[fanfic] So Violet Eyes Get Brighter [2/2]
Title So Violet Eyes Get Brighter
Author kahlanaisling
Recipient mi3star
Fandom: Hetalia
Characters/Pairing Denmark/Belarus
Rating: G
Warning: none i can think of!
Word Count: 11,515
Summary: The last thing Natalya expected for Christmas was to get involved with an eccentric blogger from Copenhagen.
A week goes by.
A fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled, fantastic week during which Natalya laughs more at one time than she can ever remember. Going to the shooting range with Erzsébet, discussing poetic history and the history of poetry with Timo, even beating Mathias’s friend Lukas in a staring contest - though he refuses to acknowledge she did so - ensures that she is much happier than she was back home, or in her beloved Belarus.
She still wants to go back to Belarus, kind of, but she doesn’t want to go alone.
Most of her time is spent with Mathias, though. There’s something about the man’s smile, his demeanor, the way he carries himself as they walk down the street and he holds her shopping bags and buys her little trinkets that she would never ask for but he knows she’ll love. And she does love them. They aren’t expensive, often little twisted earrings or necklaces made of steel or glass, but money is not everything, and it’s impressive he’s still paying for everything even after finding out just how large her inheritance is. (H had early passed out for a minute there, but was quickly revived.)
There’s something about the way he lays a hand on her shoulder, gently and only just barely there, as if she was a matryoshka doll made of porcelain so thin it would shatter if he so much as breathed. Part of her protests this treatment, since she is a grown woman and could probably kill him in twenty different ways before he so much as begged for mercy. But on the other hand, nobody has ever treated her quite like that before either. There is a distinct difference between Mathias’s eyes and the eyes of her bodyguards, though she is as royalty to both.
Natalya thinks she might know what the difference is, but she’s happy right now. No need to think about things beyond control.
Another week goes by, and she invites Mathias back to her hotel room.
His eyes go wide as he steps inside the large five-star suite. “Holy shit,” he breathes, his eyes going wider until they pop out of his head and roll about on the floor like marbles. “Yo are ich.”
Natalya scoffs. “I have money. No reason I shouldn’t use it.”
Mathias knows it’s not from her poetry sales. Thankfully, he has the good sense not to bring it up.
“I just. . . God, I never knew I had such awesome taste. First I meet a gorgeous girl, and she turns out to be intelligent and badass and trilingual-” he catches her wrist, twirling her into his arms until she is wrapped tightly within. His lips tickle at her temple and she breathes a little more quickly. “-Not to mention Belarusian.”
“Russian, technically,” she corrects.
“I thought you liked Belarus more? You told me you wanted to live there.”
Natalya doesn’t deny it. Her birth parents were from there, anyway.
He taps the back of her waist, smiling. “Then you’re Belarusian in my book, unless you have a problem with it.”
“No problems.”
“There you have it.” He leans in, presumably to kiss her.
Natalya panics briefly and untwists herself from his grasp; it wasn’t that warm and comfortable anyway, really. More enclosed and heated. “Are you cooking or are we ordering out?” she asks, puller her sweater tighter around her arms. It’s colder now.
“Do you trust me at the stove?” Mathias asks. He raises an eyebrow.
“No,” she grumbles. “But you more than Lukas.”
He laughs, a loud, boisterous, barking laugh that the lobby six floors below must be able to hear with ease. It’s nothing like her brother’s laugh, which was more of a soft giggle that was barely audible. Natalya had found it annoying at first, but Mathias laughs so often that it is now second nature - hi not aughing is when she has cause for alarm.
Mathias picks up a phone book and sits at the minuscule table, then reaches for the pen. He opens it up and begins doodling in the margins. “What’re ya in the mood for?”
“Chinese?” she suggests.
“Yonsoo’s place down the street is still open, I think,” Mathias says. “It’s Korean and Thai, but they’re all the same.”
“No they aren’t,” Natalya replies. She sits gingerly in the chair across from him.
“I get a discount. Yes it is.”
She sighs. “You should let me pay for something once.”
“No way, you’ve got enough to worry about.”
How he knows how much she has to worry about, Natalya isn’t sure - for all the things she has told him there are ten more she hasn’t. “But I want to,” she retorts.
“So do I.”
She curls her hand into a fist and bangs it on the table, shaking the phone and phonebook and glass of water she’d left out early. “God damn it, Mathias, if I want to pay for a meal then I am going to pay for a meal and I will cut your throat if you argue with me.”
Mathias pales and hands her the phone book.
Half an hour later, they’re sitting across from each other on the couch as episode 47 o Across the Multiverse lays on the TV, displaying Commander Unnilineum’s attempts at saving a colony on the 15th Goldilocks System from the notorious Lord Xenon Argium (as interpreted by Eduard Von Bock, a talented young man in his first major role who really deserves more love). At the moment, Argium’s henchmen, Argon and Titanium (clones played by Toris Lorinaitus and Raivis Galante) are trying to infiltrate Unnilineum’s starship - but there’s no way they’ll make it, Mathias says, because Unnilineum is far too smart for them.
“I do not understand this show,” Natalya says for the tenth time, her mouth full of pad thai.
“No one does,” Mathias replies. “I don’t even think the writers understand it. It’s just cool as shit.”
The cheesy dialogue onscreen makes Natalya beg to differ, but Mathias put up with her psychological horror opera the other night, so she figures she can suffer through an evening of bad sci-fi. As Unnilineum engages into a final battle with Argium, Argium reveals that they are actually former childhood friends and Mathias spazzes over the plot twist.
Natalya groans. “D not pit your food at me!” she commands, wiping the disgusting discharge from her pajamas.
“Oh my god,” Mathias sputters, “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. This is my favorite sweater,” she whines.
“You can use mine?”
Mathias is wearing an American football jacket that doesn’t actually belong to him; it’s Alfred’s, and he’s been borrowing it for a record three years. Natalya scowls. “That i not sweater.”
“Okay, so it’s not as hipster as you’d like it to be, but it’s warm at least?” he says with a sheepish smile.
She rolls her eyes and stands up, her sock feet nearly slipping on the wooden floor. “I’m going to go change. I’ll be right back. D not,” she emphasizes, pointing a finger at him, “eat my food.”
He holds his hands up in innocent surrender.
She jabs her finger at him one last time, then leaves.
Mathias turns back to the TV show, but it’s already gone on a commercial break, so he settles for hiding in his own jacket in pure shame. This plan is unfortunately short-lived as a gentle tune tinkles out from Natalya’s phone and its screen lights up. He twists around and picks it up, glancing at the caller ID. The picture is of a rotund woman with yellower hair and bluer eyes than Natalya’s, dimpled and kind-looking. The name reads is in Cyrillic; he can’t read it, but he answers anyway. “Hello?”
He is met with tears.
“Hey, um,” he says awkwardly, for no one in his family has ever been good with tears, “are you okay? Can I help you?”
“Is N-Natalya there?” he woman finally calms down enough to ask. She’s still difficult to understand, with her strong Russian accent.
“Ah. . . .” He glances back at the bedroom, but there’s no sign of her emerging any time soon. “She’s kinda indisposed at the moment. Sorry.”
The woman wails, and Mathias holds the phone away from his ear.
“Is she alr-right?” he woman sobs.
“Oh yeah, she’s great,” Mathias says. “A little annoyed at me I bet, but that’s nothing new.”
“Please put her on the phone!”
Like an angel from heaven sent expressly to relieve Mathias of his plight, Natalya steps out of the bedroom in a new outfit, her hair tucked up in a loose bun. Mathias thrusts the mobile in her direction and says, “Phone for you.”
Natalya’s already fierce scowl moves nearly into glare territory as she snatches it from his hand and glances at the screen before sighing and answering with, “Privyet-?”
Mathias can hear the woman’s wails from all the way over here.
Natalya massages her temple and begins muttering in Russian, making a noble but fairly useless effort to calm the woman down.
“Who is it?” Mathias mouths.
“My sister,” she mouths back.
Natalya says a few more clipped words before Yekaterina interrupts, wailing louder than before. Natalya pauses in her pacing, the blood draining from her face as Yekaterina speaks. A few more words, and she hangs up.
“What’s wrong?”
Natalya’s voice is soft, unlike any way Mathias has ever heard it before. “Where’s the hospital?”
-------------------------------
“This is a warning,” Natalya tells him when they’re in the car. The traffic shouldn’t have been too horrible on a Tuesday night, but it’s the Tuesday before Christmas. There are too many distractions unique to the season that Mathias hadn’t counted on. “My family, they are crazy. Psycho, insane.”
“Like you then?”
Natalya hits him. It hurts.
“I’m sorry.”
“For your own sake I hope that is true.” She huffs. “They have this bad habit of getting into fights that are not their own, for their own gain or just because they are defensive, I don’t know which. But it gets them into trouble a lot and then Yekaterina has to come in and fix everything. She can’t do it here, though, her English isn’t good and her Danish nonexistent.”
“Got it.” Mathias isn’t sure how he’ll be much help. He’s a blogger, not a doctor or lawyer, and things are bound to get lost in translation from Russian to English to Danish to Doctor.
Natalya sighs then, leaning her forehead against the cold window. Her breath creates little clouds of fog on the dark glass.
“You okay?” Mathias asks.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he points out.
She pauses a bit before saying, “When I was little, I loved my brother. I mean I still love him, but I loved him more then. I proclaimed I was going to marry him, and I had Yekaterina preside over ceremonies, and then I would give birth to his plastic-and-rag-doll child. I think I scared him a bit.”
“You can be scary when you want something.”
He expects to be hit again, but she ignores him. “I have a lot of fond memories of that time. My family drives me insane, but I still love and worry about them.”
“No, I totally get that,” Mathias reassures her. “I’ve got this brother, Berwald. He’s got two kids - my nephews - and they’re the shit, you know? Love the little guys. Can’t really stand Berwald, though, we’re too different. He’s a really nice guy and deserves to be happy and have someone treat him right for once, but that doesn’t mean we. . . click, I guess,” he awkwardly finishes.
Mathias had thought Natalya’s brow couldn’t furrow any more, but it does. “Is his last name Oxen something?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“Timo was going to ask him out on Saturday.”
Timo. Of course. Mathias laughs at that. “Well, can’t say I didn’t see that coming, honestly.”
Natalya doesn’t respond.
They arrive at the hospital quickly, their total travel time only about ten or fifteen minutes. Mathias swings around to the front and Natalya gets out immediately, leaving him to find a place to park as she dashes inside to find her sister.
The emergency room lobby is mildly crowded and filled with the swimming sounds of Danish, Natalya had never been able to think of another way to describe it. The lights are fluorescent and bright compared to the nighttime of Copenhagen; doctors and patients and nurses and families are everywhere.
Katyusha, however, is easy to find. Natalya hears her bouncing breasts before she sees them. “Natalyaaa!” he cries. Natalya turns around, only to be suddenly swathed in human flesh.
“S- sestra sestra-!” atalya tries to demand her release, but finds it more difficult than she would like. She pries at Katyusha’s insane grip.
“Natalya, we have missed you so much! You keep going places we can’t find you!” Katyusha says in Russian, finally allowing Natalya some air. “Why don’t you answer any of my messages?”
“I answer some.” Natalya tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Where is Ivan?”
“He’s sleeping now,” Katyusha says, “and he will be glad to know you’re alright.”
“Yes, bu where s he?” Natalya demands. “You told me he was shot!”
Katyusha’s expression is faintly sheepish. “I did tell you that, didn’t I?”
“Well, isn’t he?!”
Katyusha takes a deep breath, as if resigning herself to a long explanation, and Natalya realizes what is going on.
“H isn’t!” she shrieks at her elder sister, blind to those who stare at her outburst. “You lied to me Again.”
“Sister, I-”
“Don’t give me that,” Natalya spits. “You do this, yo always o this. I bet there is nothing wrong with Ivan!”
Katyusha’s lower lip juts out in defiance. “He did have an asthma attack and forgot his inhaler, the silly boy.”
Natalya, exasperated, replies, “Do I look like I care?”
Katyusha lowers herself into a chair with some difficulty; she has always had back problems, as long as Natalya can remember. It’s rather sad considering her age. “You wouldn’t have come if you didn’t care. It’s Christmas, Nat, we just want you home for once. Please sit down.”
“I won’t.”
“Please?”
Natalya stands firm, crossing her arms, and is prepared to remain put for as long as it takes. “I want to see Ivan. If you won’t let me do that, then I wil leave. It is that easy.”
“Hey, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Natalya closes her eyes as she hears Mathias’s voice in her ear. He sounds concerned and worried, and he has every right to be - see what you have done now, Katyusha? You’ve made not only one, but two people, waste precious minutes of their lives with your lies.
Mathias tries to put an arm around Natalya’s shoulders. “Are you alright?” he asks, eyeing Katyusha warily.
Natalya shoves him away. “I am fine, Mathias. Stop this.”
In Russian, Katyusha asks who the man who seems so familiar with her little sister is. Natalya introduces him, then explains to Mathias, “This is my older sister, Yekaterina.”
Mathias drops all concerns as to Katyusha’s wholesomeness and smiles with his trademark glow, blinding a man without an innocent heart. He holds out his hand and says, “Pleased to meet you!”
If Katyusha understands him, she doesn’t show it, instead choosing to smile.
Mathias gingerly pulls his hand back, stares at it awkwardly as if unsure what to do with it, and puts it in his pocket. “Okay then,” he says. To Natalya, he adds, “How’s your brother? Is he alright?”
“He’s fine,” Natalya says through her teeth.
“That’s great!”
“No it isn’t.”
“Oh. I’m sorry?”
Natalya wraps her fingers in his, beginning to walk away. “Come on. You are driving me back to the hotel.”
“What about your sister?” Mathias glances back at her. “Doesn’t she need a place to stay?”
Natalya hates it when he is right.
----------------------------
Mathias doesn’t get home until nearly midnight. When he does, Lukas is still in the kitchen, sifting through tens of thousands of papers that don’t seem to have a clear purpose.
“I hope you remembered to eat something besides your girlfriend’s face while you were out,” is what Lukas greets him with, “because I didn’t bring home any leftovers. I had to go out with Arthur and Mircea; we’re out of milk. I’m sure something was said about that, but clearly I was wrong. I’ve been set back four hours in my schedule and have to work overtime if I’m to get this exhibit into the museum by the deadline.”
Mathias, having removed his coat and hung his keys on a hook by the door, gives Lukas an odd look. “What the hell were you doing with them for four hours?”
Lukas’s face is deadpan. “We had a threesome. The hell do you think we were doing, Mathias?” He turns back to his papers.
Mathias is about to continue down the hall and collapse in his bed when he hears Lukas say, “You were gone longer than expected.”
“Sorry I can’t conform to your schedule?”
“You’re forgiven.”
Mathias beings to walk away, but then he turns around and comes back into the kitchen. He grabs something from the fridge and hopes it’s alcoholic before sitting at the table, across from Lukas.
“You realize that’s soy sauce, right?”
God damn it.
Mathias sighs. When Lukas doesn’t answer, he sighs again, and it continues until Lukas finally asks, “Is there something that you require?”
“Natalya is being stalked by her estranged family and all they want is to spend Christmas with her.”
“Sounds like a pickle.”
“Basically yeah.”
Lukas continues sifting through the paperwork. Mathias taps his fingers on the table impatiently.
“Well?”
Lukas raises an eyebrow. “What, you want my advice?”
“Well . . . yeah. I guess I do.”
Lukas purses his lips before saying, “Just how estranged are they? If they can't stand the sight of each other then you ought to just pack them up on a plane back to Russia. Otherwise, make them have Christmas with each other and see if your obnoxious holiday spirit can't reconcile them for a few days. They'll be gone in a week.”
“That's brilliant!”
“No, it isn't.” Lukas's gaze is incredulous, though Mathias is too blinded by visions of sugar plums and chestnuts roasting on an open fire to see it.
“Yeah it is, actually!”
“Mathias, I wa joking. You can't seriously think this will work--”
“Thanks Lukas, you're great.”
----------------------------
Entry #364
24.12.XX
Hey guys! Mathias here. I'm also with lukas and his bro emil and my new gf natalya and her family. Except she's not my new gf. But she kind of is? I don't know it's really complicated.
I've already talked about a lot of the wacky christmas shenanigans we get up to here but i don't think i've mentioned how important family is. Even if you absolutely hate your crazy russian relatives who do this thing where they follow you around and shit it's a really good idea to make peace with them before they start lying to you about your medical condition. #things i learned this year (that's gonna be a new tag btw lukas says it'll fill up fast but idk)
In any case it's been really tense at my apartment for the last couple of days because lukas refuses to talk to me (like that's new amirite) and nat's crazy russian family doesn't know how to be a family. I had to call in my best buddy #hondakiku to help em out. They're having a therapy session rn so i'm posting this from my phone.
Nat just slapped me and told me it wasn't therapy. #things i learned this year
It's totally therapy.
Idk how things are gonna work out for them but it's been going pretty well. Ivan (her bro) is a really great guy actually. Kinda creepy but that's not surprising. He does this really great dracula impression like holy shit it pisses ionescu off to no end but it's comedy fucking gold. And her older sister yekaterina (sp?) cooks the best food i have ever tasted. I think berwald is jealous.
Remember those italian guys who gave me advice about nat? Coolest kids ever. Well the older one is a bit of a douche but his brother plays the meanest mariokart game i have ever seen.
More later kiku is kicking me off the phone. Haven't heard any braginsky quarrels today though so i think i've accomplished something!! Keep your eyes peeled for #alfredfuckingjones 's next entry about how he burned down the yule goat this year. cheers!!!
-----------------------------
A/N atyusha, if I remember correctly, is a pet name or term of endearment, so yekaterina is what everyone besides natalya and ivan knows her by. A nickname of sorts, much like how mathias addresses erzsébet as erzsi. mircea ionescu is romania, he was only mentioned twice so i'm not sure if that was clear.
the time and date is written in what i hope is the danish way, i had to do some googling to figure out how it worked and i hope i didn't screw it up too horribly. i hate the european date system i keep looking at the month and thinking it's the day (/>_>)/
yule goat. my research says that someone keeps burning down in denmark every year. not sure how reliable it is, but it's a thing al would do, don't you think?
acknowledgments
title of fic
natalya’s ringtone
first person who was excellent and beta’d this so many time
second person who was fantastic and helped with the plot
and of course thank you for reading! please leave a comment or even just a smiley face, but i would love concrit!
Author kahlanaisling
Recipient mi3star
Fandom: Hetalia
Characters/Pairing Denmark/Belarus
Rating: G
Warning: none i can think of!
Word Count: 11,515
Summary: The last thing Natalya expected for Christmas was to get involved with an eccentric blogger from Copenhagen.
A week goes by.
A fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled, fantastic week during which Natalya laughs more at one time than she can ever remember. Going to the shooting range with Erzsébet, discussing poetic history and the history of poetry with Timo, even beating Mathias’s friend Lukas in a staring contest - though he refuses to acknowledge she did so - ensures that she is much happier than she was back home, or in her beloved Belarus.
She still wants to go back to Belarus, kind of, but she doesn’t want to go alone.
Most of her time is spent with Mathias, though. There’s something about the man’s smile, his demeanor, the way he carries himself as they walk down the street and he holds her shopping bags and buys her little trinkets that she would never ask for but he knows she’ll love. And she does love them. They aren’t expensive, often little twisted earrings or necklaces made of steel or glass, but money is not everything, and it’s impressive he’s still paying for everything even after finding out just how large her inheritance is. (H had early passed out for a minute there, but was quickly revived.)
There’s something about the way he lays a hand on her shoulder, gently and only just barely there, as if she was a matryoshka doll made of porcelain so thin it would shatter if he so much as breathed. Part of her protests this treatment, since she is a grown woman and could probably kill him in twenty different ways before he so much as begged for mercy. But on the other hand, nobody has ever treated her quite like that before either. There is a distinct difference between Mathias’s eyes and the eyes of her bodyguards, though she is as royalty to both.
Natalya thinks she might know what the difference is, but she’s happy right now. No need to think about things beyond control.
Another week goes by, and she invites Mathias back to her hotel room.
His eyes go wide as he steps inside the large five-star suite. “Holy shit,” he breathes, his eyes going wider until they pop out of his head and roll about on the floor like marbles. “Yo are ich.”
Natalya scoffs. “I have money. No reason I shouldn’t use it.”
Mathias knows it’s not from her poetry sales. Thankfully, he has the good sense not to bring it up.
“I just. . . God, I never knew I had such awesome taste. First I meet a gorgeous girl, and she turns out to be intelligent and badass and trilingual-” he catches her wrist, twirling her into his arms until she is wrapped tightly within. His lips tickle at her temple and she breathes a little more quickly. “-Not to mention Belarusian.”
“Russian, technically,” she corrects.
“I thought you liked Belarus more? You told me you wanted to live there.”
Natalya doesn’t deny it. Her birth parents were from there, anyway.
He taps the back of her waist, smiling. “Then you’re Belarusian in my book, unless you have a problem with it.”
“No problems.”
“There you have it.” He leans in, presumably to kiss her.
Natalya panics briefly and untwists herself from his grasp; it wasn’t that warm and comfortable anyway, really. More enclosed and heated. “Are you cooking or are we ordering out?” she asks, puller her sweater tighter around her arms. It’s colder now.
“Do you trust me at the stove?” Mathias asks. He raises an eyebrow.
“No,” she grumbles. “But you more than Lukas.”
He laughs, a loud, boisterous, barking laugh that the lobby six floors below must be able to hear with ease. It’s nothing like her brother’s laugh, which was more of a soft giggle that was barely audible. Natalya had found it annoying at first, but Mathias laughs so often that it is now second nature - hi not aughing is when she has cause for alarm.
Mathias picks up a phone book and sits at the minuscule table, then reaches for the pen. He opens it up and begins doodling in the margins. “What’re ya in the mood for?”
“Chinese?” she suggests.
“Yonsoo’s place down the street is still open, I think,” Mathias says. “It’s Korean and Thai, but they’re all the same.”
“No they aren’t,” Natalya replies. She sits gingerly in the chair across from him.
“I get a discount. Yes it is.”
She sighs. “You should let me pay for something once.”
“No way, you’ve got enough to worry about.”
How he knows how much she has to worry about, Natalya isn’t sure - for all the things she has told him there are ten more she hasn’t. “But I want to,” she retorts.
“So do I.”
She curls her hand into a fist and bangs it on the table, shaking the phone and phonebook and glass of water she’d left out early. “God damn it, Mathias, if I want to pay for a meal then I am going to pay for a meal and I will cut your throat if you argue with me.”
Mathias pales and hands her the phone book.
Half an hour later, they’re sitting across from each other on the couch as episode 47 o Across the Multiverse lays on the TV, displaying Commander Unnilineum’s attempts at saving a colony on the 15th Goldilocks System from the notorious Lord Xenon Argium (as interpreted by Eduard Von Bock, a talented young man in his first major role who really deserves more love). At the moment, Argium’s henchmen, Argon and Titanium (clones played by Toris Lorinaitus and Raivis Galante) are trying to infiltrate Unnilineum’s starship - but there’s no way they’ll make it, Mathias says, because Unnilineum is far too smart for them.
“I do not understand this show,” Natalya says for the tenth time, her mouth full of pad thai.
“No one does,” Mathias replies. “I don’t even think the writers understand it. It’s just cool as shit.”
The cheesy dialogue onscreen makes Natalya beg to differ, but Mathias put up with her psychological horror opera the other night, so she figures she can suffer through an evening of bad sci-fi. As Unnilineum engages into a final battle with Argium, Argium reveals that they are actually former childhood friends and Mathias spazzes over the plot twist.
Natalya groans. “D not pit your food at me!” she commands, wiping the disgusting discharge from her pajamas.
“Oh my god,” Mathias sputters, “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. This is my favorite sweater,” she whines.
“You can use mine?”
Mathias is wearing an American football jacket that doesn’t actually belong to him; it’s Alfred’s, and he’s been borrowing it for a record three years. Natalya scowls. “That i not sweater.”
“Okay, so it’s not as hipster as you’d like it to be, but it’s warm at least?” he says with a sheepish smile.
She rolls her eyes and stands up, her sock feet nearly slipping on the wooden floor. “I’m going to go change. I’ll be right back. D not,” she emphasizes, pointing a finger at him, “eat my food.”
He holds his hands up in innocent surrender.
She jabs her finger at him one last time, then leaves.
Mathias turns back to the TV show, but it’s already gone on a commercial break, so he settles for hiding in his own jacket in pure shame. This plan is unfortunately short-lived as a gentle tune tinkles out from Natalya’s phone and its screen lights up. He twists around and picks it up, glancing at the caller ID. The picture is of a rotund woman with yellower hair and bluer eyes than Natalya’s, dimpled and kind-looking. The name reads is in Cyrillic; he can’t read it, but he answers anyway. “Hello?”
He is met with tears.
“Hey, um,” he says awkwardly, for no one in his family has ever been good with tears, “are you okay? Can I help you?”
“Is N-Natalya there?” he woman finally calms down enough to ask. She’s still difficult to understand, with her strong Russian accent.
“Ah. . . .” He glances back at the bedroom, but there’s no sign of her emerging any time soon. “She’s kinda indisposed at the moment. Sorry.”
The woman wails, and Mathias holds the phone away from his ear.
“Is she alr-right?” he woman sobs.
“Oh yeah, she’s great,” Mathias says. “A little annoyed at me I bet, but that’s nothing new.”
“Please put her on the phone!”
Like an angel from heaven sent expressly to relieve Mathias of his plight, Natalya steps out of the bedroom in a new outfit, her hair tucked up in a loose bun. Mathias thrusts the mobile in her direction and says, “Phone for you.”
Natalya’s already fierce scowl moves nearly into glare territory as she snatches it from his hand and glances at the screen before sighing and answering with, “Privyet-?”
Mathias can hear the woman’s wails from all the way over here.
Natalya massages her temple and begins muttering in Russian, making a noble but fairly useless effort to calm the woman down.
“Who is it?” Mathias mouths.
“My sister,” she mouths back.
Natalya says a few more clipped words before Yekaterina interrupts, wailing louder than before. Natalya pauses in her pacing, the blood draining from her face as Yekaterina speaks. A few more words, and she hangs up.
“What’s wrong?”
Natalya’s voice is soft, unlike any way Mathias has ever heard it before. “Where’s the hospital?”
-------------------------------
“This is a warning,” Natalya tells him when they’re in the car. The traffic shouldn’t have been too horrible on a Tuesday night, but it’s the Tuesday before Christmas. There are too many distractions unique to the season that Mathias hadn’t counted on. “My family, they are crazy. Psycho, insane.”
“Like you then?”
Natalya hits him. It hurts.
“I’m sorry.”
“For your own sake I hope that is true.” She huffs. “They have this bad habit of getting into fights that are not their own, for their own gain or just because they are defensive, I don’t know which. But it gets them into trouble a lot and then Yekaterina has to come in and fix everything. She can’t do it here, though, her English isn’t good and her Danish nonexistent.”
“Got it.” Mathias isn’t sure how he’ll be much help. He’s a blogger, not a doctor or lawyer, and things are bound to get lost in translation from Russian to English to Danish to Doctor.
Natalya sighs then, leaning her forehead against the cold window. Her breath creates little clouds of fog on the dark glass.
“You okay?” Mathias asks.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he points out.
She pauses a bit before saying, “When I was little, I loved my brother. I mean I still love him, but I loved him more then. I proclaimed I was going to marry him, and I had Yekaterina preside over ceremonies, and then I would give birth to his plastic-and-rag-doll child. I think I scared him a bit.”
“You can be scary when you want something.”
He expects to be hit again, but she ignores him. “I have a lot of fond memories of that time. My family drives me insane, but I still love and worry about them.”
“No, I totally get that,” Mathias reassures her. “I’ve got this brother, Berwald. He’s got two kids - my nephews - and they’re the shit, you know? Love the little guys. Can’t really stand Berwald, though, we’re too different. He’s a really nice guy and deserves to be happy and have someone treat him right for once, but that doesn’t mean we. . . click, I guess,” he awkwardly finishes.
Mathias had thought Natalya’s brow couldn’t furrow any more, but it does. “Is his last name Oxen something?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“Timo was going to ask him out on Saturday.”
Timo. Of course. Mathias laughs at that. “Well, can’t say I didn’t see that coming, honestly.”
Natalya doesn’t respond.
They arrive at the hospital quickly, their total travel time only about ten or fifteen minutes. Mathias swings around to the front and Natalya gets out immediately, leaving him to find a place to park as she dashes inside to find her sister.
The emergency room lobby is mildly crowded and filled with the swimming sounds of Danish, Natalya had never been able to think of another way to describe it. The lights are fluorescent and bright compared to the nighttime of Copenhagen; doctors and patients and nurses and families are everywhere.
Katyusha, however, is easy to find. Natalya hears her bouncing breasts before she sees them. “Natalyaaa!” he cries. Natalya turns around, only to be suddenly swathed in human flesh.
“S- sestra sestra-!” atalya tries to demand her release, but finds it more difficult than she would like. She pries at Katyusha’s insane grip.
“Natalya, we have missed you so much! You keep going places we can’t find you!” Katyusha says in Russian, finally allowing Natalya some air. “Why don’t you answer any of my messages?”
“I answer some.” Natalya tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Where is Ivan?”
“He’s sleeping now,” Katyusha says, “and he will be glad to know you’re alright.”
“Yes, bu where s he?” Natalya demands. “You told me he was shot!”
Katyusha’s expression is faintly sheepish. “I did tell you that, didn’t I?”
“Well, isn’t he?!”
Katyusha takes a deep breath, as if resigning herself to a long explanation, and Natalya realizes what is going on.
“H isn’t!” she shrieks at her elder sister, blind to those who stare at her outburst. “You lied to me Again.”
“Sister, I-”
“Don’t give me that,” Natalya spits. “You do this, yo always o this. I bet there is nothing wrong with Ivan!”
Katyusha’s lower lip juts out in defiance. “He did have an asthma attack and forgot his inhaler, the silly boy.”
Natalya, exasperated, replies, “Do I look like I care?”
Katyusha lowers herself into a chair with some difficulty; she has always had back problems, as long as Natalya can remember. It’s rather sad considering her age. “You wouldn’t have come if you didn’t care. It’s Christmas, Nat, we just want you home for once. Please sit down.”
“I won’t.”
“Please?”
Natalya stands firm, crossing her arms, and is prepared to remain put for as long as it takes. “I want to see Ivan. If you won’t let me do that, then I wil leave. It is that easy.”
“Hey, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Natalya closes her eyes as she hears Mathias’s voice in her ear. He sounds concerned and worried, and he has every right to be - see what you have done now, Katyusha? You’ve made not only one, but two people, waste precious minutes of their lives with your lies.
Mathias tries to put an arm around Natalya’s shoulders. “Are you alright?” he asks, eyeing Katyusha warily.
Natalya shoves him away. “I am fine, Mathias. Stop this.”
In Russian, Katyusha asks who the man who seems so familiar with her little sister is. Natalya introduces him, then explains to Mathias, “This is my older sister, Yekaterina.”
Mathias drops all concerns as to Katyusha’s wholesomeness and smiles with his trademark glow, blinding a man without an innocent heart. He holds out his hand and says, “Pleased to meet you!”
If Katyusha understands him, she doesn’t show it, instead choosing to smile.
Mathias gingerly pulls his hand back, stares at it awkwardly as if unsure what to do with it, and puts it in his pocket. “Okay then,” he says. To Natalya, he adds, “How’s your brother? Is he alright?”
“He’s fine,” Natalya says through her teeth.
“That’s great!”
“No it isn’t.”
“Oh. I’m sorry?”
Natalya wraps her fingers in his, beginning to walk away. “Come on. You are driving me back to the hotel.”
“What about your sister?” Mathias glances back at her. “Doesn’t she need a place to stay?”
Natalya hates it when he is right.
----------------------------
Mathias doesn’t get home until nearly midnight. When he does, Lukas is still in the kitchen, sifting through tens of thousands of papers that don’t seem to have a clear purpose.
“I hope you remembered to eat something besides your girlfriend’s face while you were out,” is what Lukas greets him with, “because I didn’t bring home any leftovers. I had to go out with Arthur and Mircea; we’re out of milk. I’m sure something was said about that, but clearly I was wrong. I’ve been set back four hours in my schedule and have to work overtime if I’m to get this exhibit into the museum by the deadline.”
Mathias, having removed his coat and hung his keys on a hook by the door, gives Lukas an odd look. “What the hell were you doing with them for four hours?”
Lukas’s face is deadpan. “We had a threesome. The hell do you think we were doing, Mathias?” He turns back to his papers.
Mathias is about to continue down the hall and collapse in his bed when he hears Lukas say, “You were gone longer than expected.”
“Sorry I can’t conform to your schedule?”
“You’re forgiven.”
Mathias beings to walk away, but then he turns around and comes back into the kitchen. He grabs something from the fridge and hopes it’s alcoholic before sitting at the table, across from Lukas.
“You realize that’s soy sauce, right?”
God damn it.
Mathias sighs. When Lukas doesn’t answer, he sighs again, and it continues until Lukas finally asks, “Is there something that you require?”
“Natalya is being stalked by her estranged family and all they want is to spend Christmas with her.”
“Sounds like a pickle.”
“Basically yeah.”
Lukas continues sifting through the paperwork. Mathias taps his fingers on the table impatiently.
“Well?”
Lukas raises an eyebrow. “What, you want my advice?”
“Well . . . yeah. I guess I do.”
Lukas purses his lips before saying, “Just how estranged are they? If they can't stand the sight of each other then you ought to just pack them up on a plane back to Russia. Otherwise, make them have Christmas with each other and see if your obnoxious holiday spirit can't reconcile them for a few days. They'll be gone in a week.”
“That's brilliant!”
“No, it isn't.” Lukas's gaze is incredulous, though Mathias is too blinded by visions of sugar plums and chestnuts roasting on an open fire to see it.
“Yeah it is, actually!”
“Mathias, I wa joking. You can't seriously think this will work--”
“Thanks Lukas, you're great.”
----------------------------
Entry #364
24.12.XX
Hey guys! Mathias here. I'm also with lukas and his bro emil and my new gf natalya and her family. Except she's not my new gf. But she kind of is? I don't know it's really complicated.
I've already talked about a lot of the wacky christmas shenanigans we get up to here but i don't think i've mentioned how important family is. Even if you absolutely hate your crazy russian relatives who do this thing where they follow you around and shit it's a really good idea to make peace with them before they start lying to you about your medical condition. #things i learned this year (that's gonna be a new tag btw lukas says it'll fill up fast but idk)
In any case it's been really tense at my apartment for the last couple of days because lukas refuses to talk to me (like that's new amirite) and nat's crazy russian family doesn't know how to be a family. I had to call in my best buddy #hondakiku to help em out. They're having a therapy session rn so i'm posting this from my phone.
Nat just slapped me and told me it wasn't therapy. #things i learned this year
It's totally therapy.
Idk how things are gonna work out for them but it's been going pretty well. Ivan (her bro) is a really great guy actually. Kinda creepy but that's not surprising. He does this really great dracula impression like holy shit it pisses ionescu off to no end but it's comedy fucking gold. And her older sister yekaterina (sp?) cooks the best food i have ever tasted. I think berwald is jealous.
Remember those italian guys who gave me advice about nat? Coolest kids ever. Well the older one is a bit of a douche but his brother plays the meanest mariokart game i have ever seen.
More later kiku is kicking me off the phone. Haven't heard any braginsky quarrels today though so i think i've accomplished something!! Keep your eyes peeled for #alfredfuckingjones 's next entry about how he burned down the yule goat this year. cheers!!!
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A/N atyusha, if I remember correctly, is a pet name or term of endearment, so yekaterina is what everyone besides natalya and ivan knows her by. A nickname of sorts, much like how mathias addresses erzsébet as erzsi. mircea ionescu is romania, he was only mentioned twice so i'm not sure if that was clear.
the time and date is written in what i hope is the danish way, i had to do some googling to figure out how it worked and i hope i didn't screw it up too horribly. i hate the european date system i keep looking at the month and thinking it's the day (/>_>)/
yule goat. my research says that someone keeps burning down in denmark every year. not sure how reliable it is, but it's a thing al would do, don't you think?
acknowledgments
title of fic
natalya’s ringtone
first person who was excellent and beta’d this so many time
second person who was fantastic and helped with the plot
and of course thank you for reading! please leave a comment or even just a smiley face, but i would love concrit!