Not In Siberia Anymore [Intro; Open to everyone at the Institute]

[kid_from_chukotka]

Ilya stood in the lobby of the mansion, attempting not to panic. While his SHIELD handler worked out the final paperwork, she'd benignly told him to stay there. The thing of it was, though, he was pretty sure that an entire apartment complex from home could fit in here. He tried not to fidget as it continued to hit home just how far away from, well, home that he was. The world seemed suddenly much too big, leaving him motionless as he tried to figure out what to do. He looked at his bags and wondered if he should take them up to his room... except he had no idea where his room was. And despite SHIELD having taught him fluent English, the Russian was loathe to call out for help and say something stupid and grammatically incorrect. He didn't want to look like an idiot right after he'd walked through the door.

So the fifteen year old stood there, glancing around awkwardly, silent as a mouse.

Comments

[shadeblossom]

Hana got the usual staff notice that a new student arrived. She liked to know a little about where each one was from so that she could occasionally try to work some local dishes into the school menu. It was nice to give them a little bit of home every now and then.

When she heard they were getting a student from Russia, she was very excited! Misha had been helping her with her Russian speaking and she'd tried her hand at a few dishes, but it was exciting to get a fresh perspective on her progress. And another guinea pig for her recipe experiments, since the local kids sometimes didn't care much for Russian fare.

Hana checked with Rachel to see where Ilya would be roomed until the dorms opened and popped into the room before he was scheduled to arrive. She left a small, white box tied with pink ribbon on the desk in the room with a note written in Russian attached:

Welcome to Xavier's! I'm Hana Blaire. I run the kitchen here. I hope your trip here was pleasant and I hope you're settling in well.

I'm looking forward to meeting you. I've been learning the Russian language and cooking for a while now. I would be pleased to have a chance to practice more. Feel free to stop by the kitchen and say hello any time!

In the meantime, I hope these vatrushka give you a little taste of home while you're setting in.

Hana Blaire

Inside the box, there were two sweet dough pastries with a rich, sweet cheese filling.

[kid_from_chukotka]

Ilya had already been given a warm greeting by more than one person, but the gifts and the note had to be the biggest surprise since he'd gotten here. Twin spikes of anxiety and joy rose up in him; on the one hand, he wanted to be able to let himself believe the best about Hana and imagine having at least one person to speak Russian to. Her writing shows she has a good grasp of the language, after all. It's that fear of being part Chukchi and Siberian and therefore subpar. You didn't have to study Russian long before you got to the Chukchi jokes.

Still, it's just so incredibly nice to have something he recognizes. Granted, the cheese isn't reindeer cheese like in most of Siberia, but it's still instantly recognizable as food and as something he could've had at home. He slowly savors the first one before hiding the other away for later. Even if he's not sure how much she knows about him or how he should feel about this, he wants to thank her in person.

If he's wiping at his eyes a little as he seeks out the kitchen, it's with a small smile on his face.

[shadeblossom]

Hana was in the kitchen, sitting at the big island with a recipe book open by one elbow and a notebook by the other. She thought she'd be past so much note taking once she graduated, but apparently not! When the door opened, she looked up and smiled at the unfamiliar face.

"You must be Ilya," she greeted him, pushing the books aside and switching to careful Russian. "Welcome! How have you liked everything so far?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

"I am. Ilya, Gavrilov Anatolyevich," he introduces himself in the formal Russian order. His manners are the one thing that aren't rusty, and he offers her a slight smile in response and switching his own language; she may detect the softness to harsh sounds typical of those in the Russian Far East. "Everything has been great and the people have been kind. Thank you very much for the food and the note. I was not expecting that. It means a lot to me."

[shadeblossom]

"You're very welcome. I hope I'm not abusing the language too badly. It's my newest language. I've been learning from my boyfriend. Our boys are picking it up much faster than I am, though." Especially the words they weren't supposed to pick up.

She hopped down from the bar stool at the counter and extended a four-fingered hand to shake his.

[kid_from_chukotka]

"You're doing fine. You have an accent, but it's actually very charming. Where in Russia is your boyfriend from?" Ilya takes her hand gently, smiling genuinely at her. It's stupid, but he can't help thinking about how romantic it is that she'd learn a language for someone she loves, and it reminds him of his father failing so badly to learn Chukchi for his wife, who thought every attempt was perfect in how flawed it was. "And how many languages do you speak? I'm always impressed by how smart some people are with languages - I'm still refining my English."

[shadeblossom]

"Thank you! He was born and raised here in New York, but his mother's from the Volgograd area." She released his hand and gestured to the island and its bar stools. "Why don't you have a seat? Are you hungry or thirsty?" She couldn't help it. The need to feed people had been solidly instilled, watching her mother cook for their large family. Now, she got to play mommy to all the Xavier's kids.

"I grew up speaking English, Japanese, and an alien language called Cadre. That's my dad's native language that pretty much nobody on Earth speaks except our family." Hana shrugged and smiled. It was a little weird, but it worked for them.

[kid_from_chukotka]

"Ah. Volgograd has a bit of a history to it; I think maybe that overshadows the actual people from it. That happens often in Russia when someone is from a place that has historical significance." And after all, when Ilya was in Russia that was recent history, and therefore extremely relevant information at the time. It's disconcerting to know that he's likely chronologically as old as the man's mother. Nonetheless, he turns his matter to the question. "Some water would be wonderful, thank you. Three languages at once is very impressive. It makes sense you're as good at Russian as you are when you've worked with other languages that different from each other." Color him impressed; he couldn't even say any of the tidbits of Japanese he'd heard because they were just too different from his native Chukchi to process still. "If you want to switch back to English, just do so. I know it can be hard to keep up a new language sometimes. That's why Russians have the best curse words - we interacted with so many foreigners and botched their languages it was a necessity." Or at least, that's how his mother would've explained it.

[shadeblossom]

Hana laughed happily at his curse word explanation. She'd bet anything that Logan would agree with him. And he's not the first to tell her Russians have the best curse words. It was, apparently, a widely held belief.

She snagged two glasses from one of the cabinets and filled them with water from the tap. One, she set down in front of him. The other she sipped as she sat back down, switching back to English. "I guess it's easier when you're young. I've struggled a bit with Russian, but I have a good teacher."

"Are you settling in okay? If you need anything, feel free to speak up. I try to keep an eye on all the students here. I know how hard it is to be so far from home and family."

[kid_from_chukotka]

He smiled. She has a nice laugh, and is such a sweet person. It's good to know there's someone like her who he can talk to a little in Russian; it makes the vastness of the world less big and intimidating, in a way.

Ilya took the glass of water gratefully and nodded. "I struggled more than I'd like to admit with English. They're very different languages. It doesn't help rural areas like where I'm from have their own dialectal words. But it's getting easier the more I speak it daily.

"I'm fine. I've met some nice people here already, and everything seems really luxurious compared to home. Other than missing the cold I think I'll like it here."

[shadeblossom]

"If you really want cold, we have a student here who can set you up with some ice and snow." If he couldn't wait for the winter, anyway. Hana didn't hate the cold as much as her mother, but she was still a spring girl at heart.

"There's a small lake on the grounds we like to use for ice skating when it's cold enough. Have you done much skating?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

"I feel like that would be a little demanding. I mean, who am I to ask someone to go make snow and ice for me?" It seems kind of rude, to Ilya. After all, he's just some new guy, not someone to drop everything for and go help. And it's not like it never snows here.

"I've never been skating. We had shoes back home made to keep us from slipping on it, but the smooth ice was used as a road so anybody attempting to slip around on it would get yanked in by their mothers."

[shadeblossom]

"Oh, they're always happy to show off a little. Maybe I'll see if I can arrange a little skate party some weekend soon." Hana knew her boys would would love it. There was not much they enjoyed more than a good snowball fight.

"Moms are like that. Mine was always pulling my brother and me down from tall furniture. She said we got monkey climbing genes from dad."

[kid_from_chukotka]

"Well, I suppose if they're alright with it, then it's okay." He wonders what ice skating is like. It's enough to stall any more fervent objections he might have to it.

"My mother was on the watch for that too. Except I wanted to climb up onto the roof."