Chapter 22 1/2

Author's Note : The bets from last chapter, since thief of bad social awareness will never ask, were thus: Visconti bet Coyote Nougat that, unusually talkative Cloud or not, Sonya would not understand/be concerned with the intimidation behind her 'light interrogation' and treat it like a normal conversation; Ganauche tried to bet the Storm and Cloud Guardians that Timoteo could get a full detailing of the thief's gemstones and uses with little problem, but only Tyr took him on with that betting the opposite. Nono overheard all of it, and was exasperated over how it finally went in the end because Sonya did treat it like a normal conversation and it took his Cloud Guardian to get some of the information they wanted. Sky diplomacy fail, right there.

And, because it amuses me to think about; Tyr overheard the bet and scared three shades of piss out of Ganauche when the assassin suddenly spoke up behind him to take it.

Vongola is on the original Ninth Generation Guardians. Which means Ganauche I and Brow Nie Senior. Except no one but Sonya would call them that. She can recall it's Ganauche the Third in the end because it was pretentious as hell, thus it stuck in her head but not much else. Tyr is looking for more assassins/competent people to staff the Varia with, hence his lurking about.

Sonya's social incompetence. Here's the thing: she let her social skills, the ones she had from Rachel's lifetime, go. Like completely. Spent nearly a decade doing nothing but saying as little as she could get away with and occasionally being a smartass. After that? With Cherep and Tatiana? Sonya found she didn't quite understand a few things anymore. While she knows negativity and negative emotions, being mean/scared/irritated/angry and such because that was what was going on when she couldn't ignore others, she's not that sure anymore when it comes to positive interactions. Thus why she's scared of screwing up with regards to her foster family. Remember, not even Rachel had a lot of experience in that with a very lonely home-life and few-to-no friends. At the moment Sonya's to the point she's willing to ask questions of her foster family, even if it might make her seem stupid, instead of simply not comment when confused or knew she missed something. The more positive interactions she's dealing with, the more apparent her social awkwardness becomes.

And this is the end of my free-time. I don't know if it will impact update rates or not, I thought it would with Déjà vu and it turned out not so we'll just have to see.

Guest : Thank you for the name correction, it will be corrected in-story. However, please don't try to tell me what I've got wrong about Russia. I'm going to screw with every country and even my own, some obviously and some not, so it's not really going to help at all. Just irritate me.

Edit (4/27/2017) - Minor story corrections and grammar edits.

Edit (3/22/2018) - Final formatting and minor corrections.

Edited (9/8/2018) - Minor corrections.

Russian Roulette : Reloaded

Chapter 22

(Monday the 8th of January, 1968. Zolotov Condo, Mafia Land.)

Lisa's haste in having her long wished for biological child did result in a complete inability to have more, even with Sun Flame therapy, but the older Russian did not care. "I have my baby, Tatiana. It's fine."

Little Valerian sneezed in response to the baby powder in the air, blinking his apparently likely to change blue eyes in bewildered surprise and tearing up as he decided he didn't like the sensation. He hadn't particularly liked the wet-diaper feel either, so he was probably of the opinion that the last half hour of his life pretty much sucked.

"Aww… little Lera, don't cry." Tatiana cooed to the baby, lightly tapping him on the oh-so-offensive nose to get baby attention on her instead of his upset. She then held out one of the various stuffed animals she had bought in the past few months and wiggled it back and forth in an invitation to play. "Look, your big sister got you fuzzy things to play with."

"Stop calling him that." Lisa sighed, strapping the baby's new diaper shut and starting to wrap him back up in a swaddling blanket. "That's a girl's nickname, Tats."

…and they called the Sun by a nickname that referred to ink embedded into skin. Sonya didn't quite see the issue there, other than being perfectly happy she didn't have one herself.

"Here Sonya, hold him a moment." Gently placing her baby in the youngest foster sibling's arms, the older woman hoisted herself upright off the floor a little painfully.

The thief held herself very, very still. Hoping beyond hope Valerian didn't decide to blow out eardrums all of a sudden.

Her brand-new baby brother shifted, as much as he could do wrapped up as he was, but apparently decided she would do if mom wasn't holding him.

"Okay, he screams at me but likes Sonya just fine? Unfair."

"Maybe because I'm not trying to saddle him with a girl's nickname?" She posed to her elder sister dryly in a soft tone, feeling kind of good about not somehow bothering the baby into crying.

For what amounted to an armful of almost non-interactive human, Sonya decided Valerian wasn't too bad. He stunk sometimes and had an impressive set of lungs for being the son of two people that never seemed to need to raise their voices, but he was kind of cute in that useless chubby puppy way.

Admittedly it had only been a day, he could get worse.

He apparently decided she wasn't that bad either, gripping the thief's blouse in the next to useless hand that snuck out of his swaddling and shoving it into his mouth messily. Just so he could drool all over her naked collarbone.

She was going to need a new shirt.

Lisa snickered at the sight the two of them made, stretching out her limbs one by one. "That's too cute, Sonya."

"Lisa, you shouldn't-"

"I'm fine, Tatiana." The older Russian claimed a bit tiredly, now rubbing at the small of her back. "Spending a few months lying in bed will make anyone restless. I would like to simply stand, I promise to do nothing but stand here."

Their foster mother looked even worse than Tatiana did, still exhausted and a bit drawn even a full day outside of the hospital and into her new role as mother of a newborn. She didn't look quite as bad as she had yesterday, or just fresh from her very difficult labor, so Sonya kept silent and just patted the newborn on the back lightly to keep him content with gumming her blouse collar.

...and leaking a bucket of drool down her shirt.

"Where is Arseniy? He wouldn't let you do this." Demanded the eldest sibling, warily keeping an eye on the brunette for any overt signs of pain.

"He and Cherep went for lunch, before we pack up the rest of our things." She admitted calmly, flicking said eldest on the forehead in reprimand. "Arseniy has no say on what I'm allowed to do, young lady."

No, but Lisa had a habit of gleefully snuggling up to the vor when he sprawled out on a couch.

That would get the woman off her feet and nicely prone, thus the nurse's wondering of where her man was.

"They're certainly taking a while." Suggested Tatiana a little petulantly, pouting for a long moment before getting up off the hardwood floor herself.

She swiftly cleaned up the evidence of little Valerian's third diaper change in his life, without even a wrinkle of disgust crossing her face at handling baby produced biohazardous waste.

Sonya wished her the joy of it, perfectly happy to be the one supporting Valerian instead of help clean.

The menfolk only returned well after the baby mess was completely cleaned up and Lisa tired herself out of wanting to stand. The thief wondered if one of the other vor hadn't been keeping a discreet eye on them and warned Arseniy when it would be safe to come back.

Cherep looked entirely too cheerful, even if he was the one managing the various take-out containers for all five of them. He made a beeline for the coffee table and placed the boxes of food down. "Ladies, having fun?"

…yeah, she was now sure the two of them had been waiting for an all-clear sign before coming up.

The vor suddenly loomed up behind her armchair, which she was half-reclined into while his son did his baby-doze thing on her chest. "Sinclair?"

"Renato Sinclair, Italian Mafioso, somewhat of a friend… I think." Sonya clarified slowly, feeling a bit confused.

Her fellow Cloud had said she hadn't done anything wrong, right?

"A hitman I met six years ago."

"Sun user! He's the other side of the coin from me." Tatiana tacked on cheerily, plating up Lisa her portion before serving herself. "Tall, dark, and snarky."

Cherep snorted, unfortunately attracting the nurse's attention.

"Wait… Cherep? When did you meet the man?"

"Austria and Italy. Last year and the year before that in reverse order." The stuntman supplied readily enough, taking a quick bite of the fried pork cutlets on his plate before continuing. "Sonya seems to think his stalking of her is a good thing."

That earned her two incredulous stares and a dark one from over her head, her older brother eating more than staring like the rest of the family, and the former pickpocket sighed. "I stalked Cherep for two months and it wasn't a problem then."

"You were also like, seven. Stalking an eight-year-old boy. That was cute, this is…?" Clarified the nurse unhelpfully, sitting back with a full plate of Korean food to munch on. "Seriously, Sonya? No, wait… back in the bar, you even said it was getting a little creepy how he could keep on finding you. How often does it happen?"

"Once or twice a year, but I really only think he keeps on doing it to annoy me. Besides, I know him."

"And that makes it alright?"

"If I know who it is stalking me? Sure." She shrugged, carefully holding a hand to baby Valerian's back when he decided he didn't like the motion happening under him too much and let her know with a fussy little grunt. "If I don't, then it's outright concerning rather than just mainly annoying creepiness."

Tatiana sighed theatrically, giving their foster brother a droll look. "I can't tell if that's a double-standard or just her being oblivious."

Sonya privately thought they had the double-standard, if it was alright for her to stalk Cherep back when they were kids and Renato stalking her now wasn't.

"Sonya, sweetie, does this Sinclair ever make you uncomfortable?" Lisa drew her out of her thoughts by asking, with an actual thread of concern in her tone that the blonde gave it serious thought.

"No? I mean, everyone makes me uncomfortable at first until I get used to them. He's just… annoying. And likes to annoy me. Annoying him in return is just…" She shrugged again, giving up Valerian to his father when the baby decided he really didn't like the motions of a shrug and started fussing louder. "Renato's a shameless flirt who does so even in the middle of conversation with me to the waitress or some female passerby, but I do like talking to him because he's at least amusing when he's in a good mood."

"And when Mister hitman isn't in a good mood?" Cherep asked between bites, looking a bit disgruntled.

Probably over the fact he was only learning now that the man was a hitman.

"I can usually nudge him into one if I mock whatever it is he's gotten pissy about. If he tells me what it's about, otherwise I ignore him."

Shifting herself, Lisa took Valerian back from Arseniy and let the vor slide in behind her. Handing off her plate to the man in favor of fussing over her unhappy baby. "Well… it doesn't sound too bad. I would like to be kept apprised, sweetie."

"…about?" How their friendship was going?

While Sonya could probably do that easily enough, reporting every meeting to her foster mother would get old fast.

"Anything that he does that confuses you. Or that you may not understand right away. If you have to think about it, I want to know." Their mother specified, tucking her son into the crook of her arm and tickling his belly to shift his attention to something new. "As a matter of fact, any male you know and are confused by I want to know about."

"Okay?" Well… did that mean every male she knew of, even Cherep?

There were a few things from the Vongola Christmas Ball she was kind of confused by still.

"Lisa? Is there a reason for choking on nothing? Or slamming your head into a desk?"

"Surprise, and maybe exasperation." She answered in a cautious kind of tone, looking puzzled. "Where is this from?"

"Ganauche, the Lightning Guardian of Vongola's Sky Timoteo. He was kind of… weird." Sonya considered her few interactions with the man, frowning a bit. "Why would he be surprised then? He already knew I was… or… was he exasperated with me? How rude."

Tatiana's expression lit up, but Lisa gave her a quelling look. "No, Tats. Only if Sonya asks you for help or is willing to talk about it. It's her life, she may live it how she wishes. Sonya, I hope you will remember that I am always available to help you if you need it."

"She's not going to mind! She barely cares half the time." The nurse dismissed the implied reprimand, still grinning at her younger foster sister. "Sonya, sweet sister of mine, how did the Ball go?"

Arseniy blew out a sigh, looking both irritated and a bit disgruntled himself now. Given he was still holding the plate while Lisa nibbled from it and played with her baby, she could understand why. "This Sinclair guy, when is he around?"

"All the time usually." Sonya pounced on the subject change gratefully, not wanting to admit to the fashion-inclined Sun that she spent the bulk of the ball picking on the fashions other people were wearing with Renato so she didn't really remember what everyone was wearing too well. "He's got some business to do back in Italy, so I'm not expecting him to appear for a few months more yet."

That apparently wasn't what the vor wanted to hear, glancing down at his lover and newborn son then back up to her. "He ever makes you uncomfortable from now on, I want to hear it."

The thief nodded slowly, wondering if what she had been telling them about her life before this hadn't quite been enough. Were these specific requests from that mistake? "Alright."

Arseniy shot a look to Cherep, who silently gave the man a salute then ignored the questioning look she shot him in turn.

"Are you going to eat, sweetie?" Lisa asked curiously, shooting the nurse a stern look of her own to get her more interested in her food then grilling her younger sister for news of a party she could get another time.

"I… have a Chinese Triad member to go talk to. I promised." Under duress, but Fong really had looked surprised to see her in the waiting room.

That man had terrible timing, and a very unfortunate skill in edging into rocky ground when it came to Clouds. At the very least, she should probably go see what he wanted before leaving for Moscow. Who knew what else he'd trip into if she put it off.

"The… that guy from the hospital? What was his name, Faugeu?"

Sonya blinked at her foster brother. "…was your mouth full or something? It's Fong."

Her fellow Cloud stuck his nose in the air, sniffing in mock offense. "I don't speak Chinese, Sonya. Fawng."

"Now my ears are cringing." Tatiana claimed, smirking. "Say it with me Cherep, F-ong."

"I will be back in a few hours." The thief told their foster mother, who looked pretty amused at the stuntman's butchering of Chinese names.

"Have fun, sweetie." Lisa informed her pleasantly, letting Valerian grasp at her fingers and tug to his little heart's content. "Let us know how it goes."

…but this would be business, not personal. What…?

Sonya nodded absently, trying to figure out why she wanted to know. Eventually, before she even reached the main doors, the thief gave up and just resigned herself to telling her everything that happened from now on.

That would just about cover anything Lisa would want to know.

(ooo000ooo)

(Monday the 8th of January, 1968 continued. Mafia Land.)

Fong did not make himself easy to find. Sonya eventually had to backtrack to the hospital to figure out where he had been before getting called in yesterday then spread out her search from there.

In the end, she found him in one of the dojos that allowed for practice rooms to be rented out by the hour. It wasn't a small one, which rented tiny personal rooms, but one of the more mid-sized ones that rented out halls to groups of people that wished to practice whatever fighting style against another's with spectators and judges around.

The man she had been looking for was not the only Triad member in the hall, and a fair number of them seemed to recognize her. She flatly ignored her old temp-aid/guide/personal assassin Liqin as he cringed slightly in place, even if she took a seat on the floor next to him to wait for the man who asked her for a word to be done.

Fong had a red Chinese dragon tattoo curling up his left arm to his shoulder, she wondered if it was like her feline one. Did it have a meaning behind it?

Since the martial artist, or at least the hand-to-hand combat specialist, was in the middle of his practice, the thief had been perfectly content to sit and wait. The stances were pretty interesting, if nothing like ballet moves.

Liqin, apparently, was not content to wait. "Miss Yu-"

"Sonya, since I'm sure you already know my name I see no reason to pretend." She corrected flatly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "If this has anything to do with the last time we saw each other, I don't want to hear it."

"I must apologize anyways, Miss… Sonya." The man insisted a little stiffly, appearing and sounding slightly distressed. "I… we, knew the rules and discarded them anyways. You did not deserve that."

"Funny, because I'm pretty sure you had no problem with carrying out said violation of the rules until you realized I wasn't exactly what you thought." Sonya returned, already irritated and fast moving on to ticked off. "Was there at least a reason why your Triad group decided to approach me like that?"

"That was a bad miscalculation on our part." Fong interjected for Liqin calmly, smoothly withdrawing his limbs into a resting pose and glancing at her with what seemed to be naturally red colored eyes when he came to a halt. "We assumed you were a Storm, not a Cloud."

"Three men cornering a young woman does not suggest anything good, Fong."

"You were not alone until you sent the elder woman away."

She wasn't remotely sold on that being a mitigating detail. "She was civilian, who knew nothing of my mafia connections. And, as you said, elderly. Since our little meeting did end up slightly violent, I still believe I was justified in sending her away."

Crina hadn't known for sure, anyways. That was the Russian's story and she was sticking to it.

"…ah." The half-dressed man did finally looking something other than pleasantly bland, a slightly sheepish grimace made itself known for a split second before he smoothed it away. "We may owe you more than just an apology."

"Yes, yes you do." Sonya informed him tartly, folding her arms under her chest. "However, I don't particularly care to hear it. What do you want, Fong?"

"I would like to give said apology, and to ask you a few questions." Holding up a hand before she could do more than glare, he tried for a smile. "I will also explain our actions. If you decide then that you want nothing more to do with us, then…"

"You'll try to leave me alone but will unable to uphold that because either you or your bosses still want something from me." Finished the thief for him dryly, sighing through her nose when his smile turned a bit wry around the edges. "What do I get out of allowing you to, however politely, harass me more?"

"Lunch?" Fong suggested, the hand he had been holding up making a sweeping gesture to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the eastern side of the dojo. "It is around that time."

…Sonya had skipped out on what Arseniy and Cherep brought back in order to do this little meeting. "Fine."

"I know of a good steam bun vendor. Or, if you would rather, there are some decent teahouses around."

"The vendor will be fine." She had tried Chinese steamed buns, back when her brother got interested in what duck blood and glass noodle soup was like. The buns weren't bad, just not something she ate very often.

The broad and slightly tanned hand held out to her made the thief blink and stare.

Fong had watched her crush a man's hand in front of him, with only her own hand to do said crushing. Why the hell would a martial artist risk his livelihood in such a way in giving her an easy target to crush if she got irritated again?

He didn't twitch under the dubious look she shot him, actually giving her a small smile when she accepted the help up.

Well… he had good manners, at least.

(ooo000ooo)

(Monday the 8th of January, 1968 continued. Mafia Land.)

Long story short, China's Triad organizations were still hoarding any and all Flame users they found, had, or discovered. If one wasn't with a Triad, they were 'asked' to join up when found.

Sonya went and made herself special, in her haste to get back to Mafia Land to ensure Renato and Shamal had gotten away clean and continue distracting the former group in control of security.

A competent, highly skilled Storm selling her skills in the ultimate criminal temp agency known as Mafia Land?

The Russian had used her Storm Flames not only to burn to cinders only what she wanted gone, but somehow had the control to carve rocks into delicate tiles then carve a character into them without melting the rest of the stone.

Most Storms, even decently experienced ones like the man who informed her of all this, were more arsons in nature. They could start fires, and obliterate a large chunk of area if asked, but usually their Disintegration was too uncontrolled to be handled in close quarters or urban areas.

With her control, on the other hand…?

Apparently being a competent thief already trained up and the ability to somewhat control her damage made her downright valuable.

Fong's Triad group had been trying to recruit her before any of the other groups involved in the Omertà-safeguard job, thinking she was freelance since she worked for the island and not one of her native syndicates. Cue misunderstandings between Cloud vs Storm behavior and her elderly civilian company, which ended when she got fed up and actually destroyed a good few yards of road after shattering a dockside wharf.

While the proper way to go about it was to use her personal identification code in Mafia Land and request a meeting she could then accept or refuse, Sonya had been spending most of the year outside of it. Worse, before they could decide if chasing one lone thief down would be worth it she had popped back up within their country.

With a civilian circus, carving rocks into jewelry.

Fong had gotten interested at that point, because being a Storm himself he knew perfectly well how their Flames behaved normally. The best he could do, he informed her without a trace of chagrin or care, was obliterate whatever he used his against and most of the nearby acre if things weren't handled carefully.

She was still not amused. "I am not freelance, Fong. I belong to the Zolotovs of Moscow."

At least as long as Arseniy was.

She really had no feelings about her Pahkan or the rest of her clan, besides maybe some fondness for Dmitriy and Usov. However, so long as her foster father, mother, new baby brother, and sister were loyal the former pickpocket turned jewel thief would stay with them.

That would likely change when she actually had the time to get to know her fellow Zolotovs better now that they and she were grown adults, but that was yet to come still.

The martial artist accepted that easily enough with a nod. "We have become… aware of that."

…was this the 'odd' that Lisa commented on?

Had Fong, or one of the members of his Triad, encountered either of her foster parents?

Sonya considered it, and squarely decided on that she was annoyed to hear it.

Her mother had been pregnant, she had not needed any further stress.

Either feeling the glare that was being drilled into the side of his head or being acutely aware that any Cloud would not appreciate the news that their family had been approached for whatever reason, the Storm lifted the order of steamed bun he purchased for her into her sights. "Hungry?"

If only because he had paid for it as part of his apology, the thief accepted the plate. It would probably be boiling hot, so she didn't try picking it up. She had watched it be made and cooked, she knew it wasn't tampered with.

"So… what exactly did you expect from that confrontation? As far as you had known, I was a freelance thief for some reason hanging around a civilian circus."

"I was ordered to bring you back with us," He admitted easily after swallowing his first bite, "as you did not seem happy with where you were. Unfortunately, you never did let me actually talk to you instead of chase around Shanghai's streets."

"If you are expecting an apology for dunking you into the sea, you're not getting it." Sonya informed him flatly, testing her own food with a fingertip.

It was still boiling hot, how the hell was he eating his?

"And as far as you could have known, I was perfectly happy with where I was."

He shot her a perfectly skeptical look.

"…alright, maybe not, but maybe it was just the country. China's gotten a little… hot."

That made his features flatten out back into neutrality as they started wandering down a few streets aimlessly with their food.

"While I will admit we misjudged that situation, and my homeland is currently in the middle of some unrest," he ignored her snort, "I personally had wanted a word with you even if you had refused the offer."

"The man whose hand I crushed." Sonya reminded him tartly. "He did not seem intent on giving any 'offer', more like an order."

"They had to amputate his hand." Fong countered calmly. "You mangled it too badly to be healed."

"…that has nothing to do with what he tried which refutes some of what you've said."

"Gen always was a little… brash." He temporized after another bite, likely using the food to buy him thinking time.

"One should not try to grab a woman they do not know," Shot back the Russian, yet again checking her lunch's temperature and still deciding it was too hot, "especially not one who is a known Flame user. That was more than brash, that was stupid."

"…agreed." The martial artist offered slowly with a nod that made his braid bob into her sights and let her catch sight of something going on behind them.

Sighing, she shoved her plate at him then lunged for the kid that was trying to pickpocket the martial artist when he took it. She went slowly enough that the brat bolted before she got her hands on him, ensuring she didn't have to actually deal with him as well or see what the other Storm would do to someone trying to steal from him.

Sonya snatched her food back when Fong scowled at the kid making fast tracks away from the two of them. Deciding her food had cooled enough, she nibbled on the bun to ensure she didn't burn her mouth and took a small bite when she was sure it wouldn't.

It wasn't that bad, actually. Better than the ones she tried in Ha-mi.

Wiping off the trickle of pork juice that escaped her lips, the only downside to letting steamed buns cool was that they got drippy, the thief licked it off her finger then checked the time.

If she was going to catch the ferry with her foster family, or most of it because Tatiana was staying, she had to get a move on.

…and she was pretty sure this watch was Cherep's, she should probably give it back before he returned to the circus.

"Was there anything else, Fong? I do have places to be."

"…um. Yes, actually." He sounded distracted enough she glanced back at him curiously, but whatever it had been had passed and the man was now fishing something out of his pocket. "There is this."

"…I'm pretty sure I gave that to Crina." Sonya informed him flatly, her gaze flicking from the broken teeth end of her red tourmaline crystal skeleton key to the equally red eyes Fong had.

No wonder she hadn't seen it since Shanghai, the gypsy had lost it… to the Triads.

"You have a control over Storm Flames I have never seen." He defended himself, or explained rather, with a one-shoulder shrug. "A control I am interested in acquiring. Even with the discipline my fighting style requires, I have not gotten to the point I can only burn away what I want instead of everything in range."

"Yeah… that's pretty much par for the course." She admitted blandly, then frowned at the man and snatched her crystal back.

Tried, actually. The much taller Chinese man closed his fist before she could actually retrieve the broken key piece. "Please?"

"Ever think it has to do with Storm Flames themselves?" She demanded, holding out her free hand for him to return the crystal.

"I would not think you were so interested in getting this back if it was."

"It doesn't work for you very well, does it?" It had looked a bit more cracked than the last time she had seen it, so all the damage wasn't from her snapping it off the rest of the crystal.

"Well… no." Fong admitted pleasantly, raising his clenched fist over his head and well out of her reach when she reached for it again. Likely realizing she could probably pry it out of his hand with brute strength if need be. "But since you know that, you know where I could find something like it that would work better."

Sonya needed different stones, and to broaden her search parameters. She had specifically settled on red tourmaline because it had been a bad focus stone.

"Storm Flames overwhelm, Fong. Everything. That's basically all they do."

That tidbit had the martial artist inspecting the broken crystal curiously in the strong tropical mid-winter sunlight, which she used to her advantage and plucked it from his grasp with a little jump. Uncaring if the sharp edge cut him or not.

"It's red tourmaline, which you could have gotten from any jeweler appraising this." She jabbed her finger into his chest to help make her point, then tucked the piece of broken crystal into her pocket. "Try using the least bit of Flames possible, dabs and trickles. Now, leave me alone."

He looked entirely unbothered by her poking, merely giving her a pleasant little smile. "Ah, but Sonya… if I have more questions, where else would I take them?"

She rolled her eyes, finally getting around to eating her lunch and flatly ignoring him as she walked away.

Yeah… she'd be seeing him again.

(Thursday the 11th of January, 1968. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)