WHO: The Weiss': Anja, Eliza, and Alexi WHEN: Afternoon, before the rain began. WHERE: Fall City street corners, ending in Common Grounds. SUMMARY: Anja goes for fresh fruit and get unexpected children. WARNINGS: None that I can think of, bad pregnancy choices possibly.
Rolling into town had been easy. There had been newspapers and tweets talking about the small town’s Spring Faire and the film being shot there. Alexi couldn’t care less about the movie stars and film, but the subject had drawn him in and then finding out his sister was on the job- how could he pass up such a fun reunion. It probably would have been easier telling her that he was coming in for an extended visit. Probably.
Wind catching the mess of brown-black hair pushing the long locks out of bright blue eyes, Alexi walked through town looking into windows of stores to see if he could find Eliza with good ol’ fashioned luck and investigation. Cigarette in hand, he leant against a brick wall separating one shop and the next. For a small town, it was incredibly active with people.
Anja was on the hunt for fresh fruit. Decent fresh fruit. She wasn't certain if Eliza had been eating properly, and if she were guessing, she would assume no. After all, it could be difficult enough to eat properly during the first few weeks of pregnancy, but then when you were wandering all over the country, working on a film set, odd hours - it seemed unlikely. She stopped at the crosswalk, although traffic in Fall City, even with the film crew, was a far cry from traffic in Berkeley. With no one coming, she walked across the street and stepped up on the sidewalk on the other side, blinking back the sun in her eyes.
There was a young man against the wall nearest her, and her attention was not immediately brought to him, so focused was she on figuring out which of these shops might have the best food options, but even as she took a step forward, she turned back around. The face was familiar, although she had not seen it in person for so long.
It was so unexpected that she was almost hesitant to say his name aloud - it couldn't be him, could it? "Alexi?"
A child can grow and change in the years between seeing relatives- usually not one’s mother, but both parents held onto busy professional lives- but parents stayed the same in the eyes of a child. Pushing windblown hair out of his gaze, Alexi’s eyes widened at the sight of his mother. Eliza would, of course, be in town; their mother, not so much. There had been no way of knowing their mother would be there given he thought she was still working in California. Teaches me to not check in with mom more often, he thought to himself.
Throwing down his cigarette and stomping it out, he pushed off the wall. “Mama?” When caught off guard the practiced American accent faltered back to his natural German. “Was machst du hier?” He asked.
All Eliza wanted was coffee. Maybe that wasn't entirely accurate, the cigarette in hand a sort of calming mechanism as she walked down the street. The town wasn't that big though, which meant running into slowly more familiar looking faces. Until the faces were more than familiar.
She almost stopped in the middle of the street when she saw what looked like Alexi. A car honked at her and Eliza flicked a bit of ash their direction before finishing crossing the street.
There was Alexi and her mother. Mama was expected but Eliza came up beside her, reaching out with her cigarette free hand to poke at Alexi's chest to see if he was real.
Anja was not the type to cry, even though the past few weeks had been a bit more emotional than usual, and so rather than risk that emotional punch of seeing her son turn into something more wet, she stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. "Was mache ich hier? Was machst du hier, Alexi?"
And then there was her daughter, poking her brother, and Anja barely had time to register that she had both of her children standing in front of her for the first time in over a decade when the cigarette in Eliza's hand registered. "Eliza."
A hug had not been expected. Alexi’s father had not been much of a hugger and not seeing his mother in forever and a day made the gesture a little awkward on his end. For all he did to mess up the planned outcome of their ‘perfect’ child, there was no reason for Anja to have been read in on it. “Uh,” Alexi shrugged at his mother's returned question.
Shock subsided at the sight of Eliza. A grin spread over his features. “Surprise.” Swiping back his hair, he looked down at the cigarette and back at their mother in question. Looking back to his sister, he poked her back. “So… a nice family reunion, yeah? Here I was thinking it’d only be me sneaking into Eliza’s film set.”
“Mama slipped in last week.” Eliza squirmed playfully at the poke to her side. She took another drag of her cigarette as she looked at her mother. “What? Oh.” she paused and then looked back at Alexi.
Her free arm wrapped around his to pull him into a hug. “Why are you here?”
Eliza had asked the question Anja wanted answered, but it was all she could do to not reach out and take the cigarette from her daughter. These were habits that were not ideal even if she were not pregnant, but pregnant, they were even more problematic, but one thing at a time. She looked pointedly at the cigarette, and then at Eliza, and then turned to Alexi. "Yes, Alexi, why are you here?"
One arm hugging his sister, it had been too long since he got to see her in person. The last couple years had been insane, busy, and nothing but a real adventure. “Whelp, I was in the area- meaning California- and on my way to taking on the waterfalls of the Palouse region when I heard through the grapevine that you were working on this film.” Alexi scratched at the back of his head under his long hair. “I thought you were still in Cali, Mama,” he attempted to divert.
"The waterfalls of the Palouse region," Anja raised an eyebrow skeptical, but that was hardly the most surprising explanation of anything she'd heard in the past month. "Well that is fortunate. I was in California, yes, but I came up to spend some time with your sister."
“I didn't know you were on this side of the country.” Eliza half answered half murmured. Everything had been so busy the past few weeks, it was something she probably should have known.
Alexi gave his mother an innocent, yet mischievous smile. He doubted his father kept her read in on the little he even knew about their son’s adventures. There had only been two times he had to call his dad for bail money, which ended up being strange situations given his German citizenship. It never stopped him though.
“I went on a trip from New York to surprise you. Want to catch some coffee?”
Anja nodded her agreement at this suggestion. "An excellent idea, Alexi. There's no sense in standing here in the street having these conversations." She looked over at her son and reached over and fondly touched his cheek for a moment. It had been far too long since she'd been able to touch him and he'd grown up in the interim. "Do you have a place to stay while you're here?"
“I like coffee.” Eliza answered, still watching her brother as if he was a shadow that could disappear. Or a monster that could change at any moment to someone else. She looked over at their mother, slightly suspicious that she had something to do with his sudden arrival.
“Okay.” He nodded, then started toward the coffee shop as if he already knew every crevice of the town. Coffee was an important part of his life after all. High impacts of fight-or-flight Adrenaline could only keep you afloat for so long, all other moments had to be driven by the bitter goodness. Alexi ignored his mother’s other question in favour of slipping around her to head toward the only coffee shop in town.
Anja loved both of her children and wondered why each could exasperate her so much so easily. She preferred science, although if she were being perfectly fair, science also could throw curveballs at you just as well as children. She followed both of them. "The coffee is my treat, but Eliza, you should do decaf."
“Decaf isn't even coffee.” Eliza answered with another cool drag, watching the smoke curl up into the air.
Raising a brows, Alexi turned around to look between his mother and sister. Letting himself slow to walk beside Eliza, he steals the cigarette from her fingers to take a drag himself. “I smoked my last one back there,” he explained without an ounce of regret.
“Why are you on her case, Mama? A little caffeine never hurt anyone.”
"Go ahead and keep that," Anja told Alexi, watching the cigarette shift ownership. She was going to give Eliza the opportunity to tell him, before she spilled the beans. "So long as it's the first cup, it's probably fine." But it wasn't, she suspected.
“She's being weird because I'm pregnant.” Eliza deadpanned before stealing her cigarette back. “You're stealing from a pregnant woman. Shame, shame.”
“Schwanger?!” Alexi had never been the deadpan type like his little sister. “You don’t look it. Do I get to meet the idiot who knocked up my sister? Have you met him, Mama?” He asked, stealing the cigarette once again and taking a long drag from it. “I’m helping by stealing.”
"In this situation, I think stealing is helpful," Anja replied in German as she approached the door, defaulting to German as people were exiting the coffee shop, perhaps they were people Eliza knew, perhaps not, but she was aware that Eliza wanted to keep it under wraps. "You should stop smoking, Eliza. It is not ideal any more than the caffeine. I have in fact met him, and he is here, you will likely get to meet him too."
“He’s not an idiot.” Eliza said, ignoring her mother’s comments on caffeine and cigarettes. That would require an entire reworking of her normal diet. She attempted to keep her face calm as they walked towards the coffee shop, taking the door and holding it open.
“I’m joking with you, Echse.” When Anja looked away, Alexi handed the cigarette back to his sister with a couple drags left. He believed in her own decisions.
Anja tightened her lips slightly, but walked into the coffee shop. Alexi knew nothing of Harrison, and she supposed she should have made certain Eliza was more thoughtful about her long-term consequences of actions as well. She suppressed a sigh, and gave both of her children - both of her children - a smile. "Order as you wish, my lieblinge."