It was nice though, when the man with the pretty red eyes stopped to talk to her and Nana, the tip of his mitten tickling her chin. "'Ello, Pabel," she murmured sleepily, a tiny, sweet smile just for him as she peered up from her Nana's shoulder.
Antonina had always seen a strange sadness in Pavel when he looked at her, and tonight there was fresh hurt there too, just like in her Nana's eyes. This made his smile for her all the nicer, even if he had to make his lips turn upward. Antonina fervently believed Pavel was a man made for smiles, no matter how rare they might be. That only made them more special.
"Vasily is inside the inn, Pavel," Nadejda replied gently, knowing very well the effort that single question cost him - and loving this good, decent young man all the more for it. For all that her daughter's life was cut far too short, she knew well those days had been all the sweeter for the love of two such fine men. Nadejda sighed wistfully. Anna's choice was not one she had ever envied her daughter.
"He worried for what small eyes ought not see within," she added meaningfully, with a curt, almost imperceptible nod toward to the golden-haired head still resting on her shoulder.
"And 'Nina and I are fine, just fine. Sergei... " Nadejda's voice caught at the name, her words lashed to painful hooks that wanted to tear at her throat. The elder woman looked away from Pavel for a moment, to the well-trampled snow at their feet, blinking the stinging tears away quickly. She could not upset little 'Nina, not now, not when the little girl's body had finally stopped shaking with every sob-choked breath. Nadejda took a breath of her own - a cold, bracing breath that shored her sore, aching heart - and then took hold of herself as she slowly let that breath go.
"Sergei took care of us, protected us." She finished that sentence, the grim lines etched deep about her mouth saying all she simply could not at the moment.
"Thank you, thank you Pavel for your kindness. We will simply wait for Vasily a while longer before we go inside - but my goodness, you must head inside yourself! Where in the world is your coat? You'll catch your death of a cold!" And even as those words passed her lips in a cloud of frozen breath, an uncertain, unnamed dread overcame her, darkening her forest-hued gaze with a foreboding premonition.
"Pavel, where is your father?" she asked, needing only the space of a heartbeat to see her fears confirmed in the honest face of the dear young man she'd known all his life, who she had cradled in her arms when he was only a wee babe. Her heart ached for Pavel all over again, seeing this new fresh hurt there now, overlaying all the old.
There was a time, so many years past, when her Sergei and Pavel's father Mikhail had been the closest of friends, inseparable as brothers; and oh how she had adored his wife Alla, her dearest friend from the time they were two giggly school girls! Their families may not have been close kith and kin, but the love amongst them was no less true.
And yet...
And yet that love was not enough. No love - not even Pavel's - had been enough after Alla and her babe died. Mikhail had fallen so low, into a pit of black despair no one and nothing but the oblivion of drink could fill... No.
No, "fallen" was not the right word for what their old family friend had done to himself when Alla died. "Fallen" implied an accidental slip, a misstep, a wrong turn even. But in truth, Mikhail had been killing himself by slow, deliberate and agonizing degrees, drowning in drink, heedless of the day-to-day cruelty witnessing this living death inflicted on his only son.
But no, no that could not have lessened Pavel's grief when the true end finally came.
"Oh, sweet boy," Nadejda whispered, shifting Antonina just so as her mitten-clad hand lifted to lovingly cradle Pavel's cheek. "I am so sorry."
Vasily said nothing at all when Oskar sprinted to his sister, though there was no small lightening of all the worries that weighted his chest at the sight of the eternally, delightfully defiant Oksana. Oh, he could see well that she was injured, hurting and swaying on her feet unsteady as a newborn fawn, but he was suddenly torn between the urge to chuckle warmly at her charmingly obstinate denials; and simply rolling his eyes, tossing up his hands, as helpless as anyone in this world had ever been, to move the willful young woman.
All Vasily could really do was send a sympathetic glance to Petya who, thankfully, was far closer than he to the woman whose legs were about to fail her completely -
- Although Oskar might be the far better choice to make this next catch of his wayward sister. A dark storm cloud of emotion came over Vasily's face as he watched brother and sister, knowing all too well the heartrending news Oksana had yet to receive.
Hello there PhoenixWhite as well, and I suppose we'll all simply be looking forward to the OOC when it comes, and Heroes hits his stride!
I've got a decent start on my post while taking breaks during the homework (booo! :( ) but I'll still wait to see yours before finishing it up.
Just got done with the final test for this week here at my school, kinda ignoring the lecture right now because I got 3 hours of sleep last night and concentration isn't my strong point at the moment. *shrugs*