A couple of surprises and a heart to heart Who: Pavel and Yulia When: Wednesday June 17, afternoon Where: their apartment Note: All dialogue (unless otherwise noted) is spoken in Ukrainian.
Yulia had been hard at work with her little surprise for Pavel. It wasn't anything amazing by any standards, in fact, she wasn't even sure Pavel would like it at all. She wanted to give him everything she could, but since she couldn't she hoped this would do. They grew up not having much and Yulia was always resourceful. Making the blanket for the bed was not a problem at all, but figuring out how to make the wooden pallets she found into a bed frame and headboard proved to be quite a challenge. Having their own beds was a big big deal to Yulia. They finally had enough space to not have to worry about sleeping in their were forms, so she wanted her brother to be comfortable and happy. But it was one heck of a challenge to work on all of this without Pavel around and out of his line of sight - which turned out to be the biggest challenge of all. She worked on it all in her closet, which got incredibly hot and crowded in those couple of days she labored over his surprise. Plus she had to keep Pavel from knowing about it.
She was waiting to tell Pavel about Liam as well until after she figured out what she thought about him on her own. Okay so she knew exactly how she felt about him, she just didn't want her brother to think she had somehow gone soft on him. But when she was done with the project, she realized she couldn't keep everything from her brother all the time. He was growing up too, whether she wanted to admit to it or not, so she camped out in the mainly empty living room waiting for her brother to come out of hiding wherever he was so she could spend some quailty time with him.
Pavel came into the house practically bouncing. "Yulia!" He called trying to find her. "Yulia, I'm home." The young boy hurried down the hall and opened the door to her room- never really having been in a place where there was privacy it didn't occur to him to knock.
"Wrong room." She told her brother, watching him in amusement. "Turn around." She said watching her ever energetic brother bounce around the empty space. "Where have you been?" She asked him smiling all the while. Even if he got himself into eons of trouble, she was determined to have a good day.
"Out." He replied, whirling around to find her in his room. He dropped his backpack and skateboard just inside the doorway and stepped up to give his sister a hug. "I have a surprise!"
"A surprise for me?" She asked, looking incredibly interested. "That is strange, because I have a surprise too!" Leave it to Pavel to have something up his sleeves too.
"You first!" His was bigger, or so was his opinon of it. He'd never had a job before, well not a -real- job. He'd done small jobs along the docks for family and friends of family, but while they were normally manual labor and probably built a bit of 'character', they never lasted more than a day or two. Picking the pockets of tourists didn't tend to count either. So this was -huge- for him.
His news was big indeed, but Yulia was very curious about his and it almost made her forget what she wanted to show him. "Alright alright, but you can't make a big deal about this okay?" She asked tilting her head slightly. She got up and headed towards the door, going into her own room and opening up her closet. "It isn't much but I hope you like it." She told him showing the sorry bed she had made for him. The blanket was made out of a couple of costumes she made a few years before, puffy, soft, and black. But the headboard was bright and vibrant shades of blue and green, consisting entirely out of old book covers she had found. "Obviously you won't be sleeping in here, but I wanted to keep it a surprise until I was finished."
The smile spread over Pavels face as he wrapped his arms around her. "You made me a bed!" He kissed her cheek. "You're wonderful!" He laughed a little and held up a finger to her. "Wait right here." He said, running back into his bedroom and returned with his 'uniform'. Holding the apron up to his waist he smiled at her. "I got a job."
Yulia looked at her brother stunned, absolutely stunned. The boy had gotten himself a job! She hoped for a moment that she didn’t unintentionally put some sort of pressure on him to get a job. Pushing that unwarranted worry to the side, she touched his uniform and then his face, laughing. “You’re not my little Pavel anymore, are you?” She asked patting him on the cheek. “So how’d you get it? Where is it at? When do you start? What are you going to be doing? When do I get to see you in the uniform?” She knew she was overwhelming him with questions at this point, and part of her was also teasing him but she was so proud of him she could hardly contain herself. Pavel laughed a little. "I start tomorrow. This is my uniform." He said waving the apron a bit. "With black pants and a white shirt." Which he'd shop lifted earlier that day after he'd gotten the job. "I'm just cleaning tables and dishes." The whole under 18, and heavy accent thing made him not be a candidate for a waiter or host, the no previous experience thing too. However he was completely qualified to clean dishes. Anyone else might balk at the job, but Pavel was completely ok with it, after all dishes were a lot nicer to clean than the hull of a boat, or a chimney stack. "It's a resturant called the Owl's Nest." He folded the apron up and tucked it under his arm. "I thought that it would be good to get a job to help out. At least until school?" He knew how important Yulia felt about going to school and getting good grades.
"Oh, I see, skills you can then transfer to the house." Yulia teased. No matter what Pavel was doing though, she knew that he was going to do a great job. Well, if he wanted to that was. "The Owl's Nest? Why would someone want to eat at a place named that?" She asked tilting her head. It didn't exactly bring up thoughts of delicious foods. It didn't matter though, because they gave her brother a chance so she'd have to give it a chance in turn. "Until school yes. But this is your last year, and I want you to focus on that." She wanted him to have the option of going to college, to grad school, to do whatever he wanted and she knew how important grades were to accomplishing her hopes for him. She relaxed a little, shaking her head. Her Pavel, a working man.
He stepped in and gave her a long hug. "Ok, so now... we celebrate." Pavel said with a grin as he let her got and hurried out of the room. After dropping his apron off in his room he glanced back to her. "What do you want? Soup?" He called back to her.
"Wait wait," Yulia told him but it was already too late. Now he was going to make her dinner and she was going to have to have an awkward conversation with him over dinner. "Um sure." She said moving to her door. "I mean if that's what you want."
Pavel stopped in the hallway right before the living room and looked back to Yulia. "What do -you- want?" He repeated with a small roll of his eyes. Pavel was a growing boy, he ate anything- really his palette was so large that he even ate things most teens cringed at.
"No no, soup is great." She told him a little too quickly. She knew she was acting oddly. Really, she could care less about what they were eating. She had a feeling that her stomach would be churning too much to eat. "Want help?"
"Yes." He said, waiting for her to catch up before walking with her into the kitchen. It was clear to Pavel that something was up. They'd been close for so long, he'd grown up with that face. The one she got when she needed to tell their Tetushka /Aunt/ that she'd failed a class, or Pavel'd broken a bone. "What is wrong, Yulie?" He asked, nudging her gently with his arm.
"You know how I met Liam?" She asked him taking a deep breath when she finished her first sentence. "It's, it's not that anything's wrong! I just...I don't know. I guess I don't want you to think of me differently, or worse pick on me." She told him with a frown. "So I haven't told you the full story, about meeting him. And no it's nothing bad."
Pavel furrowed his brow at her curiously. "Well then tell me silly." He said pouting a bit. "We always share, so spill." Maybe she really was getting too old to share things with him. Made him a little sad. He loved her to death, but the thought of her loosing that ability meant she was more parent than sister. She was like his parent, but he just didn't want the relationship dynamic to change.
"Don't give me that look." She told him scowling slightly. She knew what he was thinking, that she was growing distant. It was just hard to tell the person that had been every person she needed all bunched into one that maybe just maybe she could see herself needing another person too. "Well we just went to register you to school. I guess it's not so much about what happened because nothing really happened but what happened to me when I saw him."
Pavel opened the cupboard to pull out the packet of Ramen and looked at her with a 'well?' expression. "What happened?" He asked, putting the noodles on the counter. Ok so they weren't rich yet. They were on a budget, which meant until they could cook real food... it was Ramen.
"I just...he's just..." Yulia gave him a goofy smile. "I don't want you to think I'm this girl that's...I don't want to be that kind of a girl. I'm still your sister and I can still take you any day of the week." She said, mock flexing to prove her point. "I've just never felt anything like this before. And you're more than a brother to me, you're the only person I have to talk to about this but I don't want you thinking that I'm some super girly girl."
"I've seen you up to your elbows in a bucket of fish." Pavel told her as he pulled out a pan. "You're not girly." He teased her as he filled the pan with water. "So you like this boy?" As Yulia was like a mother to Pavel, occasionally Pavel took a father like role in her life as well- not as frequently due to him being younger.
Yulia nodded. "I do, I like him very much." She bit down on her lip. "He's just perfect Pavel, I never thought I'd ever really need him. I mean this is stupid to even think about, because he doesn't know the real me and he wouldn't want to." She grabbed the ramen noodles and looked her brother in the eye. "But you aren't allowed to scare him off."
After putting the pan on the stove and turning the burner on he held his hands up to her. "I wouldn't do such a thing." A gentle reminder that he'd better not hurt his sister wasn't scaring him off. Pavel smiled at her. "I'm glad you like him, and you've no need to worry about what he thinks of you, you are a catch." Of course he was probably a little biased.
"Thank you." She told him, relaxing a little. "And thanks for the pep-talk but people as perfect and handsome and wonderful and rich as him don't want girls like me...he has his own car." Which to her was a major sign of success. They were eating ramen for dinner for goodness sake!
"He does?" Pavel said with an arched brow, a bit impressed. He prefered to skateboard, but he did have a friend back home that had a Vespa. They enjoyed latching to the back of it and fly behind on their skateboards- at least until it came time to stop. "That's nice." He nodded. "But it doesn't make him better than us... better than you." It wasn't as much as a pep-talk this time as a declaration. "If you want a car, I can get you a car." Ok so boosting a car and being able to buy a car were a bit different, but his point was sound.
"He does, even though he has two brothers and a sister." She said which was what made it truly remarkable to her. Not that she was interested in him for money, because until she saw the car she didn't know anything about his financial situation. She was drawn to him from the letters because they had similar backgrounds, both orphaned with a strong tie to their remaining family. "And if I want a car, I can get a car too. I just can't imagine being able to buy one...legally." Because for the large part the money she made before was through blackmail. "What I want from you is a report card with top marks in every subject." She said patting him on the head, even though she had to stand up on her tiptoes to do it.
"I know, I know." He kissed her cheek and looked over at the water which had started to boil. Pavel turned the temp down and held his hands out for the noodles she had. "Just know I won't let him hurt you." They might not seem like much but stoats were natural killers, and while he might have a vertically challenged half/half form it didn't mean he couldn't kick an a*s or two.
"Oh Pavel." Yulia told him, patting him on the cheek. "You are a wonderful brother and friend, but he is not going to hurt me. And if he does, I want the first punch." She then handed him the noodles. "I think I understand why they write so many romance novels now." She whispered, not really meaning to say it aloud.
Pavel arched his brow as he put the noodles into the boiled water. "Hmm?" She wasn't going to get away without finishing the thought.
Yulia looked up at him, completely dumbfounded. "You...heard that?" She asked, slightly upset with herself for letting that slip. "I just mean that...It was really cool and I can see why people would want to write about it." Okay so it was a total cop out answer, and her brother would probably question her for it, but what was she supposed to say? He's a freaking dreamboat and I nearly threw up because I was so in awe of his awesomeness and I know I could never compare? I can close my eyes and picture our wedding?
"Hearing of a hunter." He reminded, and she was standing right next to him in a quite apartment so it wasn't too hard to hear. "I see." Pavel replied, grabbing a spoon and pushing down on the brick of noodles. Really, dishes wise there was only a pan, spoon and couple of bowls right then. Their cabinets were pretty bare (something Pavel would help remedy slowly). "So he writes froofy romance novels?" He asked, teasing a bit.
"Yeah yeah." She muttered looking not amused in the least. Their lack of dishes, furniture, and just about everything else wasn't really a big issue to Yulia. But she knew they needed more, she wanted more, sure, but her whole life she went without. She flicked his ear. "No, he most certainly does not. It's just...you wouldn't understand." She crossed her arms defensively. "I've been writing to him for years and years, and it was easy to not be completely wrapped up in the idea of him because he was too far away. But now?" She looked out the window. "Moving here was a good idea."
Rubbing his ear he rolled his eyes ever so slightly at her gaganess as he helped the noodles break apart. Setting the spoon on the counter he turned to her and stepped up to her side. "Yes it was." He replied, giving her hand a squeeze. "Met another person my age today at the mall." He said, moving over to the fridge to get out some soy sauce. "There's a lot of hot girls in town." Pavel commented, closing the fridge.
"What is this mission permanent green card?" She asked him crossing her arms. "Stop it now. You can't have a date before me!" She was purely teasing at this, because she would be so happy for her little brother if he got a date. Sure she'd be a little jealous too, but that was beside the point. "So tell me about this one, how did you woo her?"
"I wooed no one." Pavel replied. "She helped me find the food court." After he'd finished 'shopping'. "And I got a hamburger for a -dollar-." America had things that were way over priced- like the outfit he'd liberated- and the money was a bit confusing but since his trip to the locksmith, he was starting to understand it a bit more, but Pavel did know that a hamburger for only a dollar was something you really didn't see in Odessa at all.
"That's it?" She asked him, still smiling. "Wait a dollar?" At that price, he should have stockpiled, not that they had that much money to stockpile anything and hamburgers would get old eventually. But still. "So just friends?" She asked, wanting to be absolutely sure about that. "What happened to the other girl?"
"Mercy?" Pavel shrugged. "Haven't seen her since the park. We do need a real phone." After all they couldn't -get- phone calls on the pay phone down the street. Maybe with his first paycheck or when the rest of Yulia's financial aid living expenses came in. "They are both cute." He admitted. "But yes, right now, friends." Not that he wouldn't mind making out with either of the girls, but if he made friends now, then he could get closer later and the more girls he made friends with, the more girls would be around him. Not a bad deal in his mind.
"Yes, Mercy." Everyone had such strange names here. Not that it mattered at the moment. "We don't have money for a real phone. Not that it's really all that cheap making phone calls on the pay phone." Especially when you hung up right when someone answered. "Who knew that America would do so much for your social calender." She teased, punching him playfully in the arm. "Just promise me you won't have two girlfriends at once. We need to avoid bad reputations here...at least for a while."
"I would never." Pavel said. "And I had a social life at home." He said as he turned the heat down on the soup and poured in some soysauce and the packet of flavoring. "I had lots of friends." Pavel had been pretty popular, and there was a small group of boys he'd hung out with who he'd known all his life. "It is different here." Not only did he not know anyone, but half the people couldn't understand what he was saying (even when he spoke english), everyone had cell phones and computers and a ton of things his family had never been able to afford- hell he didn't even think his Aunt or Uncle even knew what a computer looked like.
"I know you had a social life at home, but it was different there. It was boys there." Girls were a whole different playing field, they both knew that. Even if they still had Ramen nearly every night of the week, it still looked good when she was hungry. "Everything is different here. Which is why we need to guard our secrets better than ever before. Even though we have less here, there is more to loose." They could always be sent home. And then she realized that she had slipped into mother mode and that Pavel knew very well what she had just said. "I'm sorry brother," she told him patting him on the cheek, "I just want this all to work out."
Pavel nodded. "I know. I know. I have not told anyone anything." He said, nudging her slightly as he stirred the soup. "Bowls?" He'd always been careful about what they were. Actually none of his friends back home knew what he was either. He liked having a secret, though if he met another were it might be nice to share because they there were two ways they could hang out.
Yulia moved to get out the bowls as well as the silverware. "Pavel, you never cease to amaze me." She said handing him a bowl and putting the other one down on the counter. "You've done so many things for me, for us, and you never complain, ever. I am so proud of the man you are becoming. I am sorry I mother you so much."
Pavel smiled at her and shook his head. "No, you do not. I love you too." He said as he took the bowl and dished out some soup for her. "And life here is going to be good." He told her. "I just know it."
"I'm glad you're being optimistic about all of this." It really helped her, because by nature she was a bit of a pessimist. It was hard for her to keep her head up for so long but her brother helped her in that department. She always had someone to be proud of, someone to look out for, someone to protect when things got bad. She loved having Pavel around and would probably fall apart without him.