The Distant & Mechanized Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties.
It was nearly 1:30 in the morning in Moscow, Russia, but aside from Dmitri and their grandfather Grigori, he seemed like the only person to realize it. Grigori was sitting in his armchair, tall and proud, strong in his old age, listening to Pyotr and Lidiya (Dmitri's parents and technically his, though he'd never called them that in his life) and many of the other higher ranking adults speak to him.
Or he seemed to be trying, anyways. Sasha's drunken party was making it difficult for anyone to think, let alone listen. The adults that were disinterested in the party were all gathered in one corner of the restaurant, absorbed in their conversation (or attempt thereof) with the Boss.
Nik tried to find Dmitri in all of the chaos, while drunken cousins bumped into one another, drinks sloshing out of glasses and bottles and onto the carpet. He righted Sasha as he bumped into him, though he latched to his arm drunkenly. Nearly six years his senior and he was forced to look up at the teenager. "Why aren't you enjoying the party, Kolya? It's for you just as much as it is for me! You were the one that took down that boss!"
"I need to get Mitya home," he half-lied, calmly prying his cousin off his arm and giving him his vodka bottle. "Have you seen him?"
Letting out a disinterested noise and taking a swig of his vodka, Sasha gestured vaguely to another part of the restaurant. "He's somewhere over there, reading. The next in line is a fucking faggot, I swear. He told the girls to leave him alone, when at his age, you already had them flocking to you like some pimp!"
Forced to hide his cringe as his cousin laughed, Nik let out a fake one of his own that Sasha hardly even noticed. He was too smashed to notice anything but the scantly clad, overly colored woman--girl, she was at least 15--that walked past them. Nik paid her no mind, and instead moved around Sasha as he went to follow her. Going deeper into the establishment, he spotted Dmitri sitting at the bar, a stack of books next to him.
"Nika!" a group of girls cried, just as he was about to make his way to him.
Sighing, he slumped his shoulders momentarily before he turned, grinning charmingly. "Ladies!"
They all moved to him, touching his arms, his side, and his waist while talking at once. "We missed you, Nika~" one cooed, tracing the muscles of his arm with her fingers.
Letting them touch and swoon about him for a moment, he lifted his hands up and took a step back to disengage from their swarm. "I'm sorry, ladies, but I'm not staying any longer tonight. I'm leaving with Mitya now. It's much too late for him to be awake right now."
A cry of disappointment rang up from them, one by one, and they reached to take hold of him again. "But Nika! You've hardly been in Russia for more than a couple months and we've hardly seen you at all! Don't you love us anymore?"
"There's someone in America, isn't there?"
"Tell us, Nika! We deserve to know!"
Tired of their whining, he shook their hands off him as though he were a dog shaking off water. A great deal of complaining erupted from them then, but he ignored it. "It's none of your business what I do while I'm there."
"So it's true," a redhead said sadly, hands clutched at her chest. One of the blondes put her arm around her waist consolingly, holding her close.
One brunette reached and put her hand on his forearm, smiling coyly. "They don't have to know, do they? They're there, far away, and you won't be going back for a while."
Quickly snatching her wrist in a hand, Nikolais lifted her arm up and narrowed his eyes, obviously angry now. She let out a yelp, immediately going into a cowering pose. "Never suggest something like that again." He released her with a quick movement, not caring that she was holding her wrist as though he'd burnt her. "Get out of here. Go bother Sasha or Viktor, but not me. I'm not interested in any of you anymore."
He turned away from them, giving them no chance to respond as he made his way to his adoptive brother. The seven-year-old didn't even glance up at him, chin rested in his palm and elbow on the counter as he read the book in front of him. "You really like that American, Nil."
Sitting on the stool to his right, Nik let out a light sigh. Any of the cousins or grunts near them at the moment were either too drunk to understand or had no idea what the hell they were saying. "Sy better than any girl in Moscow, in all of Russia, Mitya. Could have anyone, but he tolerates shit I do."
"Patience of a saint," Dmitri said calmly, turning the page of his book. Nik watched him, frowning at the adult-like and stiff demeanor of the child. "You're in love with him."
Quiet for a moment, Nik scratched at his neck as though unsure, a rare gesture. He caught the quirk of Dmi's lips a little too late, as the expression returned to that of indifference. "Parents probably think I run up phone bill while I here, though. Call almost every night. Stay on 'til one or other fall asleep."
"No wonder you've been tired at the Family meetings," Dmi mused, glancing up over the top of his glasses. "If father finds out, you'll get in trouble."
"Pyotr won't find out," Nik responded simply, frowning down at nothing in particular. Sighing to himself, he stood up from his seat. "Get ready, we leave in ten minutes. You need to go to bed."
Dmitri adjusted his glasses, shutting his book and setting it atop the others he'd brought with him. "I need to tell mother and father, and say goodbye to grandfather." When he held the books up to him, Nik decided that he looked like a little adult. Neatly pressed suit, hair slicked back, glasses clean and resting perfectly on his face.
Ruffling his hair to mess it up completely and frustrate him, Nik took the books from him with a slight grin at his protest. "Tell Grigori I'll talk to him later. I'll be outside." Getting grumbled at, he watched Dmi walk away from him, trying to fix his hair as he went. He turned away afterward, heading to the door with books in tow. It wouldn't take him long to say goodbye to the others and let them know he was leaving, but long enough to spare him a couple minutes on the phone.
Digging through his pockets, he pulled out some money and leaned against the wall outside the restaurant, dropping them into the slot of the payphone. It took quite a bit of dialing and speaking with operators, but Nik figured it was worth a couple minutes speaking with Sy. Though, he hardly noticed when he was finally put through.
"--lo? Sy speaking."
"Hello, beautiful." Nik couldn't help but smile to himself, feeling ridiculously sappy after hearing Sy for only a few seconds. Dmitri was right. He was in love with him. "I miss you."
Subeta
Flashback to when they were younger, where Nik was softening up and falling in love, and Dmi was getting colder and further away.