The Cousins Braginski

[dzala_ghvino]

Who: Ivan and Giorgi 
When: January 31st, Monday, 11 am. 
Where: The Braginski Residence
What: Giorgi finds a clue as to where Ivan may be, follows it, and then surprises his cousin.

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[das_vedanya]

While he felt his breath get sucked out of him in that cold almost-February air, Ivan regarded his younger cousin with a half-hearted "How did you find me?" and remembered again the reason why he hated the city so much. It seemed that everyone he knew and tended to want to avoid were drawn to this city, and now his Georgian cousin was perched on his doorstep as if it were years ago in Moscow for the temporary summer months of relief where Giorgi's father would play the part of doting father and loving uncle. Ivan had to shift his toes against the hard wood floor to remind himself that this was the United States of America, and that the pretentious man in front of him was just an unfortunate coincidence.

A very unfortunate coincidence. He watched his cousin peer around his middle to look into his kitchen and living area with a single arched brow, and remembered a day months ago when Giorgi's father died in his own bed "peacefully in his sleep." It was what Giorgi's mother heard, what Giorgi heard, and what Natalia and Ivan knew to be a lie. With a defeated sigh, the taller man pressed his back against the door to allow enough breadth for his cousin to enter his home and remove his shoes. Ivan shut and locked the door behind him out of impulse and trudged off to the kitchen with a scarf tail dragging on the floor in his wake. His voice echoed through the kitchen and entryway as Ivan moved to put the kettle over the stove. "Where are you living, Giorgi?"

[dzala_ghvino]

A pair of slim sneakers took their place, parked next to a small line of other shoes that went unnoticed. Giorgi made his way into the home, sliding passed his disheveled and seemingly angry cousin. The young man's pale arms shifted each of his sleeves up to his elbow to make way for the slightly-warmer home, although, the atmosphere still felt a bit chilly. Giorgi felt and fought a slight tinge of jealousy in him when the sight of the house really sunk in. Ivan must be doing something right; as much as Gio didn't want to admit it. Giorgi's hands slipped into his pockets when he entered the kitchen, reaching for the rolled up poster. He unrolled the paper on a nearby counter and looked back up at his cousin with a one-sided smile. "Was not too hard. There are not many people with last name Braginski."

Gio let that sit in the air for a moment while he looked about the kitchen. It was nice, and that did not sit well for the Georgian. That very morning he had awaken with a disgusting bug in his room, while Ivan probably slept on a bed of clouds. And no bugs. That was the important part. For the first time, Gio did not want to tell Ivan his current living situation. The last thing he desired was to be teased like the old days. But the motel was only temporary. His entire situation was only temporary. Soon, he would have his restaurant. But for now, he needed a better place to stay. Gio sunk onto a stool, eyes now fully on the Russian and answered, "I- Well I stay at motel...But you have a very nice home. Kind of big for just one guy." Giorgi had not been thinking about the line of shoes near the doorway, and the fact that there may be more than one person in this home.

[das_vedanya]

He knew where this was going. "Nyet, I suppose that it is not such a common last name here." In fact, since his cousin arrived on his doorstep, he had come to an understanding of where their conversations would lead, and Giorgi's few words made it abundantly clear that all of Ivan's assumptions were more... presumptions.

His shoulders rose and fell with a tired, annoyed sigh as he hunched over the stove and felt the warm caresses of the flame's heat against his face. "I do not live here alone, Giorgiska; your cousin Natalia lives here, as does my cousin Ion, and a tenant named Hak Soo. I have a bedroom upstairs reserved for Katusha... if she ever returns." Ivan turned to face his cousin, leaning against the counter top, though with his gaze directed more at the second floor balcony where Katerina's room would be.

[dzala_ghvino]

The previous smirk was gone now, and Giorgi rested his chin in the palm of his hand. He eyed his cousin more closely now. There were many people in the house as it turned out but Gio was surprised that Yekaterina was not one of them. She was the fairer of his cousins, and the one he was really looking forward to seeing. After all, she wasn't the one mistranslating for him as children. "That is a lot of people in a house, but Katerina is not here? Where did she go? I miss her."

Gio's fingers began to play a metronome upon the counter-top as he watched Ivan's eyes drift upwards, apparently looking at something that had caught his eye. The number of shoes near the doorway made more sense now that he thought about it. The size of the home as well. Perhaps there was not as much open space in the house as he had originally thought. He sighed silently, looking down at his hand, after giving up on figuring out what Ivan was staring at. "How have you been, Ivan?"

[das_vedanya]

"Well, I was... hoping you would know the answer to that, Giorgi." He admitted as his gaze locked on Yekaterina's door. "She's been gone for nearly a year now, without so much as a word of where she was bound. And sometimes it does feel like there are too many people here, but... I like it that way. It would be painful living in such a big house alone."

He dropped his eyes back to Giorgi again, gaze hardened with a seriousness left out in his previous words. "Let us leave out the formalities, da? Obviously you did not come here only to ask how I was doing."

[dzala_ghvino]

"Oh. I see." Giorgi could feel the mood of the room dampen just from the mention of Katerina, and decided against pursuing the subject anymore. Especially, when he heard the next bit of speech arise from his cousin. It was a sudden hostility that caught Giorgi off guard. His fingers stopped their beat and his dark eyes darted up towards Ivan's in an attempt to match the glare he was receiving.

"I do not know what you have against me, cousin. I may be here for few reasons, but do not get me wrong. I do hope you are well." Gio could sense that the feelings from their childhood had not exactly been forgotten. The young man hoped that in time Ivan may grow out of the odd frustration towards him. But that hope was obviously false.

[das_vedanya]

"I am doing well, obviously. We haven't seen each other for years, and even then, it was only those few summer months. And you scarcely understood Russian then - and I am guessing that you still do not now, da? Американцы говорят 'в одно ухо вошло, в другое вышло.' Obviously not." The Russian smiled the devil's smile and leaned against the counter top on his elbows.

"You came here to ask to live with me, da?" behind him, the kettle started screaming and Ivan didn't bat an eyelash. "Is only fair for me to let you because I lived with Uncle Iosef for so long before this~"

[dzala_ghvino]

"Я знаю вид, что вы говорите." It was almost as if he were trying to prove something to his larger cousin. Giorgi had made sure to learn at least a bit of Russian while in school. It was nothing to be proud of by any means. In fact, his pronunciations would most likely make him the laughing stock of Russia. At this point in time however, Giorgi did not care. "And yes. I remember. You 'translated' for me." Giorgi's hands lingered in the air for a moment after displaying the air-quotes. He had noticed an American use them the other day and began to hope desperately that he was using them correctly.

A moment later however, he was once again taken aback by Ivan. "Wait, really? You will let me live here? Even though you dislike me?" It was suspicious really. Ivan had certainly not been giving a welcoming impression just moments before. So the sudden generosity was...odd. The mention of his father did not help matters much either. Father Iosef had not been dead that long. And the memories of Iosef parenting his niece and nephew more than his own son were not dead either.

[das_vedanya]

His barely there chuckle could not be heard over the scream of the kettle, which Ivan tended to with a flick of the gas until the whistle died out in pitch and volume. Ivan lifted the kettle by it's curved handle and brought it to the kitchen counter to deposit a few ounces of it into a dark red mug. "I don't dislike you, Giorgi. What a terrible assumption of you." The kettle clacked against the cutting board by the kitchen sink with more force than necessary. "If I did not like you, you would be very aware of that fact." He gave Giorgi a dark look over his shoulder, then proceeded to hum the first ten notes to Kalinka before he turned around with a sugary sweet smile on. "Tea?"

[dzala_ghvino]

Giorgi's body was suddenly as straight and stiff as a pole. And while his eyebrow twitched upward, he wondered just what was actually going on in that Russian's head. Alas, Giorgi smiled again, in relief that there was a possibility that Ivan did not dislike him that much. "Is good to hear that, Ivan. Ah, tea. That sounds very nice. Motel only have water with black spots. Not normal."

The young man sat forward in his seat, looked about the room once again and smiled widely. This house must be full of action and family. Both factors that Gio wished to have in his life. Ivan and his sister were really the only family that he had left. Gio didn't think about that often. "You must have something of a family here! We should all do something! Go somewhere maybe. Like bowling! That's fun, right?" The image of Ivan with those hideous bowling shoes on was enough to make Giorgi giggle quietly. His cousin probably hated the idea, but he was trying. Trying to resolve whatever disconnect there was between the two.

[das_vedanya]

Without a moment's hesitation, Ivan was at the cabinet pulling another tea cup from the bottom shelf to fill it with hot water. He lifted two teabags from a large container beneath the cabinet and plopped either into its respective mug for steeping. "We are not much of a family here. Natalia is the same as always... Ion is related to me on my mother's side of the family, and I have not talked to him since he was very young. Hm, longer than I last talked to you, actually. And Hak Soo is not family, only an annoyance who comes to me for money. He moved into the attic without my permission and now he is a pest that I cannot be rid of."

He broke from his monologue to look at his cousin, who was giggling to himself about something he was curious about knowing, but did not care to pry in to. "I have never gone bowling before. Nor do I care to. It seems like a waste of time to me. And I don't think Natalia or Ion would enjoy it either..." He turned his back to Giorgi again to fetch the two cups, placing one before Giorgi on the counter top. "We mostly keep to ourselves here, like we lead separate lives in a house full of strangers. We barely have dinner together."

Ivan swallowed, trying not to remember the last time they had a family dinner; Ivan was rushed to the hospital because Hak Soo had slipped arsenic into his borscht, the hospital kept him on 72 hour suicide watch, and when Ivan returned home, he had handcuffed Hak Soo to the leg of his kitchen table.

[dzala_ghvino]

"Right. No family." Uncomfortable would be an understated title to the atmosphere of the room. But if there was one matter of which Giorgi never succumbed to, it was an awkward situation. He took the warm mug in his hands, taking a sip as he got over the odd disappointment. He was expecting a family, but he should have known better.

"The tea is good, thanks. So, if that man is annoyance, why keep him here?" Giorgi paused for a moment, thinking about what he just said. He had to wonder why he kept trying for Ivan's friendship, when no good came from each time he tried. A shake of his head and these thoughts left. "No worry. I will keep to self as well." He added a wink to his smirk, taking another, larger swig.

[das_vedanya]

"You sound disappointed Giorgi," Ivan said pointedly, drowning out his cousin's name with a quick sip of tea, which he came to regret later upon burning the roof of his mouth. With a twitch to his resettling of the cup against the counter and a tinge of pain in his mouth, he gently massaged the roof of his mouth with his tongue and then went to the fridge to get an ice cub to suck on.

Once the ice cube was down to a tiny stub in his wet fingers, he tossed it into the sink to continue melting. "Смотри, Gioshka, I'm very sorry to hear about you father." He had to swallow his pride in those few words, along with the few choice words he wanted to attach to the name. "I know you came here partially because you need Katuska, Natasha, and I would be here, but we've changed. We're not... a family anymore. Katuska is gone and Natalia is the same scary girl you remember as a child. Things are different now."

[dzala_ghvino]

Giorgi did not want to talk about his father. Not today. Not when he had died. And not at his funeral. It was simply a subject he chose to avoid although, he did not know why. He rubbed a hand through his hair while moving the cup of tea in a circular motion of the counter. The story Ivan was telling was not exactly what the Georgian wanted to hear. He couldn't blame Ivan for this, no matter how much he wanted to. It wasn't his fault.

So Giorgi put on his best display of an attempted smile and sat up straighter in his seat. This was supposed to be a good day, not one of sulking. Sulking was time wasted. Like bowling apparently. "Is alright. Time to grow up. I can deal. I will make sure of it."

[das_vedanya]

Ivan rolled his eyes at just how easily Giorgi was brushing his words off. Once again, the meaning between them was lost in translation, but perhaps that was a good thing - because Ivan felt no sincerity toward his father's death. Giorgi, who knew his father to be neglectful and always favoring of his nieces and nephew; Ivan who only knew his uncle to be hateful and wrathful, and how much he envied his cousin for receiving the carrot instead of the stick. The Russian, at the very least, owed his cousin for making the summer months blissful.

"All right. You can have Yekaterina's room then. If she ever comes back, she'll probably share a room with Natalia."

[dzala_ghvino]

"Okay! Is settled then! მადლობა I mean...Спасибо? I will move in tonight! And I will make much food! And wine of course!" Giorgi eyed Ivan triumphantly, knowing that if it were the taller man's choice, he would most likely not even be in this city. But maybe, just maybe, Ivan was becoming okay with his cousin. That thought is what made the Georgian smile at the present time, as more of the warm tea was scooped up into his mouth.

Giorgi sat the empty cup idly down, his eyes still trained over his cousin's violet, piercing ones. The man could detect no emotion from the other, and he probably meant for it to be that way. "You will love having me here, cousin. Just like old times, right?"