Nik shrugged a shoulder at Gor's defensive question, "Just kind of nice to see you not looking like a Marilyn Manson reject." He finally realized that his cigarette was on the verge of committing nicotine suicide and reached out to dump the impossible amount of ash into the handy dandy ashtray. Nik stubbed the half cigarette out and set it aside. Save it for later.
He'd gotten his food from the all-day breakfast so there was a small stack of pancakes and rather large serving of artery clogging bacon. A glass of orange juice finished it off. He stuck a bookmark in his book and shut it. Time to set an example and be the "father figure".
Nikolai gave Slav a pointed look, "Once everyone's at the table, books get shut. Magazines too, Mstislav." Their parents didn't set rules - he did. Generally he was incredibly lax but since they weren't much of a family, sometimes they at least had to pretend like they were. They didn't have to talk but no reading.