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 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."