Moscow did not ease you into itself.
It did not soften at the edges or greet you gently. It arrived all at once white and merciless, snow falling in thick, endless sheets that swallowed streets, buildings, and sound alike. The city didn't shimmer. It endured.
Lucy Chen stood just inside the sliding doors of Sheremetyevo International Airport and watched the snow accumulate against the glass like something alive.
The wind howled low and steady, bending the falling flakes sideways. Cars crawled through it, headlights diffused into halos.
Temporary, she reminded herself.
One year. That was all.
One year of international placement at Volkov & Partners, one of Moscow's most powerful corporate law firms.
One year of long hours, aggressive negotiations, and proving to everyone, especially herself that she could survive in rooms built to intimidate.
She adjusted the strap of her structured black coat and stepped outside.
The cold hit immediately. It sliced clean through fabric and skin, a sharp inhale that burned her lungs. Los Angeles winters had never prepared her for this. Even New York had felt survivable.
This was something else.
A driver held a small sign with her name in neat Cyrillic and English. Lucy gave him a polite nod and followed him toward the waiting car, boots crunching over packed snow. Her suitcase wheels protested in short jerks behind her.
As the car pulled away from the airport, Lucy leaned back into the leather seat and watched the city unfold.
Wide roads. Monumental buildings. Soviet architecture looming beside modern glass towers. Gold-domed cathedrals catching what little light filtered through the storm. Moscow felt powerful. Stern. Controlled.
It reminded her, uncomfortably, of her mother.
Lucy exhaled slowly and turned her gaze away from the skyline.
She hadn't told Vanessa about the flight time. Or the exact address of the apartment Volkov & Partners had arranged. That omission had felt small but necessary like carving out one square inch of independence.
The phone in her coat pocket vibrated.
She froze for half a second before checking it.
Not Vanessa.
Aria Grayson.
Relief warmed her faster than the car's heating system.
Lucy answered immediately, switching to video.
Aria's face filled the screen, framed by messy curls and dramatic eyeliner. "Okay. I need visual confirmation. Are you alive? Or have you been kidnapped by a Russian oligarch already?"
Lucy huffed a quiet laugh. "I've been here twenty-seven minutes."
"That's more than enough time."
The camera angle shifted as Lucy tilted the phone toward the window. Snow blurred everything into a white haze.
Aria's eyes widened. "Oh absolutely not. That is villain weather. That's the kind of weather where someone proposes a suspicious business deal over vodka."
Lucy smiled faintly. "It's just snow."
"That's not snow. That's a warning."
The car slowed at a light. Lucy turned the camera back toward herself. "It's fine."
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Cold Contracts & Colder Hearts
Fanfiction"Lucy Chen didn't move to Moscow for romance. She moved for distance from her mother, from expectations, from the version of herself everyone assumes she'll become. Tim Bradford didn't move to Moscow for complications. As a billionaire CEO expanding...
