Arkady must have seemed so awkward in the airport. He had to have Sam help him tape down his wings against his back so a trenchcoat would fit properly. And trying to walk like that? He felt like there was a 2x4 strapped to his back. The things he went through for people...
The Girl looked out over the strange landscape, so very different from her homeland, through the small window as the plane approached the airport. She always missed home whenever she had gone on trips with her mother, but her mother wasn't here and she wouldn't be going home...
Letting loose a sigh, Arkady stood near the gate he'd been told in his sister's last e-mail. Their chance meeting had been so crazy. When had that been? Just after prom, that very weekend. It was the anniversary of the death of Nicholas, Arkady's father, and for all he knew, somehow Mishka's as well.
As the plane touched down, she thought back to what she had heard during that last heated arguement between her mother and Ivan, the man she thought was her father. What was said made some of the things in her life make more sense and others less... what was the truth? Did her brother know?
Arkady's mother had promised to see him some 10 years to the day when his father was killed, she came to Paragon, and brought her daughter and new husband that Arkady had never actually met. He took it as more of an insult than anything, and they fought, bitterly. Yet Arkady kept in contact with his apparent sister, and they'd talked ever since, through e-mail.
Mother had known about her contact with Arkady, she knew the whole time but said nothing, why? He never asked about her in his e-mails and she never tried to find out what happened between them for fear of losing contact with him... Would she find out now, and did she really want to know? There were so many questions.
But now? Was Arkady really going to try and get St. Joseph's to take her in? Try and be her brother and more or less guardian all at once? She'd told him about her gift, how scared she was of it all, but nothing specific about it's nature. Man would she freak when she saw his wings.
The girl was exhausted from jet-lag and dramatically long flights. The plane had landed and she was close to panic. How had this happened to her? Leaving her mother? Going to some school she'd never heard of in a foreign country? At least Arkady was here... but what if he decided he hated her like their mother? And then there were her... "Gifts". He was going to send her away, she just knew it, and winced visibly despite herself.
She thought the process of taxiing to the gate and unloading would take forever, and it did seem that way. As soon as the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign turned off, Mishka was like a gymnast in the Olympics. Bag in hand she tried to ignore the young american that had been trying to pick her up for most of the flight. She hoped all boys in this country were not as relentless as that one. She only stopped herself to wait for the First Class passengers that were flooding the aisle ahead of her, and wondered why her mother had not gotten her one of -those- seats, like usual.
Arkady seemed anxious, and even more so when he spotted the girl he'd only really seen once hurrying down the ramp with her bag, a young teenage passenger followed closely behind her. The boy, about seventeen, paused and turned slightly pale as he saw the girl walk towards Arkady. The boy suddenly seemed to have business elsewhere, walking off. Raising his brow, Arkady spoke as she stopped before him, hands in his trenchcoat pockets, looking a good foot down on her.
"Mishka?"
The Girl looked up into his face, trying to be brave. She answered in a calm, steady voice, "Arkady, how are you?". He seemed to pause, lips barely parting. But before he could answer, she burst into tears and threw her arms around him sobbing.
Arkady was startled, but said nothing. They had alot of things to talk about, alot to get used to, and so many emotions to sort out. Carefully drawing his arms about her, Arkady hugged her and guided her toward the baggage claim, finally able to speak.
"Everything will be okay, Siberia."
A Long Time Coming
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