The Attack of the Russians - Or Something To That Effect

[beenleftbehind]

Svetlana has been restless. She's gone through all the usual ways to occupy herself - reading, talking a walk, relaxing with a cup of tea. She's even tried knitting, of all thing. Nothing's helped

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[awaroutthere]

College students have a way of forgetting to eat, even in a place where they can think up food, until someone or something reminds them food would be a good thing.
Smelling someone else's culinary exploits? That'll do it in a heartbeat.
So there's a Cosmo packing up his problem set and wandering over. "Smells good."

[beenleftbehind]

Svetlana smiles at him. "Please, help yourself."

There's all kinds of food - chicken, beef, soup. And there's tea. Plenty of tea.

[awaroutthere]

"--Oh, great! Thanks."
So he does. Less so the tea than the food - he's more of a coffee person by nature.
"This is good."

[beenleftbehind]

Svetlana smiles wider, pleased to hear this. It's nice to have your work validated, especially when your children generally take no notice of what they're shoveling in their mouths.

"I'm glad you think so."

[awaroutthere]

"Hell of a lot better than the stuff in the dorms." ...Not that this is especially hard, but he won't be mentioning that.
"Oh, I'm Cosmo."
Social skills are not always his best point, but he's working on it. (Possibly it helps that Marty's not here to mock him.)

[beenleftbehind]

"It's very nice to meet you, Cosmo. I am Svetlana." She pours herself a cup of tea. "You are - a student, then?"

[awaroutthere]

"Yeah. Math and communication. It's.. interesting, to say the least." Particularly the slightly-illegal practical applications.
"What do you do?"

[beenleftbehind]

"Nothing so exciting as that," she answers, a bit wistfully. "I am just a wife and mother."

[awaroutthere]

"Oh. Where are you from?"
He can guess a little, from her accent. But he figures it's more polite to ask.

[beenleftbehind]

"Russia." She smiles at him.

[awaroutthere]

"Far out. I kinda thought so - I know a guy from there. He's pretty nice, even though he's probably KGB."
Cosmo doesn't really care. If he cared, he wouldn't talk to Gregor (though it's not like he and Marty seek the guy out). But, well. He grew up on Red Scare stories, and some things have a way of sticking in the mind.

[beenleftbehind]

She flinches at the mention of the KGB but tries to hide it as best as she can. It's possible there's no connection, and thinking so would only make her as paranoid as Anatoly.

"I see."

[awaroutthere]

Cosmo shrugs. "Greg's actually pretty sensible about the whole thing. There's a war on, sort of, but there's not a lot of point in being scary around the civilians unless it actually does pick up."
The space race doesn't count, in his mind, despite all the fuss about spy satellites.

[beenleftbehind]

"I'm sure he is being very sensible," Svetlana says mildly. "They are very good at that."