Damian's P.O.V.

As he was about to reach the entrance door, the young man noticed something out of place. The lock on the entrance door looked broken. Despite not being the first time since he moved in there, it still annoyed him. 'Perfect! Someone broke the lock again. What a shitty neighborhood!' He thought, his previous happy mood slightly dampened.

Rubbing his face helplessly, he thought. 'I really need to find another apartment. This one's security is truly terrible.' Pushing those thoughts aside, he instead started moving to the staircase by the elevator. He would have loved to be able to ride the latter, however, it had been out of service for months now despite the vocal protests of pretty much all the tenants living in that building. That was New York City for you!

That combined with a job he loathed made the prospect of leaving more and more enticing for Damian. As soon as his feet reached the third floor, however, his previous gloomy thought evaporated. With an anticipating grin on his face, he walked toward the opposite side of his own apartment's door, toward Sofia's.

As his steps brought him closer, he noticed her apartment's door ajar. 'Did she leave it open for me? A nice gesture.' He thought, amused. Unfortunately, as soon as he pushed the door completely open, the greeting words he was about to utter died on his lips with his previous happy grin. What replaced it was unprecedented seriousness mixed with some fear at the scene playing in front of him.

A man looking like a demented hobo had a handgun aimed in the direction of Sofia and her daughter. The redhead was begging the man to let her daughter go, the latter looking terrified, with silent tears running down her otherwise adorable chubby cheeks. The dirty-looking man, however, was muttering a string of incomprehensible sentences.

He was certainly mad and in other circumstances, Damian would have felt some pity for the guy. But not now. Not when he was pointing a gun at both the woman he cared about and the girl who could potentially become his future daughter. Instead, dark emotions surged inside him, making him hesitate as to what would be the best course of action.

Time seemed to freeze as many possible scenarios went through his head and not all were heroic. Until he met her eyes and he understood the words she mouthed him. 'Run away' was what she wanted him to do. Not 'Save me' or even 'Save my daughter'. That crazy woman simply asked him to save himself.

Looking up helplessly, he thought. 'Compared to her, I'm really trash.' Letting out a silent sigh, he continued with the resolve in his eyes solidifying, chasing away his fear. 'As her future man, how can I leave her like a coward.' His inner monologue drew a somewhat crazy smile on his face, while a surge of adrenaline coursed through his body in response to the insanely dangerous stunt he was about to perform.

His gaze seemed to have unwittingly transmitted his plan since the redhead beauty started shaking her head slightly, catching the mad hobo's attention, who lowered his gun slightly and started to turn slowly in Damian's direction. 'It's now or never!' The young man thought as his body seemed to explode in movements, his legs pushing as hard as they could to gain even a fraction of a second, all to increase his chance of dealing with that man.

Time seemed to slow down as the following actions felt like a series of photographs to Damian. A punch was thrown toward the man's face which seemed to have broken his nose, forcing him to drop the gun. At the same time, however, a shot was fired in Damian's direction. The gun fell, but before it reached the floor, Damian grabbed it, turned it toward the other man's torso, and fired until there were no bullets inside the weapon. The other man fell to the ground, bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. Time then seemed to resume.

“I did it... I... I did it...” He muttered, his breathing becoming a bit difficult as a wave of exhaustion washed over him, the result of the adrenaline leaving his system and... Looking at his stomach, he saw a worrying amount of blood gushing from it. “Fuck! I... I got shot...” His mind seemed to lose some sharpness as the seconds passed by.

Sofia's P.O.V.

The situation unfurled so quickly that Sofia and her daughter did not have time to completely understand what was happening. In less than a few seconds, the madman who was previously threatening them was on the floor, bleeding out so heavily that she was certain he could not be any more dead.

However, what worried her was not the bleeding corpse on her apartment's floor. No, what she was worried about was her neighbor, Damian. The man who, despite having no relation with her and her daughter, risked his life to save them and was now bleeding from a bullet wound located on his stomach.

Forcing herself to wake up from her previous frozen state, the single mother suddenly heard. “Fuck! I... I got shot...” Those words cleared the remaining confusion and gave her the energy to grab a kitchen towel from the dining table close by before quickly going to Damian and gently guiding him to the sofa close by.

As the woman was helping him settle down on the couch, words of comfort kept leaving her mouth, before switching to reproachful ones at his recklessness, before turning back into comforting words, until the woman's speech became more and more incoherent and a few tears started running down her fair cheeks, despite her utmost effort to hold them in, while one of her hands was busy trying to quench the blood from his wound and another hand was holding her phone which was trying to connect to 911.

“It's okay, Sofia. I'm sure I'll be okay. I'll be okay...” He replied to her while softly patting the hand holding the blood-soaked towel.

Damian's P.O.V.

“It's okay, Sofia. I'm sure I'll be okay. I'll be okay...” He replied to her while softly patting the hand laid on his chest. His mind felt hazier as time went by, while his body felt both cold and heavy. “You know, I... I'm glad the two of you... Are fine... It's just... Just too bad that I could... I couldn't be with... Be with... Yo....”

His words brought even more tears to her eyes as she replied with her voice breaking with sobs from time to time. “ты... дурак... [A/N:'You're stupid'] Why di... didn't you?... Damian?! DAMIAN!!...”

'Because I was a coward...' He thought as the sound of her voice yelling his name seemed to disappear with his fading consciousness.

General P.O.V.

As Damian's heart stopped beating, the only sounds that one could hear around him were muffled sobs wracking the single mother's frail body, and the music resounding in his ears...

♪ Mamaaa, ♪

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♪ Just killed someone, ♪

♪ Grabbed his gun, turned it around ♪

♪ Pulled the trigger, Now he’s down ♪

♪ Mamaaa, ♪

♪ How could it end, when it just began ♪

♪ It’s too late now, Please understand ♪

♪ Mama, oooh, ♪

♪ Don’t shed a tear, Please don’t be sad ♪

♪ Leaving early, Please don’t be mad ♪

♪ Carry on with your life, But don’t let it weigh you down ♪

♪ Live without me, Now I won’t be around ♪

♪ Anymore, The shivers coursing through my body ♪

♪ The blood leaving my wound, I can’t breathe ♪

♪ No, I can’t breathe, my vision turning hazy ♪

♪ Goodbye, everybody, my time has come! ♪

♪ Leaving first, Please understand ♪

♪ Mama, oooh ♪

♪ I don't want to die... ♪