[hetalia] the american dream -- four
title: the american dream -- four
genre: slice-of-life, gen, comedy, drama
pairings: side hungary/prussia, mentions and hints of belarus/many people
rating: T
warnings: most likely, many inaccuracies
summary: [human AU] somehow, at the end of the day, Natalia and Elizaveta are happy to have each other. a multichapter fic about friendship, love, family, and lots of other stuff.
notes: in which i describe hungary, a lot
4.
The first time they met was in high school. Elizaveta was bright, cheerful, terribly popular and not very good at physics. Natalia was bad at English, unsociable, and had an unknown fanbase made up of the guys in the trumpet section of the school band. They had nothing in common save for the fact that they were both girls, had long hair, and hated their physics teacher.
In fact, the first time Elizaveta really noticed Natalia was an October day when the Russian girl had raised her hand politely, expressionless.
"May I go to the restroom?" Natalia asked.
The teacher, Mr. Oxenstierna, looked at her through a pair of spectacles that were supposed to be fashionable but only looked like a horrible practical joke. He was the only one in the school who had a thicker accent than Natalia. "I only h've two more ex'mples left, so c'n you wait?"
Natalia nodded, "Go ahead."
"Please." Mr. Oxenstierna said in response, stopping Natalia from sitting down.
"Are you telling me to go?" Tentatively, she asked him with a carefully stoic face.
Mr. Oxenstierna shook his head, chalk still in his hand. "Go ahe'd, please."
At this point, everyone in the class was just as bewildered as Natalia. She herself only blinked.
"You say 'Go ahe'd, please'." Mr. Oxenstierna explained when Natalia didn't move.
"Oh," Natalia cleared her throat. "Go ahead, please." She sat down as the teacher turned back to the board, staring down at her notes in utter confusion. Seconds later, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
When she turned around, Elizaveta smiled at her. "You're really interesting, you know."
Natalia stared at her. "How?"
"I always thought that you were keeping that emotionless face on purpose, to show some kind of 'cool beauty' image." Elizaveta shrugged as Natalia flinched slightly. "But now I realize that you just don't show many emotions, period."
"A lot of people tell me that I'm not expressive," nodded Natalia. "But I don't think that's very interesting."
Mr. Oxenstierna coughed loudly, making Natalia turn back around. He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, frowning. "What are you two t'lking about?"
"Nothing," Natalia said plainly. "Go ahead, please."
The entire class giggled, Natalia got detention, and Mr. Oxenstierna continued on with his lesson. Just as Natalia was about to curse Elizaveta for making her stay after school, Elizaveta raised her hand and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Oxenstierna! I would like to go to the Nurse's office."
Natalia rolled her eyes. What was the girl going to do now? Mr. Oxenstierna, thinking along the same lines, asked her, "What for, Eliz'veta?"
"Well I have a bit of a headache--" Elizaveta put a hand against her head, sighed, and shook her other hand in dismissal. "Nevermind. Go ahead, please."
The class erupted into laughter as Natalia turned around in surprise. Elizaveta winked at her. Mr. Oxenstierna turned red and told Elizaveta very clearly that she was to have double Natalia's time in detention.
After class as they both headed off to their last class of the day, Elizaveta waved at Natalia with the largest grin Natalia had ever seen. "See you in detention!" The girl had called out.
With no other choice, Natalia waved slightly back and tried to smile back. The most she could manage was widening her mouth to show all her teeth. "See you."
"You're hilarious," Elizaveta replied, for some reason laughing again.
Natalia turned around and went to her next class. What a strange girl.
---
In detention, Mr. Oxenstierna left the class after a while to go print out more worksheets for the two of them to do. The second the door closed after him, Elizaveta got out of her seat and sprinted across the room to sit down at the desk beside Natalia's. Natalia stared at her for a moment before returning to her work.
"You're Natalia, right?" Elizaveta asked, smiling.
"Yes," Natalia said slowly. "And you are… Elizaveta?"
The other girl gave her another dazzling grin. "Or Liz, Lizzy, Veta, anything you like." Natalia nodded, eyes not leaving her worksheet once. She did not feel any affection for engaging in mindless chatter, something that Elizaveta seemed to love. This relationship would most likely not work out.
"You don't talk very much, do you?" Elizaveta asked her next, tilting her head, her bangs falling into her eyes. She sighed and pushed them away with her hand, still staring at her companion.
Natalia looked up from her work this time, frowning. "Must I?"
"Well, you don't have to, I suppose." Elizaveta laughed a little, "But it would be nice to fill the silence."
"This is detention," Natalia said very slowly. "I don't think we're supposed to fill the silence."
Elizaveta rolled her eyes, chuckling. "Come on, humour me. And you're much better at English than I thought."
"Then what do you propose we talk about?" Natalia put down her pencil then, raising an eyebrow. "And just because I'm an exchange student with an accent doesn't mean I don't know English. I've studied the language for just as long as you have."
"Oh, I'm sorry if you're offended." Looking genuinely apologetic, Elizaveta smiled gently. "I think it's really great that you were able to come here and learn this culture as well as your own." She leaned up to look up at the tiled ceiling, shrugging. "As for topics to talk about… I don't know, the weather? How you've been doing these days? Meaningless small talk, I guess."
"If you're going to talk about meaningless things, then why do you talk about it? Wasting words on things you don't care about is, quite frankly, very stupid." Natalia interjected, not thinking that what she was saying was rude. Stating the facts about something wasn't rude, it was just being clear.
"So am I stupid?" Elizaveta laughed, pointing at herself. Natalia looked at her. She was dressed in the latest fashion, her hair tied up in a messy ponytail. Her attitude towards life was clear, all sunshine and no meekness. She wasn't stupid, she was just an American teenager with very pretty green eyes.
"I think we are all very stupid," Natalia said evenly, looking back down at her paper. It was true, teenagers were all foolish and silly. They were no exceptions, not even herself.
Elizaveta laughed again, this time louder. "You tell me not to be stupid while telling me that everyone is stupid. See, you are interesting! I've never met someone who thought about things like that." She fixed the watch on her wrist, smiling coyly. "Well, if it suits you, then we'll just sit here in silence." Secretly, Elizaveta was good at this game. She had played it for years with her cousin Roderich, another interesting person who didn't find any merit in small talk. Somehow, though, he always hated when she stopped talking on her own will.
Natalia was more patient than Roderich. Elizaveta stared at her watch for two minutes and thirty-four seconds until the silence broke.
Having cleared her throat, Natalia looked up somewhat sheepishly. "I think I can understand what you meant. This silence is unsettling."
"Isn't it?" Elizaveta smiled. "Come, let's talk some more before Mr. Oxenstierna comes back. There has to be something we have in common." She looked up at the classroom clock. "We can spend another hour finding one if we have to." When her classmate still kept that blank look on her face, she sighed. "List all of your likes for me?"
This was easy. Natalia leaned back in her chair, counting on her fingers. "I like my brother, mathematics, eating cake, and..." She frowned, looking around the room. "I like..." Her eyes finally settled on the walls around them. "I like this colour. White."
"Is that a complete list?" Elizaveta blinked.
Natalia thought for a while, and then nodded her head.
"Then, next is dislikes." Elizaveta leaned in, eyes shining. She really did find Natalia very interesting, if not because she simply had never interacted with someone so… frank before. Roderich was sometimes too stiff to say his own opinion, and all her other friends were too smart to say something mean unintentionally. It was almost refreshing to be insulted by accident.
"I dislike America, physics, the school band, Mr. Oxenstierna," Natalia frowned, "Well, pretty much most of the teachers in this school. I also dislike pineapples, the colour pink, shower curtains that don’t match with the colour of the bathtub, and doors with faulty locks." She paused, then added, "This is not a complete list."
Elizaveta liked the colour pink, pineapples, and America very much. For the time being though, she just smiled. "You forgot about something, my dear classmate. Which category do I fall into?"
Natalia stared at her for a long time. Elizaveta was one of the popular kids that Natalia was supposed to hate on principle, and Natalia did not care for how nosy the other girl was. However, Elizaveta was also different than the other popular kids. She laughed genuinely, seemed to have some attitude in her, stood up for herself and had a really pretty smile. Natalia wasn't sure how she felt about Elizaveta, especially having only really known her for a few minutes. However, she knew that she didn't hate her. "I like you." Natalia finally said. "I think."
"Wonderful." Elizaveta, pleased, grinned. "I like you too."
Natalia nodded. They stayed in silence until Mr. Oxenstierna came back and ordered Elizaveta back across the room. Eventually, when Natalia's time came to leave, she stayed quietly at her desk and started working on other homework. When Mr. Oxenstierna finally let the two of them go, Elizaveta gave Natalia a high-five.
"You tell me that I'm a very interesting person, but I think it's you that's the interesting one," Natalia said as they walked to their lockers.
"Is that so?" Elizaveta asked, seeming amused.
"Yes, you are one of the strangest people I've ever met." Natalia replied, keeping a steady pace. She only turned her head when Elizaveta fell silent, and was surprised to see her staring intently at her.
Elizaveta stopped walking, waiting for Natalia to do so as well. When the both of them stood still, she smiled. "I would like to be your friend, Natalia. Is that alright?"
"Truthfully?" Natalia asked. Elizaveta nodded. "I don't think the outcome would change if I said yes or no." Natalia said, meaning every word. She imagined that no matter what she said, in the end the other girl would have her way and they would somehow end up as friends.
Elizaveta blinked, then broke out laughing. "You know me too well," she said in between gasps for air. "I'm so glad I met you, Natalia."
Natalia hummed and turned around to keep on walking. Not too soon after she heard hurried footsteps and then Elizaveta was right beside her again, still out of breath from laughing so hard.
"You know, one day I want to be an engineer." Elizaveta told her as they walked past the school gym. "Everyone tells me that I'm unsuited for it since I'm such a people person, but I know that I suit it. Sure, going to a university without my friends might be kind of lonely, but it's what I want to do so I shouldn't care, right?"
"You should do what you think is right for your future," Natalia told her. She didn't quite understand why they were talking about it, but she knew what she had said was the answer that the other girl wanted to hear. It was also the only logical answer for Natalia.
Elizaveta nodded. "Thanks. I think I'll do just that." She tilted her head, "So what are you going to do in your future, then?"
"I am going back to Russia to marry my fiancée and help him run his father's business." Natalia replied quickly, having been asked the question many times. Instead of getting the usual 'oohs' and 'ahhs' the family relatives usually gave her, Elizaveta responded with a frown.
"Is that what you want to do?" Elizaveta asked, an eyebrow raised.
Natalia shrugged, her eyes focused on the hallway in front of her. "It is not, but it is what I believe is the best for my future. My parents decided so."
Elizaveta fell into silence. They did not speak for the rest of the walk, eventually separating into different wings to their separate lockers. Natalia went home that day feeling strange, like something life changing had happened. She sure hoped it wasn't life changing. Her life was already very structured and planned out, and she would have liked to keep it that way.
The next day during lunch, Elizaveta dragged Natalia to her lunch table, at which she ate uncomfortably. The other girls at the table had been nice enough, but there was a strange sort of awkwardness to their conversations. Later, Natalia told Elizaveta that she didn't want to eat lunch with them anymore. The other girl made such an upset face that Natalia took it back.
They ate lunch together for the rest of their high school years. During their senior year, the only similar class they took was English Literature. During one period of that class, Elizaveta leaned over her desk and whispered, "Want to live with me after we graduate?"
Natalia listened to the teacher talk about some strange American book that she hadn't read yet and thought about her future. She wondered when she'd have to go back to Russia. She thought about university. She thought about Elizaveta, them being roommates, and how odd that would be.
"Only if you properly clean up after yourself," she finally whispered back ten minutes later.
Elizaveta reached over to grab Natalia's hand and gave it a squeeze before giving her hand back. Behind them, one of Elizaveta's annoying friends whistled and she gave him the finger. Two months later, the same annoying friend named Gilbert and Elizaveta started dating (much to Natalia's dismay and headache). Four months after that, Natalia and Elizaveta got the keys to an apartment complex only fifteen minutes by car to their university. Gilbert skipped school with them to help the two move boxes, but ended up sitting on the couch and eating cheetos while they did all the work.
At the end of the day, Elizaveta and Natalia looked around their apartment. The colour of the walls was too cheerful, there wasn't all that much space, the place smelled strongly of air freshener, and it was theirs.
They hugged, and that evening Elizaveta made Natalia promise that if one of them were ever to embark on an adventure, they would bring each other. Natalia agreed on the basis that she was sure that she would never go on any sort of adventure, save for maybe trying a new brand of milk.
It was strange, because for the first time in a long time, dressed in Elizaveta's old sweatpants, Natalia felt like she had a home.
genre: slice-of-life, gen, comedy, drama
pairings: side hungary/prussia, mentions and hints of belarus/many people
rating: T
warnings: most likely, many inaccuracies
summary: [human AU] somehow, at the end of the day, Natalia and Elizaveta are happy to have each other. a multichapter fic about friendship, love, family, and lots of other stuff.
notes: in which i describe hungary, a lot
4.
The first time they met was in high school. Elizaveta was bright, cheerful, terribly popular and not very good at physics. Natalia was bad at English, unsociable, and had an unknown fanbase made up of the guys in the trumpet section of the school band. They had nothing in common save for the fact that they were both girls, had long hair, and hated their physics teacher.
In fact, the first time Elizaveta really noticed Natalia was an October day when the Russian girl had raised her hand politely, expressionless.
"May I go to the restroom?" Natalia asked.
The teacher, Mr. Oxenstierna, looked at her through a pair of spectacles that were supposed to be fashionable but only looked like a horrible practical joke. He was the only one in the school who had a thicker accent than Natalia. "I only h've two more ex'mples left, so c'n you wait?"
Natalia nodded, "Go ahead."
"Please." Mr. Oxenstierna said in response, stopping Natalia from sitting down.
"Are you telling me to go?" Tentatively, she asked him with a carefully stoic face.
Mr. Oxenstierna shook his head, chalk still in his hand. "Go ahe'd, please."
At this point, everyone in the class was just as bewildered as Natalia. She herself only blinked.
"You say 'Go ahe'd, please'." Mr. Oxenstierna explained when Natalia didn't move.
"Oh," Natalia cleared her throat. "Go ahead, please." She sat down as the teacher turned back to the board, staring down at her notes in utter confusion. Seconds later, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
When she turned around, Elizaveta smiled at her. "You're really interesting, you know."
Natalia stared at her. "How?"
"I always thought that you were keeping that emotionless face on purpose, to show some kind of 'cool beauty' image." Elizaveta shrugged as Natalia flinched slightly. "But now I realize that you just don't show many emotions, period."
"A lot of people tell me that I'm not expressive," nodded Natalia. "But I don't think that's very interesting."
Mr. Oxenstierna coughed loudly, making Natalia turn back around. He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, frowning. "What are you two t'lking about?"
"Nothing," Natalia said plainly. "Go ahead, please."
The entire class giggled, Natalia got detention, and Mr. Oxenstierna continued on with his lesson. Just as Natalia was about to curse Elizaveta for making her stay after school, Elizaveta raised her hand and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Oxenstierna! I would like to go to the Nurse's office."
Natalia rolled her eyes. What was the girl going to do now? Mr. Oxenstierna, thinking along the same lines, asked her, "What for, Eliz'veta?"
"Well I have a bit of a headache--" Elizaveta put a hand against her head, sighed, and shook her other hand in dismissal. "Nevermind. Go ahead, please."
The class erupted into laughter as Natalia turned around in surprise. Elizaveta winked at her. Mr. Oxenstierna turned red and told Elizaveta very clearly that she was to have double Natalia's time in detention.
After class as they both headed off to their last class of the day, Elizaveta waved at Natalia with the largest grin Natalia had ever seen. "See you in detention!" The girl had called out.
With no other choice, Natalia waved slightly back and tried to smile back. The most she could manage was widening her mouth to show all her teeth. "See you."
"You're hilarious," Elizaveta replied, for some reason laughing again.
Natalia turned around and went to her next class. What a strange girl.
---
In detention, Mr. Oxenstierna left the class after a while to go print out more worksheets for the two of them to do. The second the door closed after him, Elizaveta got out of her seat and sprinted across the room to sit down at the desk beside Natalia's. Natalia stared at her for a moment before returning to her work.
"You're Natalia, right?" Elizaveta asked, smiling.
"Yes," Natalia said slowly. "And you are… Elizaveta?"
The other girl gave her another dazzling grin. "Or Liz, Lizzy, Veta, anything you like." Natalia nodded, eyes not leaving her worksheet once. She did not feel any affection for engaging in mindless chatter, something that Elizaveta seemed to love. This relationship would most likely not work out.
"You don't talk very much, do you?" Elizaveta asked her next, tilting her head, her bangs falling into her eyes. She sighed and pushed them away with her hand, still staring at her companion.
Natalia looked up from her work this time, frowning. "Must I?"
"Well, you don't have to, I suppose." Elizaveta laughed a little, "But it would be nice to fill the silence."
"This is detention," Natalia said very slowly. "I don't think we're supposed to fill the silence."
Elizaveta rolled her eyes, chuckling. "Come on, humour me. And you're much better at English than I thought."
"Then what do you propose we talk about?" Natalia put down her pencil then, raising an eyebrow. "And just because I'm an exchange student with an accent doesn't mean I don't know English. I've studied the language for just as long as you have."
"Oh, I'm sorry if you're offended." Looking genuinely apologetic, Elizaveta smiled gently. "I think it's really great that you were able to come here and learn this culture as well as your own." She leaned up to look up at the tiled ceiling, shrugging. "As for topics to talk about… I don't know, the weather? How you've been doing these days? Meaningless small talk, I guess."
"If you're going to talk about meaningless things, then why do you talk about it? Wasting words on things you don't care about is, quite frankly, very stupid." Natalia interjected, not thinking that what she was saying was rude. Stating the facts about something wasn't rude, it was just being clear.
"So am I stupid?" Elizaveta laughed, pointing at herself. Natalia looked at her. She was dressed in the latest fashion, her hair tied up in a messy ponytail. Her attitude towards life was clear, all sunshine and no meekness. She wasn't stupid, she was just an American teenager with very pretty green eyes.
"I think we are all very stupid," Natalia said evenly, looking back down at her paper. It was true, teenagers were all foolish and silly. They were no exceptions, not even herself.
Elizaveta laughed again, this time louder. "You tell me not to be stupid while telling me that everyone is stupid. See, you are interesting! I've never met someone who thought about things like that." She fixed the watch on her wrist, smiling coyly. "Well, if it suits you, then we'll just sit here in silence." Secretly, Elizaveta was good at this game. She had played it for years with her cousin Roderich, another interesting person who didn't find any merit in small talk. Somehow, though, he always hated when she stopped talking on her own will.
Natalia was more patient than Roderich. Elizaveta stared at her watch for two minutes and thirty-four seconds until the silence broke.
Having cleared her throat, Natalia looked up somewhat sheepishly. "I think I can understand what you meant. This silence is unsettling."
"Isn't it?" Elizaveta smiled. "Come, let's talk some more before Mr. Oxenstierna comes back. There has to be something we have in common." She looked up at the classroom clock. "We can spend another hour finding one if we have to." When her classmate still kept that blank look on her face, she sighed. "List all of your likes for me?"
This was easy. Natalia leaned back in her chair, counting on her fingers. "I like my brother, mathematics, eating cake, and..." She frowned, looking around the room. "I like..." Her eyes finally settled on the walls around them. "I like this colour. White."
"Is that a complete list?" Elizaveta blinked.
Natalia thought for a while, and then nodded her head.
"Then, next is dislikes." Elizaveta leaned in, eyes shining. She really did find Natalia very interesting, if not because she simply had never interacted with someone so… frank before. Roderich was sometimes too stiff to say his own opinion, and all her other friends were too smart to say something mean unintentionally. It was almost refreshing to be insulted by accident.
"I dislike America, physics, the school band, Mr. Oxenstierna," Natalia frowned, "Well, pretty much most of the teachers in this school. I also dislike pineapples, the colour pink, shower curtains that don’t match with the colour of the bathtub, and doors with faulty locks." She paused, then added, "This is not a complete list."
Elizaveta liked the colour pink, pineapples, and America very much. For the time being though, she just smiled. "You forgot about something, my dear classmate. Which category do I fall into?"
Natalia stared at her for a long time. Elizaveta was one of the popular kids that Natalia was supposed to hate on principle, and Natalia did not care for how nosy the other girl was. However, Elizaveta was also different than the other popular kids. She laughed genuinely, seemed to have some attitude in her, stood up for herself and had a really pretty smile. Natalia wasn't sure how she felt about Elizaveta, especially having only really known her for a few minutes. However, she knew that she didn't hate her. "I like you." Natalia finally said. "I think."
"Wonderful." Elizaveta, pleased, grinned. "I like you too."
Natalia nodded. They stayed in silence until Mr. Oxenstierna came back and ordered Elizaveta back across the room. Eventually, when Natalia's time came to leave, she stayed quietly at her desk and started working on other homework. When Mr. Oxenstierna finally let the two of them go, Elizaveta gave Natalia a high-five.
"You tell me that I'm a very interesting person, but I think it's you that's the interesting one," Natalia said as they walked to their lockers.
"Is that so?" Elizaveta asked, seeming amused.
"Yes, you are one of the strangest people I've ever met." Natalia replied, keeping a steady pace. She only turned her head when Elizaveta fell silent, and was surprised to see her staring intently at her.
Elizaveta stopped walking, waiting for Natalia to do so as well. When the both of them stood still, she smiled. "I would like to be your friend, Natalia. Is that alright?"
"Truthfully?" Natalia asked. Elizaveta nodded. "I don't think the outcome would change if I said yes or no." Natalia said, meaning every word. She imagined that no matter what she said, in the end the other girl would have her way and they would somehow end up as friends.
Elizaveta blinked, then broke out laughing. "You know me too well," she said in between gasps for air. "I'm so glad I met you, Natalia."
Natalia hummed and turned around to keep on walking. Not too soon after she heard hurried footsteps and then Elizaveta was right beside her again, still out of breath from laughing so hard.
"You know, one day I want to be an engineer." Elizaveta told her as they walked past the school gym. "Everyone tells me that I'm unsuited for it since I'm such a people person, but I know that I suit it. Sure, going to a university without my friends might be kind of lonely, but it's what I want to do so I shouldn't care, right?"
"You should do what you think is right for your future," Natalia told her. She didn't quite understand why they were talking about it, but she knew what she had said was the answer that the other girl wanted to hear. It was also the only logical answer for Natalia.
Elizaveta nodded. "Thanks. I think I'll do just that." She tilted her head, "So what are you going to do in your future, then?"
"I am going back to Russia to marry my fiancée and help him run his father's business." Natalia replied quickly, having been asked the question many times. Instead of getting the usual 'oohs' and 'ahhs' the family relatives usually gave her, Elizaveta responded with a frown.
"Is that what you want to do?" Elizaveta asked, an eyebrow raised.
Natalia shrugged, her eyes focused on the hallway in front of her. "It is not, but it is what I believe is the best for my future. My parents decided so."
Elizaveta fell into silence. They did not speak for the rest of the walk, eventually separating into different wings to their separate lockers. Natalia went home that day feeling strange, like something life changing had happened. She sure hoped it wasn't life changing. Her life was already very structured and planned out, and she would have liked to keep it that way.
The next day during lunch, Elizaveta dragged Natalia to her lunch table, at which she ate uncomfortably. The other girls at the table had been nice enough, but there was a strange sort of awkwardness to their conversations. Later, Natalia told Elizaveta that she didn't want to eat lunch with them anymore. The other girl made such an upset face that Natalia took it back.
They ate lunch together for the rest of their high school years. During their senior year, the only similar class they took was English Literature. During one period of that class, Elizaveta leaned over her desk and whispered, "Want to live with me after we graduate?"
Natalia listened to the teacher talk about some strange American book that she hadn't read yet and thought about her future. She wondered when she'd have to go back to Russia. She thought about university. She thought about Elizaveta, them being roommates, and how odd that would be.
"Only if you properly clean up after yourself," she finally whispered back ten minutes later.
Elizaveta reached over to grab Natalia's hand and gave it a squeeze before giving her hand back. Behind them, one of Elizaveta's annoying friends whistled and she gave him the finger. Two months later, the same annoying friend named Gilbert and Elizaveta started dating (much to Natalia's dismay and headache). Four months after that, Natalia and Elizaveta got the keys to an apartment complex only fifteen minutes by car to their university. Gilbert skipped school with them to help the two move boxes, but ended up sitting on the couch and eating cheetos while they did all the work.
At the end of the day, Elizaveta and Natalia looked around their apartment. The colour of the walls was too cheerful, there wasn't all that much space, the place smelled strongly of air freshener, and it was theirs.
They hugged, and that evening Elizaveta made Natalia promise that if one of them were ever to embark on an adventure, they would bring each other. Natalia agreed on the basis that she was sure that she would never go on any sort of adventure, save for maybe trying a new brand of milk.
It was strange, because for the first time in a long time, dressed in Elizaveta's old sweatpants, Natalia felt like she had a home.