am a bad influence”, Sampo laughed. He’d lie if he said Gepard’s morally gray side wasn’t attractive and didn’t make him want to drop all the plans, get Gepard to bed to finally have a proper taste of him. Lucky for him, he was a damn good liar.

“It’s for the safety of the people”, Gepard coughed, that sweet pink blush dusting his cheeks again. He was too good to be true. “But it’s not something for today. We’ll have to find out something more about the man who he works with, too.”

“Alright”, Sampo nodded and there was silence again. It used to be comfortable, Sampo thought, but then he fucked it up. And the moment he fell back into Gepard’s orbit he understood how stupid he was to think he could ever leave. 

“Goodnight, Sampo”, Gepard said quietly and Sampo could tell it was a dismissal. His stomach sank. He didn’t know what he expected. Gepard would be stupid to let him stay again, and Gepard might be many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. He was kind, brave, stubborn, and righteous - everything Sampo was not.  

Well, maybe he was a little stubborn. 

He wanted to say he didn’t run because he didn’t care. Quite the opposite. He ran because the way he grew to care about Gepard in such a short period of time was terrifying. He ran so he wouldn’t have to leave him behind when the time came to leave Jarilo. He ran because he didn’t want to hurt Gepard, or maybe because he didn’t want to get hurt himself. It didn’t really matter now anyway, so he kept quiet. 

He picked his heels up from the ground and put them on. He took his wig and brushed the hair down slowly. In the corner of his eye, Gepard walked across the room and took out a music player. He put on a record and soft music filled the room. Sampo remembered the song from the ball. 

Neither of them said a word until Sampo pushed the balcony door open. He wasn’t going to leave through the main entrance. He was tired, his feet hurt and the makeup was starting to feel heavy on his face. He wanted to turn to Gepard and ask him to let him stay, to promise he wouldn’t leave again. All the things he’d said on the ball, was that just performance? Sampo couldn’t tell anymore. Not after the amount of confusing signals Gepard gave him during the evening.

He fucked up. He’d known that then and he knew it now. What he didn’t know was if leaving would just fuck it up even further.

What if what Gepard said on the ball wasn’t a performance but a choice?

He looked over his shoulder. 

“You know, I feel quite disappointed I didn’t get to dance more”, he said. Gepard turned to him, his hand still on the music player. 

“Is that so?”, he said. So polite and proper. 

“Especially that I didn’t know you were such a good dancer, Captain”, Sampo left the balcony door behind and walked back towards Gepard. “You’ve impressed me.”

“It’s something I had to learn”, Gepard said. He was careful but not annoyed. He watched Sampo like he didn’t know where this was going. 

“Nobody would interrupt us if we danced here”, Sampo said, taking a step into his space. Just for a moment, Gepard’s eyes widened. 

“Do you have nowhere to be tonight?”, he asked and Sampo knew that he had to make a choice. If he ran now, there would be no going back. 

“No.”

They danced then, just a breath away from each other, until the proper form melted into a gentle embrace and familiar steps became barely swaying to the music. Gepard held him tight, as if Sampo would disappear the moment he let go, his face hidden in the crook of Sampo’s neck. 

After the music stopped, Gepard reached out and brushed his knuckles against Sampo’s cheek. Sampo closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. 

“I’m not… A good person, Geppie”, he said quietly. “I don’t understand why you’d want me.”

Gepard sighed, moving his hand away and Sampo missed the touch immediately. 

“I have served the Supreme Guardian with all I had. Many people - good people - died because of her decisions. Maybe if I questioned them more, stood up for them more, they would still be here”, he said quietly. Sampo wanted to reach out and comfort him. “I would still put my life on the line for the people of Belobog but it made me feel that I should follow my instincts more than my orders. And my instincts tell me we are good together.”

“What if you grow to regret it? What if I drag you down with me to whatever pit of hell I’ll fall into next? There are things you don’t know about me. I may have to leave this planet at some point”, The protests seemed weak, even for him. 

“Then I’d rather regret sharing something with you than never getting a chance to do so”, Gepard said, determined. “The truth is, you can regret any sort of relationship. But have you thought what happens if I don’t regret it? If it works out after all?”

“I have no idea what happens then”, Sampo laughed weakly. 

“Me neither. But I’d be happy to check”, Gepard took his face into his hands, the softness in his gaze making Sampo’s heart swell. “I want to try, even if it lasts a month. A week. But I want to try. Say you don’t feel the same and I’ll leave it and never speak of it again.”

Sampo opened his mouth. He could end all of this for good. He wouldn’t be on Jarilo-VI forever and Gepard knew that. He knew Belobog wasn’t his home and yet he still chose to bet everything on someone like him. Sampo didn’t know where it was coming from but he could understand not wanting to live without regrets. And not giving Gepard Landau a chance would be the biggest regret of his fucking life.

“The Supreme Guardian has already seen us making out. I can’t let her think I just ditched you after, can I? Sampo Koski doesn’t kiss and te-”, he didn’t manage to finish, because Gepard’s mouth was on his. 

Chapter Text

In the morning, Sampo awoke with the cold rays of the morning sun. They danced on his face, peeking through the gap between the curtains. He furrowed his eyebrows and turned away from the window, pressing closer to the warm body next to him. 

Then he blinked. There was someone beside him.

It took him a moment to understand where he was. Despite having slept with others quite often, he rarely stayed the night. Even when he did, they’d usually wake up to find him gone in the morning. He didn’t make a habit of staying past dawn. 

He examined Gepard’s sleeping face. A red stain bloomed in the corner of his mouth, a bit of Sampo’s lipstick that Gepard must have missed last night when he was washing his face. Sampo made sure to put it all over his face and neck but before he managed to get further, Gepard stopped him. “Stay, and I’ll reward you in the morning”, he said with a glint in his eye that told Sampo he knew very well what he was doing. Sampo stopped, although he was itching to feel Gepard’s hands on him. It wasn’t like the Captain’s kisses were chaste either. Sampo knew he was being punished and he was happy to accept it. 

Now, in the cold morning light, Gepard looked serene. His hair was scattered on the pillow, his mouth slightly open, snoring quietly. The Captain might not be the most elegant sleeper but Sampo couldn’t ignore the fondness swelling in his chest. He pressed himself closer and put his hand around Gepard’s waist. There were still bandages in the places where the Fragmentum monsters got him and Sampo was careful not to disturb them. 

“Sampo?”, Gepard asked in a soft, sleepy voice. His eyes were only halfway open.

“Shh, go back to sleep. I’m not going anywhere”, Sampo whispered.

“Mm’kay”, as if to make sure, Gepard pulled him closer against his chest. Sampo laughed and shifted so Gepard’s head could rest on his shoulder. A hum of approval came from the Captain. Sampo knew his arm would go numb very quickly but he could live with that for a moment. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift away.

When he woke up again, it was because he felt Gepard move. The Captain untangled himself from the sheets and got up, leaving Sampo without the source of pleasant warmth by his side. He groaned and looked up to check where Gepard was going. 

To his surprise, Gepard opened the door and talked to someone in a quiet voice. Then, he closed it with concern on his face. 

“Geppie, come on”, Sampo whined. Gepard turned to him, a little surprised. 

“I’m sorry I woke you up”, he said quietly. “But there is someone here to see you.”

“Me? Why me? And why would they look for me here?”, Sampo was awake in seconds, raking his memories for any hint of what could lead someone to Gepard’s door, looking for him. He knew he might end up putting the Captain in trouble at some point but not that soon. 

“The butler said it was a young girl”, Gepard said. 

That was even weirder. Sampo might have little to no morals but he didn’t make a habit of scamming kids. 

“Well, let’s see what she wants?”, he got up and glanced at his dress that was neatly put on the armchair. Whatever it was that the girl wanted, it probably required something more stable than heels. 

“Need some clothes?”, Gepard asked, raising his eyebrows. 

“You read my mind, Geppie”, Sampo winked, giving him the most award-winning smile. 

Lucky for him, he and Gepard were similar in size, so the clothes fit well enough. Sampo didn’t like that they were covering most of his body but he couldn’t be picky. He made a mental note to get Gepard something showing more skin. 

They walked downstairs to the kitchen and Sampo’s anxiety eased when he realized who their little visitor was. Clara was sitting by the table, a big plate of small sandwiches in front of her. She was eating one in tiny bites, a blush coloring her face. When she noticed Sampo come in, she lit up, clearly relieved to see someone familiar. 

“Mr. Sampo! Miss Seele told me to look for you here”, she trotted towards him, leaving her food on the table. “Fragmentum Monsters attacked the Underworld. They are everywhere. Mr. Svarog and the Wildfire are doing their best but she told me to pass to you that they are coming from the warehouse. She said you’d know what it means.”

“Shit”, Sampo said.

“Sampo”, Gepard gave him a warning glare. Then his expression softened when he leaned in and put his hand on Clara’s shoulder. “Thank you for the information. I know you must be very worried about them but could you do something for me before you go back? Me and Sampo will be on our way to the Underworld as soon as possible.”

“Oh… Yes?”, Clara looked at the floor, playing with the edge of her coat. Gepard nodded and left for a moment, before coming back with a piece of paper. 

“Please give this to my sister. I’ll go to the Underworld now but she will know what to do”, he gave Clara the instructions on how to get to Serval’s shop and the cook packed her some sandwiches. Soon enough, she was on her way. 

“And here I hoped for a peaceful morning”, Sampo sighed. “I’ll need to get my gear from the hotel.”

***

The morning, unfortunately, couldn’t be less peaceful. The streets of Boulder Town were in disarray when they arrived.  Wildfire and Svarog managed to keep the monsters contained but as Sampo and Gepard ran along the street the damage done was obvious. Sampo could see the solemn expression on Gepard’s face but he was more interested in the way he was moving. It was clear his wounds weren’t fully healed. Sampo wanted to urge him to stay behind but he knew it would be pointless. He’d just have to watch out for him and cover his side. 

When they arrived at the warehouse, Seele, Luka and a group of other Wildfire members had just brought down one of the bigger monsters. They looked roughed up. Seele’s arm was bleeding and Luka had a nasty scratch on his face. 

“Told you Clara would find him”, Seele told Luka when she noticed them.

“Damn, I owe you now”, Luka frowned. 

“Luka. And Lady Bronya’s friend”, Gepard nodded at them and Seele’s cheeks grew a bit red.

“Hey now, don’t get cocky”, she grumbled. 

“We are going in. There must be a fissure inside. We need to find the source and destroy it”, Gepard said. “Serval should arrive with the reinforcements soon but we don’t have time to wait.”

“Alright, soldier boy. I get you’re all buddy-buddy with Sampo here but this is our turf and we give the orders”, Seele poked him in the chest. 

“Miss Seele, I don’t think we have time for that”, Sampo shook his head, putting his hand on her shoulder. “You should report to Natasha while we go in first.”

“You think this is a good idea? To go alone? Just the two of you?”, Seele pushed his hand away with a glare. 

“It’s a terrible idea! But I just happen to wing those”, Sampo laughed. “You can join us as soon as you’re done here. We won’t steal your spotlight.”

“Spot- You think it’s about the spotlight?”, Seela looked at him with disbelief. Sampo blinked, surprised, but she had already waved her hand. “Whatever. Go and don’t get fucking killed down there. We will be right behind you.”

Then she pulled out the scythe and rushed towards another Fragmentum monster approaching them. 

“Good luck”, Luka told them. “Show them what you’ve got, Captain.”

“Keep your guard up, Luka. Let’s move”, Gepard said, pulling up the shield on his shoulder. 

He and Sampo exchanged glances and walked into the building, trying to make as little noise as possible. The warehouse was eerily quiet. The monsters had barged out through the door, leaving them hanging on the hinges. There was nobody inside, just broken furniture and old machines. The air crackled with the energy of the Fragmentum, making the edges of their vision blurry. In the distance, they heard the muffled shouts of the members of Wildfire, the clanking of weapons, and the thundering of guns.

They passed through the warehouse, going in the direction of the room with the secret passage. A few times they had to hide when a group of monsters passed by but it looked like most of them were already out in the streets.

After a moment of sneaking around, they reached the room. Seeing it, Sampo understood why Gepard's people hadn’t found anything during their search. The passage was hidden behind a tool rack that was nailed to the wall. If it wasn’t open, a casual onlooker would have a hard time finding it. 

“ A very normal warehouse with a very normal secret passage!”, Sampo said, gesturing towards it. “Nothing suspicious going on here, just production of goods.”

Gepard gave him an amused little smile, putting his gloved hand on the stone. Behind it, a staircase lit by a few small lanterns curled its way down. It was narrow and the steps were steep, carved in solid rock. Gepard carefully took a step forward and started descending, Sampo on his heels. It was quiet and the flickering lights caused shadows to dance on the walls.

Sampo could see how Gepard was favoring his healthy leg. Maybe Seele was right and they shouldn’t have come here alone. Gepard however believed if they got in trouble, rescue would come and if that was the case, Sampo would make sure they survived until then.

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the bottom of the stairs. At this point, they weren’t in a warehouse anymore. Instead, they were on a rock shelf, and around them the tight tunnel they were going through expanded into a huge cave. An old, rusty elevator was waiting to take them down. 

Sampo looked around. The way the stalactites from the rock ceiling hung, the air shimmered and the walls bent was different than in the city but familiar nevertheless. Gepard noticed it too, now acutely aware of their surroundings. 

Sometime along the way they had gone into the Fragmentum. 

“I can’t believe this is what I’m doing instead of getting your hands on me”, Sampo sighed. “I was good recently, I deserve to have a break.”

“Come on. We find the biggest monster, we defeat it and we are done. I’m still technically on leave so I’m all yours after”, Gepard said, his hand landing on the small of Sampo’s back. Such a promise would normally sound perfect if not for the fact that Gepard still wasn’t fully healed.

“Then we need to not get killed”, he said. “It’d be a waste.”

They got on the elevator and it started moving down, the quiet whirring vibrating in their ears. Sampo wondered why was he even here. This whole case thing went on too far. Gepard shouldn’t be taking it on with just him as support. It was reckless. Sampo was familiar with recklessness but he also liked to calculate his risks responsibly and this was a big one. He was sticking his neck out for a man whom he’d been seeing for just a few weeks. Sure, there was this whole cat-and-mouse game they had before but he didn’t think that counted. And yet, here he was, ready to make sure Gepard didn’t get himself killed. 

Aeons, he really didn’t want Gepard to get himself killed.

The elevator touched the ground and they stepped out of it. From the ground level, the way looked far more complicated than from above. It was a labyrinth of stone passages, climbing up and going down, coiling around bottomless pits.

“We need to move on and find the monster before more of them get out”, Gepard said. He took a moment to look around and frowned.

Behind them in a nook in the wall, someone had made a makeshift camp. Inside they found a rack with tools and helmets, a few carts with ore, and some tables and benches. It was empty but it looked regularly used. Sampo walked closer, examining the tools. 

“They sure were digging for something, alright”, he said. His eyes fell on the table next to the rack. There were papers on it. “And look here, Geppie. A map! Aren’t we just the luckiest.”

The map looked like a project in progress. Some passages were crossed out and some were unfinished. A big part of the paper remained blank. What got Sampo’s attention, however, was a small, circled section. It wasn’t fully finished either, but the corridor it portrayed was long and detailed. The author of the map had drawn the circle in a few round strokes, implying the importance of discovery. 

When Sampo was busy with the map, Gepard found another piece of paper and started reading it. Sampo approached him after a moment and looked over his shoulder. 

“What’s this?”, he asked. Gepard showed it to him.

“It’s a legend about a lost machine The Architects made. A converter of sorts. It could transform… I can’t read that part. Something into minerals.”, he said. “That’s what they were looking for.”

Under the text written in a language Sampo couldn’t read there was a half-torn illustration. It looked like a part of a robotic monster with a red eye, similar to Svarog’s. The page must have been a piece of a scroll or a book. 

“They might have found it”, Sampo said, pointing at the map. 

Gepard grabbed one of the papers and wrote down a note that he then carried to the elevator. He tied it to one of the metal bars.

“So the reinforcements know where to find us”, he said.

Or our corpses, Sampo added in his head. 

They went further into the Fragmentum. Sampo noticed it was hard to walk, harder than in the city. The way consisted of narrow paths and natural stone bridges that seemed longer than they actually were. It felt as if the reality shattered just a bit and now it was difficult to pass between its tiny fragments. Sometimes they had to carefully climb up or down a steep wall. From time to time, a lone monster would pass somewhere but for the most part, they managed to travel unnoticed. Sampo still felt uneasy, though. The Fragmentum was many things but peaceful wasn’t one of them. Even when he had gone to look for Gepard, the area taken over was much smaller, and yet it still teemed with monsters. In a place this big there should be more than just a few. They were either all out on the surface already or something in here kept them busy. Both options didn’t bode well in the long run. 

They saw the first body around twenty minutes into their walk. A miner was lying on his stomach, his arm outstretched towards the exit from the cave, pickaxe cast aside on the edge of the path. But it wasn’t the most concerning part.

A big geomarrow crystal was growing out of the man’s back. Its orange glow added color to the shimmering grayness of the Fragmentum cave. The crystal was the biggest on the neck and from there it went down his shoulder blade, tearing up his shirt. Around it was a gaping gash where the flesh and skin used to be.

“Looks like it… Grew out of him”, Gepard said, squatting by the body to see better. “I haven’t seen any geomarrow on the way, though.”

“I feel like Petrov isn’t chasing a fever dream after all, which is bad news for us. This guy was clearly running away, so how about we do what he did and turn around? Come back with more people?”, Sampo gestured towards the exit. 

“How did it happen? The mineral can’t grow out of a person like this. Unless…”, Gepard wasn’t listening. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Sampo.

“Unless it turns organic material into minerals”, Sampo finished. “It’s more of a reason to head back, Geppie.”

“No. If we go back now, people will die. We have to find this thing and deactivate it”, Gepard got up, his face full of determination. 

“What we have to do is get the fuck out of here. We don’t know how it works. We don’t know how to activate it and why was this guy running from it. It may be out of control already.”

“Sampo, you should go back. Get my sister and the guards. See if you find any blueprints in the camp or something else that will help us. I’ll be back once I assess the situation”, Gepard put his hand on Sampo’s shoulder. 

Sampo Kostki was a scammer. A thief. A menace. The amount of people he’d fucked over was difficult to count. And yet when faced with Gepard Landau’s trusting eyes and his warm hand, he couldn’t not choose to save his skin over the man’s safety. 

“Fuck. Aeons, dammit, Geppie. You’re insufferable. You are a brave idiot with workaholic tendencies, who doesn’t know when to back down”, he rubbed his face with his palm, sighing. “And I’m an even bigger fool because I’m willing to go after you into the lair of the dragon. I’m not leaving you, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you, Sampo”, Gepard said, his gaze softening. He leaned in, kissing Sampo’s cheek. “And I don’t think there is a dragon.”

“It’s just an expression”, Sampo shook his head. They left the dead man behind and continued their walk.

There were more bodies. Soon, they found another two and then three more. Each one of them was to some extent covered with geomarrow. Each one looked like they were trying to run to the camp.

“This doesn’t look good”, Sampo muttered. 

The road ahead led to a wide opening in the wall. It was a steep walk up and from that angle, they couldn’t see what was ahead so they proceeded carefully. Gepard had his shield on his arm, prepared to take any upcoming hit and Sampo held a few of his smoke bombs. 

The entrance opened into a gaping cavern stretching below. It was suddenly clear where all the monsters went. In the middle of the cavern, there was a platform covered with the Fragmentum growths. They formed uneven spires, climbing up towards the ceiling, monstrous in their size. Below the platform, the rock corridors were teeming with Fragmentum monsters. 

“Well, fuck”, Sampo whispered to Gepard. “Are you sure we want this? Whatever is keeping them around here must be huge.”

“I think it’s the thing in the middle. The machine the manuscript mentioned. If you look closer you can see the metal underneath the Fragmentum growth”, Gepard answered and Sampo realized he was right. There was something massive and metal underneath the spire. When Sampo looked even closer he noticed a few geomarrow crystals in a suspiciously humanoid shape. They were scattered around the cavern, some on the rock shelves and some right next to the huge Fragmentum growth. 

“It changed them completely. Do you think power is related to proximity? Do you feel any different? As if your skin was about to sprout some geomarrow?”, Sampo asked. Gepard shook his head. 

“I feel fine. I think they turned it on somehow and that’s why it went out of control.”

“Right! But if they are all dead then there was nobody to turn it off”, Sampo pointed out. 

“It’s too risky to check that. We should retreat”, Gepard said. “We don’t know its range and the speed in which the geomarrow grows from the body.”

“That’s a good call, Captain”, Sampo nodded, relieved. They had seen enough. The guards and Wildfire could take care of the rest. 

They turned to leave, but as Gepard pulled his shield up, it bumped into one of the rocks on the edge, sending it down the slope. The sound echoed through the cavern and the Fragmentum monsters below all perked up, looking in their direction. Gepard grabbed Sampo and pulled him behind the wall but it was too late. The shriek of the monsters pierced the air. 

At first, nothing happened. Then, a tremor shook the ground and the spires started to slowly unfold. The grind of metal plates distorted by the Fragmentum sounded almost melodic. As they watched, the thing in the middle of the platform stopped looking like a pile of mangled scrap and Fragmentum growths and started looking more like a huge, robotic beast. Its head, reminiscent of Svarog’s in build, had a Fragmentum growth that went from the red, round light in the middle to the back, branching out to make two horn-like structures. Unlike Svarog, though, the monster had a functional mouth that remained half-opened. Inside, Sampo noticed a cannon-like structure. The head of the robot was attached to a short but massive neck that at the end widened into a four-legged body. Its back and sides were covered in Fragmentum spikes that created a spine with two wing-like structures that dragged on the ground, stiff and barely movable. 

“You said the dragon was just an expression!”, Gepard said, holding his shield up.

“How was I supposed to know!”

The robot roared. A guttural metallic sound echoed through the cavern. Its head snapped, the red eye flickering a few times and then lightening up. It scanned its surroundings and stopped when it noticed them. Its jaw opened further and the canon slid out, its barrel slowly glowing with bright, orange light. The monsters below grew restless. Some of them seemed to have noticed Sampo and Gepard, spreading their wings to get to them. 

“Come on!”, Sampo dragged Gepard away and at the same time, an orange beam flew right where their faces had just been. The ground shook again and there was a scratch of metal claws against the rock as the monster started climbing up to get to them. 

“We can’t lead it back to the Underworld”, Gepard said. “It’s not very agile, if we manage to lure it into one of the ravines, it won’t be able to get out.”

“Geppie, I’d like you to pick an easy way out just once in your life”, Sampo groaned. "Let's go."

As the robot's head emerged from the cavern, they rushed down the path. A swarm of Flamespawns flew out, their little bodies faster than the dragon’s. Gepard stopped for a moment, swinging his shield at them, freezing their wings solid before they managed to reach them. The dragon climbed out of the hole, its massive body hollering towards them. From between its legs, more monsters emerged. The beast shot its blast again and Sampo barely ducked out of the way. 

They were running along a rock wall now and below them was a stone bridge stretched over a gaping ravine. Sampo glanced at Gepard to check if he could see it but the Captain's face was twisted with pain and pale. All the running wasn't doing him any good. There was no point in looking for a better place to execute their plan. 

Sampo could make the jump and get to the other side before the bridge crumbled under the massive metal fucker.

"Geppie, I have an idea", he said. Gepard turned to him, confused.

"What do you mean?", he asked but Sampo was already on the edge of the cliff, jumping down towards the bridge. "Wait, Sampo, don't-"!

The woosh of the air as he was falling felt different in the Fragmentum. Slow, almost stale it didn't flow properly around his body. The landing was hard and made him stumble and almost fall but he caught himself. His ankles exploded with pain but since he could still run, he chose to assume nothing was sprained.

Now to get the bastard's attention. Sampo pulled out a bomb. He’d have only one chance. He had to make it count.

He took a swing and threw it as hard as he could. The bomb turned in the air and fell right under the robot's legs. The explosion unleashed a gust of wind that cut through the Fragmentum monsters.

The dragon stopped in its tracks and turned to Sampo. The barrel of its cannon lit up and a beam shot straight at him. He dove to the side but it was too late. A searing hot beam grazed his arm, pain exploding through his nerves. Then it was gone, replaced by growing stiffness. The exposed place felt weird as if something was trying to burst out through his skin. Somewhere above Gepard called his name. Sampo had no time to worry about his injury.

"Come get some of this, bastard", he snarled at the dragon. He could see it assessing the edge of the cliff, preparing, until it finally leaped down to the bridge, followed by a swarm of smaller monsters. Sampo ran, faster than he'd ever had in his life. 

He was almost at the end of the bridge when the dragon landed and everything shook, sending Sampo to the ground. He got up, hissing when the stiff skin on his arm didn't move properly, and ran further. That little delay almost cost him his life because seconds later he heard the cracking of the stone as the beast barreled towards him, shooting its blasters all over the place. 

"Shit shit shit shit", he swore, feeling the connection between the solid rock and the bridge slowly crumble under the beast's weight. He risked a glance over his shoulder. A part of the bridge was gone but the dragon managed to hold onto the part where Sampo had landed and was clawing its way towards him. The bridge started to tilt, sending a small avalanche of rocks at Sampo. One of them rolled between his legs, making him lose his footing.

He barely managed to catch a crumbled part of the bridge, holding onto it with both hands. He looked down. The barrel of the cannon was glowing orange again, the blast ready to shoot any moment. Sampo had no way to avoid it now.

"Sampo!", he heard Gepard call and when he looked up, the Captain was above him, flying through the air, his shield raised over his head. Sampo's eyes widened. In one smooth move, Gepard took a swing straight at the red light in the monster's head. The shield connected to the metal, shattering the glass and closing its mouth shut before the beam was released. The monster's jaw exploded, smoke fuming from the openings, but that wasn't the end. From the place where Gepard's shield hit the head icicles start sprouting, quickly overtaking the metal and the Fragmentum growths. It grew until most of the head was engulfed. Then the shield cracked in the middle. Gepard threw it over his shoulder and got off of the dragon’s head. He helped Sampo up to his feet.

"Let's go", he urged. They ran up the crumbling remains of the bridge and reached the end just in time to watch the dragon's body barrel down the ravine.

“That was probably the hottest thing I have ever seen”, Sampo said, turning to Gepard.

“I’m flattered but it’s not over yet. Your arm?”, Gepard looked at Sampo with concern and only then Sampo remembered that he had gotten shot by the dragon. He examined the wound. The skin was blistered and red around the small orange crystals growing out of it. It stung like a bitch and was uncomfortable to move but it didn’t look like it was progressing. 

“I think I’ll live”, he said. “I’ll ask Natasha to take a look at it when-”

He didn’t finish because a beam from one of the smaller monsters shot right under his feet. The dragon was gone but the rest of the horde was coming towards them. Some had fallen into the ravine when the bridge broke but there were still an overwhelming number of them. The two paths connected up ahead and soon all the monsters would be hot on their heels again.

“The shield’s broken. We have to run for it”, Gepard said and Sampo just nodded. He didn’t want to calculate how that on top of Gepard’s injury affected their chances. They were not going towards the camp and there was no way they could come back to the previous path now. Even if Wildfire had followed them into the Fragmentum, it would take a while to find them. 

They started running again, the roars of the monsters rolling against the walls behind them. The ones that flew were almost catching up to them, the rest coming from the path above to where the two paths connected. Sampo threw his daggers at the monsters, making them bounce between a few of them but it was still too many to try and fight their way through. 

“There”, Gepard pulled him towards a rocky path that forked out from the main one. It was steep and narrow but if it was difficult for them, the monsters would probably have a hard time as well. Sampo nodded and they ran. The path climbed up, going between two stone walls and creating a mini ravine on its own. The turns made it almost impossible to see where the route was going. That’s why Sampo almost bumped into Gepard's back when the Captain stopped abruptly. 

“Geppie, not to ruin the sightseeing but we are kind of in a hurry-”, he started, peeking out from behind him to see what stopped him.

In front of them was a dead end. 

The two walls on both sides connected, creating a steep slope going up. Behind them, the air shimmered with the Fragmentum static, the monster’s footsteps, and the clanking of their weapons closer with every minute.

“We have to climb”, Gepard said. “Come on.”

His hand lingered on Sampo’s shoulder for a second too long. There was no time to say anything else. Damn, Sampo didn’t even know what he’d say. The words stuck in his throat like bile. Then the moment had passed and Gepard was ushering him towards the wall. Sampo examined, searching for places he could hold onto. It wasn’t terrible, he decided. Difficult but not impossible. He noticed a rock shelf that could fit them both somewhere midway. 

They could do it. It would be fine. 

He started climbing, grateful for his gloves. The stone is rough even through the material and he had to strain to reach some rocks he could hold onto. Behind him, Gepard was following, his face pale and teeth clenched. 

After a moment that felt like hours, Sampo reached the rock shelf and pulled himself up to sit on it. He turned, ready to help Gepard up but as the Captain was reaching out to grab the edge of the shelf, he grimaced suddenly. There was a crack in the stone and then he was falling, his fingers brushing against Sampo’s extended hand. It was the lightest of touches and then it was gone, Gepard sliding down the wall, straight into the upcoming horde of monsters. He tried climbing back up but the strain on his wounds and the fast attack of the Flamespawns that swarmed him made him slide down again and again. The bigger monsters were coming too, Sampo could see them from the shelf. 

He could run and get help but he knew that when he came back, it would be too late.

He had only one other choice. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the round amulet with a red stone in the middle. It was glowing, tempting him to be used and he wanted to, last time, but Serval had arrived just in time. Now there was no one to help except for the gods.

Sampo moved his thumb and pressed the jewel. He could swear he heard a sound of laughter when a red theater mask materialized around the amulet, its eyes squinted in a mocking smile. 

Sampo smiled back at it and jumped down, his wind blades bouncing against the Fragmentum spawn surrounding Gepard. The monsters backed away as he stepped in front of the Captain. 

“Geppie, I really like you, you know?”, he said, giving Gepard a look over his shoulder. 

“Sampo…”, Gepard tried to get up but his leg gave in under him. He must have sprained it when he slid down. 

“Close your eyes and trust me”, Sampo said. “It’s time for a show.”

And then he put the mask on.

***

Gepard Landau had seen people die. Good people, his friends, and companions who gave their lives in the fight against the Fragmentum. He was no stranger to loss. Staying put while someone else was putting their life on the line was going against everything he stood for. 

Watching the man he cared for stand between him and the monsters felt like a betrayal of his oath. 

But Gepard was also smart and he could assess his ability to fight reasonably. Right now, he was nothing but a burden. If they tried running again with Sampo supporting him, the monsters would catch up in no time and they would both most likely die. 

Despite what an average Belobog citizen would probably tell him, Gepard trusted Sampo. Sampo proved enough times that in a life-or-death situation, he was reliable and ready to put himself in danger for others. Ready to put himself in danger for Gepard. 

So he closed his eyes when he saw Sampo put on the mask. 

For a moment the only thing he heard were the approaching monsters. Then, their footsteps stopped as if they hesitated before striking. Gepard could hear his own heart pound in the overwhelming silence. 

Then, the laughter started. Uncontrolled, overwhelming, coming from all directions. It sounded like Sampo. It didn’t sound like Sampo at all. Gepard squeezed his eyes shut, the intensity and volume of the sound making the pressure in his chest grow until it exploded. Then he was screaming or maybe it was the shriek of the monsters, a distorted cacophony of sounds that sounded suspiciously like laughter too.

The silence that came later was almost deafening. Gepard realized he was pressing his hands against his ears, fingers tangled in his hair. He waited to hear the howl of the monsters again. He waited for Sampo to tell him it was over. 

Neither of those things happened. 

Slowly, he moved his hands away and opened his eyes.

The monsters were gone, disintegrated into the Fragmentum. There didn’t seem to be any more coming. Sampo was still standing in front of him. He didn’t look hurt.

“Sampo?”, Gepard asked, leaning against the wall to be able to get up. 

Sampo turned. The mask was still on his face and now Gepard could fully see its lipless smile, squinted eyes, and a red glowing circle on top of it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see Sampo’s eyes underneath. 

“Hello, child of Qlipoth”, a voice that came from the mask was strange. It was higher than Sampo’s, almost mocking in tone. “The one you seek isn’t here. It’s us instead.”

“You’re not Sampo”, Gepard reached for his shield. It was broken but he could still hit with it.

“Bingo! Smart boy! And do you know who we are?” the not-Sampo leaned in, their mask centimeters away from Gepard’s face as a sound of disembodied clapping came from around them.

“...You’re Aha”, Gepard said. There was nowhere to run with the wall behind him. 

“That’s right! We are so glad you know your lore”, Aha’s laughter sent a shiver down Gepard’s spine. It sounded as if the chiming of bells was coming from someone’s throat. A sound of ovations rolled through the air.

“Where is Sampo?”, Gepard asked, afraid of the answer. 

“Well”, Aha sighed in delight, tilting their head so hard Gepard thought their neck would break. “He is somewhere, obviously. Not here, though! He called us to help you and he knew it would come with a price.”

“What price?”, Gepard asked, feeling his stomach drop.

“We don’t know yet! Isn’t that exciting?”, Aha twirled around in a circle. A sound of laughter echoed around. “Maybe we’ll just keep this body? It’s very nice and we haven’t been human in a while!”

“No”, Gepard said harshly. Aha’s empty gaze moved to him slowly. 

“No?”, they asked, more curious than angry. 

“No. Sampo did this for Belobog. You can’t punish him for that.”

“It’s not a punishment, boy. It’s a favor. Besides, you can’t really believe he did it for the ‘people of Belobog’? Please - he did it for you!”, Aha poked his chest and it honked at the contact. 

“Then let me pay the price”, Gepard said. Aha fell silent for a moment and then the smile on their mask grew, almost splitting it in half.

“Oh my! A plot twist!”, they sang, covering the mouth on their mask with their hand. “And what price are you willing to pay?”

“Any”, Gepard said. He knew it was a mistake. Serval would have his head if she’d ever learned about this but he’d rather die than hand Sampo over to Aha. 

“How daring! And how reckless, too! Such a dashing hero you are! What makes you think we won’t use this against you? Maybe we’ll make you destroy your beloved Belobog and turn against its people? What then? Is one fool worth this much?”

Gepard clenched his fists. It was a concern but the question felt more like a test than a threat. He tried to remember everything he’d ever heard about Aha. As far as he knew, they operated as if the world was a story and everybody in it a character. He needed to think about his answer well.

“I don’t think you’d do that. Sampo summoned you to get rid of the monsters that would wreak Havoc in Belobog. Destroying them and dooming Belobog in the same breath wouldn’t be… Narratively satisfying”, he said after a moment, looking straight into the empty eye holes of the mask. 

Aha moved away, crossing their arms on their chest. 

“Clever. Very clever, even. I can see why Sampo likes you so much!”, they said. The applause sounded again, and this time it was almost endorsing. “Very well then, child of Qlipoth. We accept.”

Gepard felt himself relax. He wasn’t going to let his guard down around Aha yet, though.

“So what price do I pay?”, he asked. Aha seemed to think about it for a moment. 

“Let’s say it’s a favor for a favor. You’ll do something for us at some point and do it without any questions. Deal?” They reached out and Gepard looked at Sampo’s gloved hand for a moment. It felt strange. It felt different.

He grabbed it and shook it. 

“Deal.”

Aha laughed again, the air vibrating with their power. One moment, the mask was on Sampo’s face and the next it was gone, falling to the ground and changing back into the little amulet. Gepard moved forward to catch Sampo before he fell to the ground. He was unconscious but breathing. Gepard felt his walls crack under the pressure of relief that filled him. He curled, gathering Sampo into his lap, and let his tears flow.

***

Sampo woke up with every part of his body in pain. It felt like a hangover but ten times worse. His arm was especially bad, now wrapped up in a clean bandage. 

It took him a moment to figure out where he was. He rarely found himself in an uncomfortable metal bed with a bunch of other people around (unless it was a prison but those couldn’t hold Sampo Koski for too long). Lucky for him, someone was there to help him out.

“I see you are awake, bastard”, Seele said, glaring at him from a chair next to his bed

“What have I done to deserve this hostility, Miss Seele? I am wounded and that’s how you treat me?”

“You don’t remember anything?”, Seele asked, furrowing her eyebrows. That Sampo needed to think about for a moment. He remembered Clara coming to Gepard’s place, the warehouse, the Fragmentum, the geomarrow-making robot chasing him and Gepard. 

And he remembered the mask. 

He cursed under his breath, reaching out into his pocket, and felt the familiar, smooth surface of the stone under his fingers. If the mask was back in his pocket and he was here, relatively fine… 

“Where’s Gepard?”, he asked, sitting up abruptly. It was a mistake. His body screamed, every muscle protesting the sudden movement. 

“Whoa, relax!” Seela put her hand on his shoulder. If Sampo didn’t know her any better, he’d think she looked worried. “He’s with Natasha. She’s still patching him up. It’s a fucking miracle you two ended up with a few scratches and a sprained ankle. And, well, whatever the hell happened to you. When we found you, Gepard was holding onto you so desperately we thought you were dead.”

Her voice broke a little as she crossed her arms on her chest, trying to cover her feelings with her tough exterior. Sampo couldn’t help but smile a little. Maybe she cared a bit after all. And Geppie… He’d always attended all the memorial services for the fallen soldiers. He was ready to die just to make sure his people made it out of the Fragmentum alive. It would break his heart if Sampo died.

Sampo wanted to see him so bad. 

“I’m just going to go check on him”, he said, moving his legs so they’d hang from the bed. His whole body ached. 

“Aeons, you’ve got it bad”, Seele didn’t try to stop him this time. “Nat barely convinced him to leave your side. He’s like a guard dog.”

“Well, I don’t think we have anything to talk about, Miss I Fuck The Supreme Guardian In A Storage Closet”, Sampo stood up, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. Seele glared at him but it seemed like the immunity of almost dying was still protecting him from getting punched.

He left the room, leaning against the wall. Outside a bunch of Underworlders sat on the benches, holding onto their more or less minor injuries, waiting for their turn with Natasha. Luka was giving out cups of warm tea. When he noticed Sampo he gave him a thumbs up. Sampo approached the door and knocked gently. 

“You better wait your turn!” Serval's annoyed voice came from the inside. Sampo ignored it and pressed the knob, sliding inside.

Gepard was sitting on a stool in the middle of the room, his gear set aside. He was wearing only trousers with one of the legs rolled up above his bandaged ankle. Natasha was removing the bandage around his bicep to check on the older wounds. Serval was watching them like a hawk, leaning against one of the cabinets but when Sampo walked in, her gaze snapped to him. 

“I said-”, she started but then she noticed Sampo and relaxed a bit. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Sampo”, Gepard said, his eyes finding him immediately. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. But I’ll live”, he said. 

Natasha moved away, rolling up the remaining bandage. 

“You are free to go. Don’t put too much weight on that leg and try not to go into any sort of combat for the next week. Those wounds will never heal if you keep messing them up. And you”, she looked at Sampo. “I don’t know what happened down there but I had to remove the geomarrow crystals from your skin and it was quite a nasty wound, so try not to overdo it. You can leave but you’ll need to take some medicine for the next few days, something against infections and possible fever.”

“Thank you, Miss Natasha”, Gepard said. He took the makeshift crutch Serval passed to him and walked towards Sampo. 

“Yeah, thanks for patching him up. And keeping an eye on him”, Serval said. “I know my little brother can get in trouble sometimes. I owe you.”

“Oh no, it’s just what I do”, Natasha shook his head. 

“No, for real, like… Let me buy you a drink as thanks. Or a dinner, if you don’t drink.”

Sampo had seen enough. He pulled Gepard out of the room.

“That was painful to watch. I thought your sister would be more well-versed in flirting as a rock star” he said. 

Gepard returned his smile. 

“She just pretends she is.”

Then, he looked at Sampo and brushed his hair out of his face. 

“Are you good to leave? We need to talk.”

Sampo felt his stomach drop but he just nodded.

***

They went to Sampo’s hotel room since it was closer. Due to Wildfire’s efforts, the destruction was mostly contained around the warehouse area. Some people got wounded but there weren’t any casualties. As they walked slowly between the buildings, most of them seemed intact. Some Wildfire members patrolled the area, watching out for the monsters that might have gone under the radar. 

Sampo barely locked the door behind him when he heard the thump of the falling cane and a pair of strong arms wrapped around him from behind. 

“Don’t scare me like this again”, he felt Gepard’s breath on his neck and he dug his fingers into his sleeve. He wanted to say he was the one scared. When he was full of adrenaline, he didn’t realize this but seeing Gepard so close to dying felt as if a pit opened up underneath him. One wrong move and Gepard would have been gone. It was sinking in only now. 

He wondered if Gepard felt the same.

“You’re in luck because while I like to live dangerously, this was a bit much even for me”, he said, turning around to see his face. “And you’re not the one to speak. Who jumped on the dragon with just his shield?”

“I’m sorry. I have never meant to pull you into this”, Gepard shook his head.

“Pull me into this? What about you, Captain? You’re not invincible”, he said quietly, brushing his fingers against Gepard’s cheek. 

“Alright. Let’s say we both were a little reckless today”, Gepard leaned into his touch. Sampo would argue further about the “little” part but he couldn’t find it in himself at the moment.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I’m starving”, he said instead, wrapping his arms around Gepard’s neck and stretching against him like a big cat. “They have good takeout down here. I would love some pierogi.”

“I could cook”, Gepard said, his arms tightening around Sampo’s waist. 

He could cook. Sampo needed to file that for later.

“Not with this leg, you can’t”, he said, freeing himself and pulling Gepard to the bed. He let him sit and pulled out his phone, ready to order but Gepard grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Sampo. There is something else”, he said, his expression suddenly serious. “How much do you remember?”

“Well”, Sampo said, trying his best to hide the rising anxiety. “We ran from that pile of scrap and threw it into the ravine. And then we ran some more and you slid down the wall so I put on the mask and… Then I woke up at Nat’s.”

“I see”, Gepard nodded, letting go of his wrist. Sampo pulled the edge of his glove, watching him. 

“What… Did you see?”, he asked after a moment.

“Nothing. Not during the fight at least, because I closed my eyes like you told me to”, Gepard said quickly. “But then there was just you, but you weren’t you, you were…”

“Aha”, Sampo finished. “Yeah. I am a part of their faction.”

“I figured that out”, Gepard nodded.

“So how did you make them let go of me? They can be… Difficult'', Sampo watched him carefully. For a split second, a confusing mix of emotions passed through Gepard’s face. Concern, embarrassment, resignation. Then, it became unreadable again.

“They just decided to do it, I suppose”, he said. Sampo frowned. Without much ceremony, he pushed Gepard back and then climbed into his lap. 

“Gepard. If you did something stupid for my sake, I think I deserve to know it”, he said firmly. Gepard’s eyes were wide as he looked up at Sampo. Sampo liked this look. It usually meant the man would do anything Sampo asked him to. 

“So?”, he urged. Gepard sighed, looking away. 

“They wanted you to pay the price for the favor so I told them I’m going to do it”, he said. “A favor for a favor.”

Sampo fell back, now fully sitting on his tights. Aha wasn’t malevolent but only an idiot would bargain with a god for an unspecified favor. Sampo knew what he was doing when he put on the mask, he knew what it entailed. He wouldn’t be the first Masked Fool to summon Aha’s power and the results varied from something completely harmless to really disturbing. Their prices were random but Sampo was confident Aha liked him enough not to turn his skin inside out or make him age backwards. And yet Gepard chose to protect him without any prior contact with Aha or knowledge of what could happen to him. It was stupid. It was reckless. 

It was so damn sweet too. Sampo didn’t think anyone had ever risked so much for him. He couldn’t even be mad. 

“It was just a few weeks and you’re already so crazy about me? I’m flattered”, he said with a playful smile. Gepard didn’t need to know how much it affected him. 

“Not really a few weeks”, Gepard muttered.

“What?”, Sampo blinked. 

“I said I didn’t fall for you during those two weeks”, he repeated. 

That didn’t make sense. Had he managed to seduce Gepard through the constant cat-and-mouse game? He wasn’t that good… Was he? 

“Remember when we were doing tours? In the museum?” Gepard took mercy on him with a little smile. “Pela put us together with that one kid and at first I kept watching your hands to make sure you weren’t up to no good but it was nice talking to you when I wasn’t just chasing you around. And then one of the customers was rude to the kid and before I managed to intervene, you pickpocketed his money and gave some to the kid so he’d buy himself ice cream in the cafeteria.”

“I didn’t know you saw that," Sampo muttered. 

“I was torn because it was a crime but then again I wasn’t really on the job and the guy deserved it”, Gepard shrugged. “But I thought it was sweet and I thought we were getting along but then after it ended you just went back to acting like you don’t know me.”

“I wasn’t sure if the truce only worked in the museum”, Sampo admitted. 

“I have wanted to get to know you better since then but you were always running.”

Sampo sighed, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead against Gepard’s. 

“Huh. Maybe it really is a bad habit of mine.”

His body still ached. They had almost died multiple times. He shouldn’t feel at ease, not with Geppie’s favor to Aha hanging over their heads, but in that moment, with Gepard’s arms wrapped around him, he felt nothing but joy. 

The Masked Fools sought joy above everything and each of them understood it differently. In that moment, Sampo thought that he too had finally found the meaning of elation.

Chapter Text

“...And so, the great Sampo Koski with a little help from the Captain Handsome of the Silvermane Guards has once again brought peace back to Belobog. Petrov and his partner got arrested and the families of the deceased got their closure. The end!” Sampo finished with a theatrical bow and looked at his companions’ faces with a mischievous smile.

The four of them sat under a big umbrella. Not that the Belobogian sun would have given anyone a sunburn but the colorful material stretching over the table was grabbing attention even from afar, so many places decided to keep it. Scattered around the table were small plates with pancakes, oven-baked apples, and honey cake. Each one of them also had a cup of rich hot chocolate. 

“I call bullshit”, Caelus said, crossing his arms on his chest. 

“Yup. Me too”, March 7th agreed. “There’s just no way.”

“Hey! Is it really so hard to believe that your old pal Sampo did something good for once? Wait, which part was it? It was the one in which I took the army of Fragmentum monsters all on my own, wasn’t it?” Sampo pouted, taking a sip of his chocolate.

The three Nameless exchanged looks. 

“Nah, I can believe that one”, Caelus shrugged. “It’s the romance part that seems unlikely.”

Sampo gasped dramatically. 

“Is it so weird to think that I could find love?”, he asked. 

“I think it may be the fact that Gepard’s job is to arrest you”, Dan Heng offered. Unlike the other two, he was at least trying to be polite.

“Yeah and let’s be honest, the guy doesn’t get laid. He’s probably a virgin. I know he’s hot but you are probably not missing out on much”, Caleus waved his hand. Dan Heng groaned. 

“You asked me for updates and you don’t even believe me”, Sampo sighed. If he was thinking about the way Gepard pinned him to the wall and had his way with him just that morning, well, it was reserved for him only. For a man so cold, the Captain sure had a fiery side.

“It’s good to know things are alright in Belobog, though”, Dan Hend offered. “It’s been a while.”

“That’s your job. You go out there and blaze those trials and we common folk have to stick to one planet. Sad, but true”, Sampo said. None of the Nameless looked amused. Sampo was starting to think they may be a little suspicious of him. 

“Speaking of… It’s the Captain Handsome over there”, March sang.

Sampo looked over his shoulder and noticed a group of guards coming out of the Qlipoth Fort. They were out of uniform but he’d been around enough to recognize a few faces. Between them, Gepard exchanged a few goodbyes and turned to walk away when he noticed Sampo under the umbrella. 

“You should probably run”, Caelus said to Sampo. 

Gepard waved. 

“Duty calls, my friends. Being an outstanding citizen comes not only with benefits but also with responsibilities. I will see you around”, Sampo said, getting up. He grabbed a pancake on the go. 

“No way”, he heard March say as she watched him approach Gepard and kiss him on the mouth. He almost snickered, relishing in their astonishment. While the looming threat of Gepard’s bargain with Aha still remained, things had been good for a while, so Sampo decided to do what he did best - leave the worries about that for his future self.

“I should go say hi”, Gepard told him, glancing towards the table. 

“Later”, Sampo shook his head. “Now, let’s go before they realize I left them to pay the bill.”