Devotion| Makarov x Reader

Vlad

Makarov smiled as he looked up at you. "He is family." You look up at him with a warm smile. Something flashes in his mind, and he quickly gets up and goes over to his desk, retrieving something from the drawer before coming back. He holds out a mahogany-colored cylinder. You glance up at him, and he motions for you to take it. "I gave this to you on your 18th birthday. You always loved looking through kaleidoscopes." You take it from him, looking over the details of the casting and running your fingers along the wood. "You told us not to change the pattern; we never did."

You slowly bring the kaleidoscope up to your eye; the specific black and red arrangement catches your eye, and a surge of familiarity washes over you. Your eye dilates as you see the pattern. An image flashes in your mind, playing like a movie in your head. You see Makarov and Nolan in front of you, but they look so much younger. You watch as Makarov laughs at something Nolan said.

"You look so much younger." You smile as the words softly escape your lips. Makarov gently grabs your hand, running his finger over your ring. You glance down to where your hands are intertwined, looking at the ring on your finger and then at his. Turning your gaze to him, you summon the courage to ask the questions that have haunted you for years.

"What were we like?" Your voice trembled with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. "Tell me about us, about my family." He looks surprised at first, likely taken off guard by the question.

"You and I," he begins, His smile is gentle, a reflection of the love he's held for you through the years of your separation. "We were so in love; I was in love with every little thing about you. We were always together; Nolan was always third-wheeling, but you always made sure he never felt left out. You were so caring; I always loved that about you. You had this way of making people feel seen and loved just by being yourself...There was this park we had always gone to. You loved how the trees looked with a layer of snow covering them. You loved the cold weather. I always used to tell you that you were going to get sick if you were outside for too long. We were always helping out at the animal shelter near our houses; you loved cats. We used to feed the neighborhood cats every day." His voice carried the weight of painful memories.

He paints you a vivid picture, telling you how all of you traveled throughout Russia and Europe, moving from place to place to keep your father's tracks hidden. All your late-night conversations and the countless inside jokes that you had. He told you how he planned on being veterinarians together, opening up a place where people didn't have to worry about spending thousands just to save their pets. As he speaks, you see a glimmer of the love he has for you that has remained unwavering even after all these years.

"Our family..." he says, a fond smile spreading across his face. "Your mother was the embodiment of sweetness and warmth. From the moment I met her, she welcomed me into your family with open arms, as if I were her own. When we were younger, your mom and Alexei's mom always made me feel loved. They treated me like a son, especially after my own mother left. Their love and care really kept me together when I was a kid. Our fathers were never present."

"Your mother had this incredible way of making even the simplest moments feel special." He recalls the countless times the five of you sat at your kitchen table baking cookies and pies during the holidays. "When we got older, it was easier to see that your mother was always sad. She never wanted a life filled with danger; she knew that it would eventually catch up to us and that it would get us killed." Your heart ached thinking about your mother; everything he has told you only makes you feel more hollow inside. Your mother never wanted any of it, but she always stayed with your dad because of the love she had for her child. You would do anything, give up anything, and sacrifice anything to be able to get your memories back. To remember the warmth of your mother, to remember Vlad and Nolan. He gets up from the bed and makes his way over to his desk, pulling out a small photograph.