Marina Scherbatskaya (scherbatskaya) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2015-12-10 11:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2018 [12] december, marina scherbatskaya, max mendelson |
Who: Marina Kovalenka and Max Mendelson
Where: Vic and Marina’s RV
What: Spending the first night of Hanukkah missing their big man
When: December 2, 8:35 p.m.
Dinner had been a somewhat sober affair. The small Jewish contingent of the Dog Park had made the effort, dining together and then lighting the first candle on Marina’s truly excellent homemade menorah. Still, Max would be lying if he didn’t feel the absence of Vic’s presence keenly throughout the evening. After the lighting ceremony, everyone went their separate ways but Max had a purpose in mind to try and salvage the somewhat grim evening. After forty minutes of searching through the multitude of crap he had brought with him from the hospital, he was finally able to find the item he sought. After that, he made a quick stop off at resources. Max explained what he wanted to one of the patches in charge of food prep and was gifted a half a bag of M&M’s for his little project. The patch, Queso Fresco (real name, Fernando), wished him luck and sent Max off with a smile and a wave. Treasures in hand, Max strode purposefully passed tents and motorhomes until he stood in front of Vic and Marina’s RV. He rapped his knuckles against the door, alerting Marina to his presence. “This is the party police,” Max called from the outside of the door. He doubted Marina was in much of a celebrating mood. Truth was, Max wasn’t either. Like Thanksgiving, it was another holiday without his Ma. It wouldn’t be so bad if Vic had been there to bolster his spirits but his anchor, his rock, was behind bars. As sad and as depressed as Max was feeling, he knew he wasn’t the only one feeling down in the aftermath of the officers’ incarceration. And while he was a poor substitute for Vic’s huge personality and presence, the least he could do was try and alleviate the heavy feeling of heartache he knew their little family was feeling. “There are reports that someone was looking to get their keister whooped in dreidel?” Marina had done her best to remain in high (well--maybe high was an exaggeration) spirits during their meal but once it was over and the dishes were cleaned up, she made her way back to her empty RV, not quite sure what to do with herself. Her conversation with Demi at Thanksgiving had her thinking these past few days about how pessimistic she’d been. Having a positive mindset was never something she was good at but for Max and Sasha’s sake, she knew she had to start trying harder. It was honestly the reason she’d looked so hard for a real menorah today but her pathetic Lego substitute had left her in a pretty foul mood and once she was alone, she let the facade drop. By the time Max knocked on her door she was a few swigs into a jar of moonshine, though set it aside when she heard his voice and pushed away the pity party that she’d barely begun. The door swung open a few moments later, and she quirked an eyebrow. “Show me the M&Ms or get the fuck out,” she said, her voice clearly holding a tone of amusement. “Pfft, please,” Max replied with good humored derision. He held up the bag of M&M’s in one hand and his somewhat unconvential dreidel in the other. “As if there was any doubt that your boy wouldn’t pull out the ‘W’. I totally sold Queso Fresco on it being pertinent towards our ‘religious expression.’” Not wanting to wait for an expressed invitation out of fear she’d send him packing, Max brushed by Marina and walked into the RV she and Vic shared. If he had to go sit by the bonfire with all the rabble-rousing or head back and be by himself in the Airstream he’d tear his hair out. Max needed Marina right now and, maybe, possibly, she needed him too. Max felt Vic here, in this space, even though he was far away. There wasn’t many places around the compound he didn’t feel the big guy’s presence but the house he shared with his lady he felt his buddy especially. How hard must it be for Marina to stay here without him? Max wondered if she would come and stay with him and Sasha if he asked her. He resolved to do exactly that but not quite yet. Maybe after a few rounds of ‘shine and some slightly stale chocolate candies, she’d be more amenable. “So I know you probably think I’m a terrible gambler,” Max started sitting down at the bench on one side of the kitchen table. He doesn’t say ‘poker’ or ‘Vic’ or reference the owing thousands upon thousand of dollars to the mob. Marina knows the story. Max is pretty sure everyone knows about his and Vic’s unlikely connection. “But maybe that’s just what I want you to think. Maybe I’m lulling you into a false sense of security. Your M&M’s are mine, Kovalenka.” Max turned over the bag and began to separate the candies into equal piles. Truthfully, he hasn’t played since he was a kid but some things you never quite grow out of or forget. This was something you did with family. Max nodded to the jar of moonshine on the counter. He’s a lightweight compared to most people, Marina included, but he wouldn’t mind a little hair of the dog tonight. “How much of that do I need to catch up to you?” Marina just rolled her eyes at Max. She’d certainly heard the story of how he and Vic knew each other but she wasn’t about to let him lull her into some sort of false sense of security. Besides, no idiot lost that much money in gambling on purpose. Maybe Max didn’t have a gambling problem like those gambling anonymous billboards used to talk about, but he’d fucked something up and there was no way he was taking her M&Ms tonight without a great deal of effort put in. She grabbed her jar once again then crossed to the cabinet to pull one down, bringing it to the table and sliding it across to Max. “I’ve hardly started so you got here just in time.” she said. Sliding into the booth, she took a sip of the moonshine and relished the burn of the alcohol. The trailer wasn’t big by any means, but it was better than a tent. Despite how painful it was, she’d done her best to make the place look like it was hers. Everything from her tent had been cleared out and put away in her new home and she’d even finished organizing and finding a home for the stuff that Vic had moved over from their tent before getting arrested. Whether he came back or not (and she had to believe he would… somehow), she at least had a few of his shirts tucked away for sleeping in. The gesture was small, but it did bring her comfort. “I can’t believe you have a dreidle with Doctor fucking Dre on it,” she smirked, picking it up and examining it. “For the record, I don’t remember the rules that well. I just remember chanting ’shin shin, put one in’ a lot as a kid.” Max smiled proudly, stroking Dr. Dre’s face with pride. “There is literally no better way to celebrate our eight days of religious significance than with the O.G. himself,” Max said, laying the dreidel down reverently and accepting the jar of moonshine Marina offered him. The burn of the alcohol soothed him rather than unnerved him and Max took a moment to recall his own experiences with the game and how much he actually remembered. “To be honest, I don’t remember it all that well either,” Max admitted, sipping his ‘shine. “As kids we would just end up eating all gelt before we ever got around to playing. When me and my sister got to be teenagers we would hang out with our cousins and play, though. The adults would be upstairs doing whatever it is adults do and we all would go behind my Uncle’s woodshed and smoke a little weed and try to spin the dreidel after. Probably not the smartest idea but we always enjoyed ourselves.” Thinking about his sister and wondering where she could be along with memories of his mother only made the current situation of missing Vic worse, so Max quickly pushed the thought aside. Instead, he set his moonshine down and rubbed his hands together in anticipation and then picked up his Dr. Dreidel. With a wag of his eyebrows, he spun the top. It stayed upright for a good amount of time time before wobbling and coming to land with ש (shin) landing skywards. “Aw, what?” Max asked incredulously. He examined the dreidel, turning it this way and that. “This thing is rigged.” With a sigh, Max relinquished three M&M’s from his small pile to the no longer empty pot. He sipped his drink to sooth his mild disgruntled-ness at his early bad luck. He then pushed the dreidel in Marina’s direction. “Maybe Dr. Dre will be kinder to you than he was to me. Milady?” Marina just snickered when on Max’s first go he had to put more into the pot and, just as she had when she was a girl, said, “Shin, shin, put one in.” Picking up the dreidel, she gave Dr. Dre a little kiss before lowering it to the table and giving it a spin. Her schmoozing had done her well because when the ג (gimel) landed face up, Marina walked her fingers towards the three M&Ms in the center of the table and pulled them back towards her side. “I’ll just be taking these,” she smirked, then took a healthy swig of moonshine. And so the game continued, the pot in the center of the table growing and shrinking with each spin of the dreidel until finally after another favorable spin, Marina took Max’s final M&Ms. By this point, the majority of her moonshine was gone and she was feeling more relaxed than she had ever since she got news that Vic was arrested. Sure, it was just a stupid game and some booze, but it was serving as a good distraction. Max’s company was good like that. Things were shitty, but at least they were both in the same situation. “Told you I was going to whoop your ass. Do you want a loan, or should we call it there?” She asked, toying with the multicolored candies. Max glared at Dr. Dre’s face on the dreidel like the O.G. himself had done him a personal wrong but his expression quickly softened to that of gracious defeat. “I humbly accept complete and utter vanquishment,” Max said, throwing up his hands . “Unless you want this to turn into strip dreidel, which I’m fairly certain neither of us wants to witness.” Max almost took her up on the loan, or his own suggestion of using his pants as collateral, just to keep the evening going. It was so nice to drink and be carefree and have fun for even a little while; it was a welcome field trip away from the almost permanent state of sadness and despondency that had settled over the Scherbatsky/Mendelson/Whittaker/Kovalenk “Looks like you’re going to be the breadmaker of the family until Vic comes back,” Max observed offhandedly, taking a sip of his moonshine. The quip reminded him of something Vic had said to him awhile ago. Max laughed it off at the time, still does actually, even though his mentor had been quite serious at the time. “You know that Vic once made me promise I’d marry you if anything happened to him?” It’s such a silly notion, not to mention it disregarded both his and Marina’s free will in the matter, but Max knew it had come from a place of protectiveness and love on Vic’s part. “I assured him I would just so he’d leave me alone but you don’t have to worry about me starting to pick out white dresses for myself. When he gets back, I think we should tell him we eloped just to freak him out.” Max always speaks of Vic in the present tense. He never voices his doubts that him and the other officers will be home soon. Only in his most private, desperate moments does any inkling of doubt cross his weary mind and even then, he’d never bring it up to anyone else. Marina was the bedrock, the cornerstone, the source of strength in their family. Max was okay being the hope. Marina let out a laugh that was far too close to a giggle (something she would never do if she were sober, but being relaxed by Max’s presence and the jar of moonshine she’d drank weren’t exactly in her favor right now) before settling a smirk on her face as she looked across the table at Max. “Really? He told you to marry me? You know… the first rule of being a husband is to keep your woman satisfied,” Marina said, a devious look on her face as her leg moved under the table until her foot made contact with Max’s calf and began teasing up his leg. “Do you think you’d be up for the job, big boy?” Of course she knew that Max was a virgin--probably never even had a girl touch his dick before--but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Twenty M&Ms said Max jizzed himself before this was all over, and it was hard to come by something so amusing these days. Considering how shitty things normally were, Marina could use the entertainment. And Max? Well, he’d walked right into this. When Marina’s foot came in contact with Max’s calf, he let out an astonished yelp and jumped up, forcefully knocking the top of his knees against the underside of the table. “Good God,” he swore, both out of pain and out of surprise. He blushed furiously and then leveled an embarrassed but mostly amused look at Marina. It’s no secret to anyone that Max is distinctly unnerved in the presence of beautiful women but with Marina it’s always been different. She’s not so much a woman as she is family but even he can’t see the line of distinction when she’s teasing him something awful. He feels tingly all over but not to the point of complete and utter embarrassment and ruination, so there’s that at least. “Stay on your side of the table, devil woman,” Max bid, letting out a shaky breath. Max took a deep, fortifying gulp of his moonshine and set it down a bit harder than strictly necessary. It was all in good fun and he didn’t begrudge Marina having a little amusement at his expense. “Luckily for you and very unluckily for me, Vic will be home soon,” Max says, smirking despite his face still being as red as a tomato. “So our wedding will sadly have to be postponed. It’s a shame...our kids would have the most glorious heads of hair. Rest assured, if things were different, know that I would take you in a very manly fashion.” Marina is one of the only women he felt comfortable enough to joke around like this with, even after she teased him with her adventurous toe. It said a lot about the steady grounds in which they built the foundation of their friendship. Max was too sweet and innocent to break, so Marina withdrew her foot away from him as his face burned nearly as bright as the sun. She couldn’t help but wonder, though, how he’d managed to go so long without ever fucking anyone. She sipped at her own moonshine thoughtfully before asking, “Are you ever going to do it, though? I mean, don’t you get lonely?” And there it was. Those sad feelings that she’d been doing her best to push away just couldn’t be ignored anymore and a longing tone had creeped into her voice. Most of the girls around camp knew that the general belief was that sex was sex and it didn’t mean much else, unless one of the Officers decided to make you his old lady. But even if it was just fucking, it was still nice to feel the comforting weight of another body on the mattress. It was still nice to have touched someone and known that they’d enjoyed your body as you’d enjoyed theirs. Marina knew plenty well that even if there weren’t reciprocating feelings between both parties, being alone could be painful. It was even worse when someone who had a piece of your heart wasn’t there anymore… “What exactly are you waiting for?” What was he waiting for, Max wondered to himself. He’d gotten close a few times but for whatever reason, sex just hadn’t happened for him. Now, after so much time had passed without experiencing the act, his perception on the matter had shifted slightly. It wasn’t as if he was planning on becoming a monk, or was waiting for marriage or anything like that. No, it more that it didn’t seem right unless it was with the right person. To have sex with someone who he couldn’t laugh with, or talk to, well, Max just didn’t see the point. “I mean, I do get lonely, sometimes, yes,” Max admitted, looking into his glass of moonshine and running his finger around the rim instead of looking at his friend. “For the, uh, hanky panky stuff of course but honestly? For me it’s more about having someone to talk to about your day, or someone to help you cook dinner, someone to put your arms around when you fall asleep.” Max shrugged, unable to keep the image of Dani from entering his mind. “I’m sure everyone probably thinks I’m crazy, especially with all these gorgeous women running around, but what can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic, I guess.” He lifted his gaze up to Marina and waggled his eyebrows. “So if you’re looking for us to consummate our blessed union it’ll have to wait. Mostly because I’ve had way too much to drink to do it properly but also it would sorta feel like Vic was in bed with us. Unless...you’re into that sort of thing?” His words earned an amused laugh from Marina as well as a noncommittal shrug, though clearly she was teasing him again. Max’s threshold for risque teasing had been reached and he laughed. His laugh turned into a yawn and he stretched his arms above his head. He hated the idea of going back to the Airstream at this hour and, honestly, Max wasn’t sure he could make the journey without tipping over. Months and months of drinking moonshine and he still was a lightweight. “Would you mind if I crashed on your couch tonight?” It was a bit rude to ask, Max knew. But even though he had Sasha back at his place, he felt like he didn’t miss Vic as much when he was here with Marina. It would be nice not to feel that ache weighing on him as he fell asleep. “C’mon 40-year-old virgin, sleep on the bed with me. Since we both know you’re not going to make a move you might as well have enough room to stretch your legs out,” she said, the look she gave him made it very clear she wouldn’t take no for an answer. The bed was big enough for a man like Vic so it would obviously hold the pair of them and once Marina and Max were both settled in, she pulled the blankets up over them, snuggling further into the mattress. “Night, Max. Thanks for coming over tonight. It was… less shitty than normal.” Max grinned sleepily and snuggled in next to Marina, his eyelids too heavy to keep open any longer. Mission accomplished, he thought proudly to himself just before he drifted off to a deep, untroubled sleep. |