A Christmas Carol (tag Jehan, Tatya, Vlad and Ruby) on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Dorian Montoir

April 11, 2018 10:32 AM

A Christmas Carol (tag Jehan, Tatya, Vlad and Ruby) by Dorian Montoir

Just as Dorian had had mixed feelings at the thought of going home for the holidays, he had mixed feelings about that no longer being an option… The first feeling to hit him though had been stomach clenching misery, and guilt, even though this wasn’t his fault. He had been focussing on the positive sides of going home, and in spite of all its complications, he couldn’t wait to see his sister. Only now, he had to… Yes, he avoided Matthieu, which was good, and he got to see Jehan for Christmas, which should have been wonderful - which was wonderful - but it was supposed to be Émilie’s turn to see him. He loved them both, and it didn’t feel fair to her… He knew Jehan was excited about them getting to spend time together over the holidays, and he was too, so he tried to match his friend’s enthusiasm, and tell himself that he wasn’t betraying his sister when he did. He thought Tatya might, for once, be a better companion for his melancholy. He was sure Jehan understood theoretically, but right now, Tatya had the same pain he did.

Once he’d got over the initial shock, one of the first thoughts that had occurred to him had been Jehan’s words from last year Someday I’ll actually be able to give you your present on Christmas Day… - words he was keen to remind him of when they exchanged gifts this year. He didn’t think Jehan had thought that Christmas would come so soon when he’d said that. To say that Dorian had not thought about this statement would be untrue and unfair. He had thought of it. But he had never really analysed it, simply taking it as a variation of the idea that one day they would be adults and get to choose for themselves - to make their own social engagements, rather than returning home to their parents, and following other people’s plans for their holidays. If pressed for details of who one tended to spend Christmas with, he would have answered that one spent Christmas Day with one’s family, until one was married, and then with that person, either including them in your own Christmas or joining in with theirs. He also knew that Jehan had talked about them being together for future Christmases. He had accepted both of these as entirely plausible, because he had never thought about them both at the same time, and noticed that they did not mesh particularly well. He had probably given less thought to the former idea - the future was a vague, far away thing. It would be fun. It would be with someone who loved him and whom he loved, but that didn’t have a specific enough shape yet for him to picture it.

He was excited to give Jehan his present too, in person, on Christmas Day. Although, when he had thought about him and Jehan having Christmas together it had definitely not involved the possibility of quite so many other people around (when he pictured the scene, it looked more or less like his and Jehan’s MARS room… Only with a sense that they were Not At School. They were just… somewhere that had both of them and that they’d chosen to be). Now that they had this strange not-yet-grown-ups but still-spending-Christmas-together Christmas, and there were a lot of other people to consider, and it was definitely logistically confusing. He had initially imagined spending it with all the gang, and then he had remembered Victor… And the fact that Vlad and Ruby both had family here too… Ruby had her grandfather here although it was very hard to imagine Headmaster Brockert hanging out with a student, even when you theoretically knew that she was his granddaughter - she just… didn’t seem like it. So perhaps it would just be him and Tatya, which might be a little odd and intense. He couldn’t imagine Victor wanting to join a bunch of second years, nor could he imagine Jehan not wanting to spend time with his brother on Christmas Day. Dorian could only hope that Jehan was planning on spending time with both of them but separately. He had nothing against Victor, he just really didn’t know him, which made him intimidating (along with the fact that it really mattered what Victor thought of him because Victor mattered so much to Jehan), and he also didn’t feel like he and Jehan could be ‘him and Jehan’ with Victor there. He had no idea whether Victor and Jehan could be Victor and Jehan with him there either. He didn’t exactly mind if they spent some time together because he supposed he had to get to know Victor at some point, but he didn’t want to feel like he was intruding on them as a family, and he wanted to spend some time alone with Jehan too, to give him his present. He didn’t even really want to give Jehan his present in front of their other friends. Not that he didn’t have presents for everyone - he did, he had got Vlad a nice new notebook and some different coloured inks, to help make his note taking at Club of Tongues either more organised or at least more fun. He had even slipped in some language practise and cultural awareness by labelling the red bottle ‘Bùyào yòng wèile xiě rén de míngzì’ - he was confident that Vlad would get ‘Do not’ and, if he was paying attention would remember that the final word was ‘name’ because that came up in basic introductions, but he might need to do some dictionary work to understand the full message. He’d got Vlad’s present by owl order and had written to his mother for help with Tatya and Ruby. He had been planning to buy their gifts when he was back home, and already knew what he wanted to get Tatya - she liked gloves, and there was a store his mother loved that had Chinese silks. He had, for lack of a better idea, suggested the same for Ruby. His mother had owled back, with a pair of red silk gloves for Tatya, a small compact mirror inlaid with a red glass pattern on the lid for Ruby, and the advice that the girls in his life probably did not wish to be treated as interchangeable. Jehan’s present was different though... He had learnt from last year, and handmade it, and that meant it was personal. He’d bought the paper in a craft store over the summer. The patterns on it had reminded him of the swirls on their rug in the MARS room. He had taken some time to think of something suitable to do with it, eventually settling on the idea of origami cranes. Not that he had known how to make origami cranes at that point - something which he would be sure to subtly drop into the conversation with Jehan once he had given it to him, both because he resented the idea that just because he was part Asian he knew ‘all the Asian things’ as if they were just one single entity (not that Jehan had ever done that to him, but enough people had that he felt the need to Make A Point) and so that Jehan knew how much time and effort had gone into it. Origami cranes were really hard to make. He had supplemented the original paper with others in blues, yellows, greens, and in blended shades and patterns of them, learnt how to make the damn cranes, and strung them together into a mobile, so that Jehan could have a little reminder of their MARS room with him when they had to be apart, either by being in their separate houses or their separate homes.

But Christmas Day itself was a while away, so the complexities of who everyone was spending it with could wait. And in the meantime, he’d had a fun idea for how they could spend one of their mornings. His family had sent him all kinds of holiday treats, and a few copies of past Christmas photos - it was a holiday tradition to look through the albums, which were filled with formal portraits of them all in co-ordinated attire, along with more informal family snaps. He tended to prefer the latter type, not only because they were more fun, but because they didn’t always involve his brother, whereas the formal shots did - although there was one formal shot he’d been sent a copy of that he was very fond of. It showed their parents seated on the couch, a fourteen month old Dorian next to his mother, and a newly-turned-three Matthieu seated beside their father. Their mother always referred to it as ‘the first photo of all five of us’ although even she hadn’t realised that Émilie existed when it had been taken. He also had their group shot from last year (and had arranged the photos on his wall with a degree of overlap, hoping that Vlad was too polite to comment on the fact that he’d effectively cropped his brother out - three year old Matthieu he could deal with, current Matthieu he’d rather not look at), and a couple of less formal photos that he suspected his sister had had a hand in picking, including one of her aged two and a bit ecstatically running around in circles winding tinsel around him instead of the tree. His parents had also sent an early Christmas present in the form of a small camera and a few rolls of film so that he could document this rather unusual Christmas. His family’s letter had also reminded him of other holiday traditions - Émilie had suggested how tragic it would be that he would have Christmas not only without her, but also without various delicious foods and also without ice skating! The first two he admittedly could not do much about, but the last one was easily fixed with the help of the MARS rooms. He had excitedly suggested it to all his friends the previous night, advising them to dress warmly and meet him there the next morning.

He got to MARS a little early, to make sure the room was free. He stepped inside. Back home, they went to a park that was popular with the wizarding community, where a stretch of the river running through it usually froze over and, if it didn’t, there was a sizeable pond that could take a few skaters. The MARS room did not look like either the river or the pond in the park. He supposed he didn’t really want it to… This wasn’t skating at home, it was skating with his friends, and it was going to be fantastic and he was excited, but it made sense for it to take place somewhere different. It was a large, round pond - Dorian always skated outside, and it didn’t occur to him that a rink, with a side to cling to, might be a bit more beginner friendly. There were some snowy shrubs around the edge and a stone bench… It wasn’t the most exciting scene, but it was the people who were going to join him that would make it so. He sat down on the bench, pulling off his shoes and putting on the black skates that MARS had provided. He supposed it would conjure more pairs as needed. He would have felt odd walking through the corridors in all his winter gear, but he now pulled out a green and blue knitted scarf, a blue pair of gloves and a blue hat with a green pom-pom on top, the ends of his floppy dark hair just poking out around the edges once he had pulled it on. He deposited the camera on the bench, hoping that as people took breaks from skating they could snap pictures of the others.

With a little thrill of excitement, he stepped onto the ice. He loved this. It was just one of those moments that let you know Christmas had arrived - one of those special things that you only got to do at a particular time of year. And even though he was away from his family, it still managed to work that magic. He pushed off, gliding easily around the pond, as if he had been doing this his whole life. Which he more of less had… Ok, so he doubted his parents had dumped him on the ice at two months old, but he also couldn’t really remember a time when he hadn’t gone skating at Christmas… He remembered a few early bumps and falls, but he wasn’t even convinced those were his first times on the ice. And he wasn’t really sure whether he remembered his father teaching him, or had just looked at the photos and talked about it so often that he thought he did... He remembered Émilie’s lessons better, helping out, holding her hands, keeping an eye on her as his father juggled the demands of having three children of different ages and abilities on the ice. Matthieu had always wanted to race - he had sometimes drawn Dorian into it, but tired quickly of how easily he beat him. He had sometimes skated against the other children they knew, but he tired of it quickly if they were older and easily beat him. When they had been small, their father would keep close enough to make it feel like a competition and then often let him win. Matthieu tended to race properly with his friends now, leaving Dorian and Émilies to mess about and have fun together. Their father would still share his time between them, or skate and chat with the other parents. Their mother could skate a little - their father had taught her too - but generally didn’t, or at least not for long, waiting for them on the bank, or even at home. As in many Pureblood families, their father spent a lot of time working, and it was their mother, the homemaker, who they’d spent the most time with, and Dorian had lots of things he associated with her. Christmas, in general, was always a good time for family, but he had such vividly happy memories of skating because it was one of the few quality times they got with their father, doing something that was special and specific to him.

As he reached the far edge, he turned neatly, doing the second half of the lap backwards, a huge grin on his face. He turned again when he reached the bench, so that he faced forward, gliding as long as he could on a single blade. He played this game with himself for a while, then returned to laps, half forward, half backwards. He had just turned at the head of the pond and was seeing whether he could remember how to backwards crossovers (satisfyingly, the answer was ‘yes’) when he heard the door open. He swung around easily, and skated over towards the edge nearest the bench.

“Hello,” he grinned, stopping at the side of the pond, “Come join with me,” he invited, ready to offer a helping hand if it was needed.

OOC - welcome friends! Dorian will do his best to look after you and make sure you don’t fall. If you have questions about what he’d do/need to God-mod, catch me in chatzy or PM me. He would have told Jehan, Tatya, Vlad and Ruby to meet him for skating. If anyone else wants to join, you could either be happening to look into MARS to see what’s going on, or catch us in chatzy to ask if a message would have been passed along (e.g. I imagine Tatya might invite Jasmine).

13 Dorian Montoir A Christmas Carol (tag Jehan, Tatya, Vlad and Ruby) 1401 Dorian Montoir 1 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

April 14, 2018 11:58 PM

I shall honor the spirit of Rozhdestvo and keep it always. by Tatiana Vorontsova

They weren’t allowed to go home.

When Tatiana had first heard this news, she had rejected it out of hand, sure she had misunderstood. After all, this year, Sonia was going to have her party – she had been sixteen for months and it was her turn to be the guest of honor at a great party where she wore her hair up and her skirts down for the first time. Tatiana, as her sister, was supposed to be there, too – she was not old enough to really attend, of course, but she was supposed to get to eat dinner and watch some of the dancing, and maybe take a few turns on the floor with suitable young men of sterling reputation and long association with the family. She had been promised this, in fact. It was not one of her gifts for Rozhdestvo, but it was close enough that even receiving a gift – a beautiful necklace with blue and yellow sapphires at intervals – to open early once her parents had figured out what on earth the professors were trying to write to them had not made her much happier.

She had still been unhappy when Dorian had come up with the idea to go skating, so unhappy that the idea hadn’t perked her up right away, but overnight, she had started to slightly warm up to the idea. She loved winter, loved being out in the ice and snow – it was one time when no-one would scold her for moving as vigorously as she wished, as the alternative at home was to freeze as solid as a statue. Plus, she had made friends with Jasmine last year when they had come back and there had still been snow, so it had some positive associations even at Sonora. Impulsively, then, she scribbled a note – Jasmine, we have ice in MARS, you want to come? - and sent it off to her friend before heading down to see what Dorian had come up with.

It was, of course, perfect. The last of her ill temper slipped her mind as she saw it and clasped her hands together. Partially this was because they were rapidly getting cold – she was indoors and so not wearing gloves, though she was glad she had them in her pocket, as it now at least looked like she was outside besides feeling like it – but mostly it was out of delight. She beamed at her friend as he skated over to her.

“Ty chudesnyi,” she told him warmly, having now said ‘you are wonderful’ enough recently to have forgotten that she was not sure she had ever translated it for him. She looked down and saw a pair of skates that looked just her size. “Ya – let me put on.”

She was able to get onto the ice herself and took pleasure in picking up speed, skating in a long, smooth straight line as fast as she could for a moment before turning around. She skated backward back toward her starting point for a moment, then turned to skate toward Dorian, laughing in delight as a very light flurry of snow descended around her.

“You the very, very best,” she added as she drew level with her friend again. She skated around him, the snow very flatteringly swirling around her as though she were Snegurochka. She didn’t notice that her jacket and hat had just turned from red to pale blue with white trim as she put out a hand to grasp his in affection. “Samyi lyuchshii,” she added, giving ‘very best’ in Russian as well to emphasize the point.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova I shall honor the spirit of Rozhdestvo and keep it always. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Dorian

April 20, 2018 10:23 AM

You seem to be taking that a bit far by Dorian

He was not quite sure what that word meant. And being unfamiliar, it tended to slip away from him very quickly, and that meant he didn’t recognise it as being the same word that Tatya had used for him in the library. But he recognised a compliment when he received one.

“Spasibo,” he smiled, as Tatya put on her skates and joined him on the ice.

He watched her skate, unsurprised to find that she could do it perfectly well, given where she had grown up. He had expected her to be able to, and was looking forward both to the fact that he could have fun with her whilst they waited and that he and Tatya, citizens of snowy lands, could teach the Americans to skate (which he assumed, whether or not correctly, that they could not). It would be nice for both of them as well, to be the ones with the advantage for once. It was one of the reasons why the Club of Tongues was so much fun too - ok, he didn’t necessarily know any more Russian than any of the others, but he and Tatya both got to spend a bit of time in their element. A bit of time being the one with the skills, or the knowledge. It was nice to get a turn at that.

“Merci beaucoup,” he blushed slightly as she heaped further praise upon him. It was one of the ways he had found in which Tatya did not remind him of Émilie. Not that Émilie didn’t praise and compliment him too - she was liberal with both verbal and physical affection. But it affected him differently coming from Tatya. He had held Émilie’s hand through every childhood experience - every illness, every new thing she’d had to learn - been her playmate, patiently endured her tantrums and her tea parties, learnt to braid hair so that he could redo hers and keep her out of trouble for getting messy… When Émilie showered him with love, he was very aware that it was natural and of the million ways or more in which he deserved it. It did not make him any less grateful, but it… it didn’t make him blush. When Tatya complimented him it was the one time he was acutely aware that she was not really his sister. He had done nowhere near the things he had done for Émilie for her, and yet she still seemed to think so highly of him. He hadn’t really expected that many people other than Émilie would be able to be so fond of him, and now he had both Tatya and Jehan, and it made him feel warm whenever they showed him that he was special to them.

As Tatya had skated back to him, he hadn’t dwelt on the flurry of snow around her, assuming it to be an effect of the MARS room. The MARS room though, would not change her outfit like that. And he was pretty sure he hadn’t, because he hadn’t really had strong feelings about what she was wearing.

“Oh… Tatya. I make you sick?” he suggested, gesturing with his free hand at her clothes. When the news had been announced that the spates of accidental magic were, in fact, part of a virus Dorian had instantly realised that he had it (he was still on the fence about Jehan’s sweater, but the angry notes he’d made appear when talking to Professor Wright certainly counted) and had duly warned his friends. Of course, they had been hanging out with him during the entire period of his illness, and thus the possibility for damage control was limited. “I am sorry,” he apologised. Still, there was nothing much he could do about it now - and equally, nothing that needed doing. Neither he nor Tatya had anything that could be cured right now. They just had to wait it out. And, whilst they did, they might as well enjoy themselves... He turned, so that he was beside her, but didn’t let go of her hand, setting off on another lap of the ice, trying to take measured paces and keep in sync with her. As they neared the top of the pond, he swung around, so he was facing her, taking her other hand so that he was holding both, slowing his pace a little but skating backwards so that she could keep moving.

“So, how do you normally do on the ice?” he asked. “You like to dance?” he asked, smiling playfully, “Or at least pretend we know how - Émilie and I like to do like this. Some ballroom, it transfers. Other not so much.”

13 Dorian You seem to be taking that a bit far 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana

April 21, 2018 12:11 PM

Go big or go home, and we can't go home yet. by Tatiana

Tatiana’s smile flickered for a moment in confusion when Dorian asked if he had made her sick and looked down toward her clothes when he gestured in their direction. Upon looking at them, she stopped being confused. They had not been this color, but now they were.

“Eh,” she said, shrugging and dismissing that as a problem for later. If she was ill, she was ill. She did not like being ill – having to stay in bed made her impatient once she got a little better, then she wanted to be irritable and had to try not to because Mama and Anya and Katya would all give her such disapproving looks, and then at some point she’d try to get up and get back to having fun and make herself sick all over again – but if she was ill, she was ill, and she would get better eventually. At home, she lived in close contact with three sisters and was also around two brothers daily. Everyone got ill, and everyone eventually recovered – it was worrisome with a baby, babies were delicate, but Tatiana was not a baby and usually recovered quickly from everything. A thought occurred to her and she smiled again. “Sick later, maybe. Now Snegurochka.”

Accordingly, they skated on, and Tatiana was impressed with Dorian’s skill as he turned and took her other hand as well. “Ballroom skate? This – I’ve not try. I like dance, though, we try, though – maybe fall on nose.” She was momentarily frustrated by her inability to follow her thoughts through – her basic thought was more elaborate, involving falling on her nose to avoid slashing his leg open with a skate if she fell in some other direction – but it did not seem awfully important at the moment. She raised one set of their two arms higher and lifted one foot up off the ice for a moment. “Wait – we need music,” she added authoritatively, concentrating for a moment until the room began to play it for them…after a fashion. It was a dance tune, but it seemed to be played through all-organic instruments. It was a bit uncanny, but not unpleasant…. “Good?” she asked.

16 Tatiana Go big or go home, and we can't go home yet. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

April 24, 2018 10:20 AM

Do you have to go quite so big though? by Dorian

Tatya seemed to shrug off the suggestion of her being sick as something to worry about later, and the playful little smile she gave him was infectious. He smiled back. It was a lot harder to worry about the illness when it was doing fun things like changing the colour of her clothing.

“No falling on noses, I don’t allow it,” Dorian assured her, his tone gentle rather than commanding, the meaning clearly that he would not let it happen, rather than he was forbidding it. He adjusted his arms, taking Tatya in a slightly looser than usual ballroom hold so they could get more used to the movements, It felt a little odd to be looking up at his partner and he briefly wondered whether this was part of the reason people didn’t go to quite so many balls and parties at their age. He was aware that he was genetically predestined to never be exactly the tallest guy in the world but he hoped that by the end adolescence the different timings of when people decided to grow might have evened out a bit, and he might have a reasonable chance of finding some appropriate height dance partners. He generally wasn’t too self conscious about his height (or lack thereof) but a large part of that probably had to do with hanging out so much with Vlad and Jehan, who were both a very similar size to him, and to not taking Tatya in ballroom hold too often. He thought that during the actual ball, a night spent quietly on the sidelines with Jehan might be the way forward…

“Yes, it is interesting but pleasant,” he nodded regarding the music, “You can do backwards skate, and can do waltz, then you can do,” he promised Tatya. “I call your steps,” again, it was a role he was used to as an older brother - working through his steps, whilst reminding Émilie of hers. Although he almost automatically began in French, and it took a moment for his brain to put it into English, “Right go backward gliding, bring left for side step, gliding sideways, change weight. Now left go backward gliding, bring right for side step, gliding sideways,” it was hard to explain, but he trusted that Tatya’s knowledge of both fields would help. He wasn’t sure if this was how one officially waltzed on ice (if such a thing existed) and he was pretty sure anyone who could dance for real on the ice would laugh, but it was how he and Émilie had muddled through. It fitted the timing, it fitted the basic steps, and no one was falling on their nose.

OOC - height references checked with authors and/or established from working their adult heights back along a growth chart because I'm a nerd

13 Dorian Do you have to go quite so big though? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Ruby Brockert

April 28, 2018 1:49 PM

I doubt I'll give you much to worry about by Ruby Brockert

Ruby had been extremely disappointed when the quarantine had been anounced. She had been really looking forward to seeing her parents and younger siblings, even Topaz. Not to mention seeing her cousins. Olaf seemed bigger every time she saw him and Aunt Amanda was expecting a baby in January. Which was disappointing in itself because Ruby wouldn't have been able to see her until summer anyway. Family was important to the Teppenpaw and the holidays were about family.

Stilll, she was determined to make the best of it. After all, she still had Emerald and Grandfather and Angelique. Besides, how could anyone be unhappy during the holidays? Ruby was pretty sure it was physically impossible with all the pretty decorations, delicious food, and just general atmosphere of good cheer.

Plus, Dorian had invited her to a get together today. Unfortunately, Ruby didn't actually know how to skate. She'd never really been all that athletic. Nobody in her family really was other than Uncle Eustace who'd been a star Quidditch player for Pecari when he'd been at Sonora. And, Uncle Eustace wasn't really someone Ruby wanted to emulate as he wasn't very nice. Her uncle valued athletics above all else, including far more important characteristics. Still, she felt kind of sorry for him as he was pretty much past his glory days. Her uncle had never had much success as a professional Quidditch player and now he'd grown bitter.

She arrived in the MARS room carrying a present for Dorian and cards for Jehan, Tatiana and Vlad. Ruby had made cards for all the second years and the ones for the rest were back at her room.

The Teppenpaw sat down and strapped on her skates. She watched Dorian and Tatiana for a moment and was suddenly filled with dread. She was totally going to embarass herself!

11 Ruby Brockert I doubt I'll give you much to worry about 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5

Tatiana

May 06, 2018 10:00 PM

I like to live dangerously by Tatiana

Tatiana recognized her friend’s tone, but was amused by the words anyway, and crossed her eyes to look at her nose. “You hear?” she asked it. “No falling. Dorya does not allow it,” she teased, straightening her gaze out and grinning at Dorian.

She had had dance lessons at home, so the waltz was a thing she knew. She was, however, used to dancing with people who were either taller than her, or else Katya. With the taller people she followed, but with Katya she usually lead, pretending to be a boy to help her sister learn the steps, which made it difficult to mentally adjust to Dorian playing the man’s part between them – not because she thought of herself as masculine and him as feminine, but simply because he was shorter than her. It secretly amused her sometimes with Vladimir and Jehan and Dorian to imagine that she was a giant woman, ten versts high, towering over mere men the way they were supposed to tower over women - she imagined that if she really tried, she could probably pick Dorian up! She might not get him very far, and he could free himself by kicking a very little and toppling them both over, but she imagined she could get his feet off the ground.

For now, though, they both needed at least one foot on the ground, and she needed to concentrate on him calling the steps - she had to hear the word in English, understand it, and move in time with the music and her partner. One day, she hoped, English would just...fall on her ears, the way it seemed to for Anton Petrovich, who seemed to speak and understand it as readily as he did Russian. For now, following real-time directions in English was a bit of a challenge, but she was managing when a turn took them around so she spotted Ruby Brockert.

Ruby’s name interested her for reasons beyond the obvious. It was an easy English word to remember, sounding rather like rubin (a much closer match than ‘emerald’ was to ‘izumrud’), but in Russian it was a masculine word. It was also...a thing. Did Americans also name their children ‘ring’ and ‘necklace’ and…’chair’ and ‘shoe’ and the like? Of course, she had not heard anyone here called the words for Truth or Wisdom, as was the case at home….

“Hallo,” she said, smiling with a jerk of her chin to the other girl. “You skate?”

She was very conscious of her accented, truncated English whenever people who weren’t part of her established close friends were around, but forced the awareness out of her mind. Traces lingered enough, however, that she did not immediately offer to try to teach them khorovod, the circle dance with singing, on ice to incorporate the new arrival, instead glancing at Dorian for guidance.

16 Tatiana I like to live dangerously 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

May 10, 2018 7:47 AM

I don't. I definitely don't. I prefer snuggling. by Dorian

Dorian smiled as Tatya gave her own nose a stern talking to. She made him smile a lot, in a way that was completely different to the way that Jehan did…

They started their waltz and she managed to keep pace with the steps he was calling, albeit a little haltingly.

“Otlichno,” he praised her with a smile. “How do we say to do skating in Russian?” he added. Admittedly, he probably wouldn’t use that word more than once a year, and it was thus unlikely to stay in his head, but he was always curious to pick up new pieces of vocabulary, and to see what new ideas he could make by mixing them together with his existing words. Sometimes he was frustrated by his inability to communicate well, but sometimes, when he combined words in a way he hadn’t thought to before, he was surprised by the complexity of what he had created. Today we skate, tomorrow are ill. Skating is correct because it is Christmas. We can skate because we are not American but Americans cannot skate. Admittedly, they were not the most elegant sentences, but he was sure he could put those all together, and they were meaningful enough. Although speaking of Americans who could not skate…

“Salut, Ruby,” he smiled, breaking away from Tatya. “I’m glad you could make it,” he added, the sentence sounding a little too oddly perfect and a touch rehearsed, due to the fact that it was. There were some phrases he had had simply drilled into him, mostly those to do with manners. But he meant it no less sincerely in spite of this.
He allowed her to answer Tatya, but judging by the fact she had her boots on but was sitting firmly on the bench she wanted to skate but was unsure how, and he was already gliding across, stepping off the ice and walking over to her.

“I can help you,” he offered, holding out his hands and then suddenly realising that Ruby was a girl. And not one he was related to. And not one who was… Tatya. He had never really showed any form of physical affection for Ruby - not that this was affectionate hand holding, it was just intended to be helpful but he wasn’t sure how she would feel about that. He half withdrew his hands - not to the extent that they were no longer on offer, she was still clearly welcome to take them if she so desired, but they were no longer quite so… assuming. “Unless you prefer that Tatya does?” he suggested.

13 Dorian I don't. I definitely don't. I prefer snuggling. 1401 Dorian 0 5