InsaneJournal

Who: Illya Kuryakin & Liv Moore
What: Liv bumps into Illya and insists on buying him coffee
When: Recent!
Where: Outside a mall to Starbucks
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete


After being stuck in the house for a month on agoraphobic brain Liv was away from her apartment as much as possible. Mostly at the morgue or oddly enough at the mall. Well it would be odd if Liv was her actual self. But as usual a brain was dictating her actions. At least this one was letting her out of the house. Even if she was wracking up some serious credit card debt. That was for next month Liv to deal with.

Shopping bags in hand Liv made her way down the street to where she parked her car. As hard as it was to leave she needed to have some self restraint. At least she was trying too. On her short walk to her car Liv almost turned around multiple times to go back and get a dress she had seen but didn’t purchase. She was just turning back around when she bumped into somebody, causing her bags to fly out of her hands. “Oh my god,” Liv said, mostly because the shock of it all. “I’m sorry.”

As much as he hated it there was a time when shopping was necessary and having realised that most if not all of his wardrobe was ill suited to the heat of Orange County Illya found himself in a department store surrounded by… Americans and their screaming children. Honestly his worst nightmare but needs must and he was Russian, he would push through and come out stronger for it.

Thankfully he was also highly efficient so he spent very little time in the store and subsequent mall and he was on his way to his car when a smaller blonde woman with arms full of bags turned rather suddenly, colliding with his chest, his rather broad unmoveable chest which then resulted in all of her bags going flying.

дай бог ему силы

“Apologies,” he drawled as he set his own bags aside and moved to collect her things. “I did not mean to startle you.”

“Oh no,” Liv replied fully aware of how tall and and well big the guy was. Not big in like a bad way. More like strong, sturdy. But hey, at least she hadn’t fallen to the ground along with her bags. “It was totally my fault,” she added giving him a small smile.

And now he was collecting her bags for her. “You don’t have to do that,” Liv said and began helping him pick up her own things. “I should have been looking where I was going.”

“It is no bother,” Illya replied as he with very little difficulty gathered up her bags and held them out for her to take. His use of english was a lot more structured than those who spoke it as their first language as he didn’t tend to use a lot of contractions as he’d spoken Russian first and everything else second.

She had a lot of bags he noted idly though said nothing as some judgments were better kept to one’s self especially if you were attempting to blend in.

If Liv ever saw this guy again while on a different brain, she would be beyond embarrassed at the amount of shopping bags he saw her with. But this brain was proud of all the bags. Signs of a successful trip. Who cared what it was doing to her bank account.

“Thank you,” Liv said as they collected the rest of the bags. “I’m Liv,” she added holding her hand out for him to shake. She figured she might as well introduce herself to the guy. Considering she had bumped right into him and he was still nice enough to help with her bags.

Illya took a hold of the much smaller much more delicate hand in his. The grip was firm and the shake distinctly steady as if he were a man who used and worked with his hands a lot.

“Illya,” he answered in reply. “Will you be okay to get to your car?”

Man of little words was the Russian but then small talk wasn’t exactly common place where he came from.

“Yeah,” Liv replied. “I don’t often bump into people like that.” Or like ever. But she doubted Illya would believe her considering how she had just bumped into him.

“Though I feel like I owe you a coffee or something for helping me out,” she added offering another smile. It was the least that she could do really.

“That is not necessary,” Illya assured her with a shake of his head though he could do with getting to know people, might make his presence here a little less… conspicuous. “But if you insist it would not be nice of me to decline.” And he offered a smile, not normally an expression he carried but one he could carry given that he’d been blessed with good genetics.

He only knew of a few coffee shops but none were anywhere close though he did spy what looked like a Starbucks.

“I do,” insist that was. Not that she really should be spending more money. But whatever a coffee wasn’t that much anyway. And the guy was nice enough to help her with her bags. It was only fair.

“Come on,” she gave him another smile heading to the Starbucks on the corner. But really there was a Starbucks on every damn corner.

Illya hoped he would not live to regret this but there was coffee involved and most things were made more bearable by coffee or at least having something to keep his hands busy with. He trailed along beside Liv, even going so far as to get the door for her. The Starbucks was busy but not so busy that Illya would feel his last nerve twitching.

As they joined the line he became acutely aware of how there might be the need for… small talk, not exactly his strength.

Still, he had to try.

“Did you find everything that you were looking for?”

Liv got in line with Illya. She didn’t mind the silence. But talking was a quicker way to pass the time. She was about to say something when he spoke first.

“Hm?” she asked before realizing he was referring to her shopping spree. “Oh! Yeah! I think I did. Although there was one dress that I’m still undecided on,” a pause. “That’s actually what I was turning around to do when I bumped into you.”

But that was enough about her purchases. Although she could probably talk about shopping all day she was sure he wasn’t all that interested. “What about you?”

“Enough,” Illya remarked with a slight nod of his head. He definitely didn’t have as many bags as Liv but he had a few, but then he did need a new wardrobe for the climate of the OC. Sweaters and jackets weren’t really going to cut it long term and he had no desire to melt into asphalt anytime soon.

The line moved and they with it and thankfully the people behind the counter were efficient so it wasn’t long until they were up next.

“I will have a regular black coffee, no creamer, no sugar and…” he trailed off and leaned around Liv to regard the nearby glass display, “...a banana bread muffin.”

That was actually how Liv preferred her coffee too, mostly because she wouldn’t be able to taste it either way. Not until she added her special ingredient at least.

“I’ll have the same,” Liv told the barista. “No muffin.” Again she wouldn’t be able to taste it. She only ate regular food when it was combined with brains and hot sauce. But Illya didn’t need to know that. No one really did except for the people she was closest to. “Not that hungry,” she said to Illya with a shrug before paying for both their orders.

That was a lie. Illya was able to tell, he’d been trained for it the same way a sniffer dog was trained to detect blood or drugs. But he said nothing. In the grand scheme of things it was a relatively small white lie and hardly worthy of further attention unless of course it might one day threaten him or Russia. He doubted that it would however so he just offered an understanding nod of his head.

“I can always eat.” Not a lie, he had a very large appetite.

No Liv’s lie did not threaten Illya or Russia. It just protected Liv’s secret. Although Liv needed brains to survive she would never hurt anyone. Hence the only eating brains of people who were murdered. Not only did it not hurt them, but it kind of helped them get justice considering Liv received visions from the brains she ate.

“Yeah?” Liv asked walking over to the side to wait. “What’s your favorite food?”

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly that was one question that Illya had never been asked which explained why he didn’t have an immediate response. There were a lot of Russian delicacies that he enjoyed but none he would say were his ‘favourite food’ so the question required more thought than it might have seemed like on face value.

“Steak,” he finally confirmed, a swift nod accompanying the statement. “If I had to pick a favourite food it would be steak.”

Not the food Liz was expecting. Most people liked pizza, or burgers, or ice cream even. No one ever really picked steak. It said a lot about the guy that he didn’t pick some type of junk food. That he went with something a bit more upscale. And yeah Liv probably spent way too much time thinking about food these days. But she missed it. Even when she put her brains on a slice of pizza, or cooked them in her pasta, it wasn’t the same. She couldn’t taste it. It just made her feel more human.

“Oh I love a good steak,” Liv replied while they waited for their drinks. “Medium rare, just a little pink.” Man her mouth was practically watering just thinking about it. Maybe she would have to prepare brains and steak for dinner tonight.

“So bloody it’s practically moo’ing,” Illya drawled as it was something he’d heard somebody say once and the remark seemed rather apt and fitting for how he liked his steak. It was one of the many sayings he had picked up since moving to America. He passed an observant gaze of the people who gathered around them to wait for their drinks though his attention drifted when he heard what he thought passed for their names and their drinks were ready.

Illya stepped up and took the tray.

Liv wrinkled her nose slightly. That image was just a little too much for her. Which really it shouldn’t be considering she ate brains on a daily basis. Also she was a medical examiner. Which meant dealing with blood almost every day. Still that was just too bloody for a steak. At least in her opinion… this month. “That’s… very bloody,” Liv settled on saying.

While Illya grabbed the coffees, Liv fished her hot sauce out of her purse. “Thanks,” Liv said grabbing one of the coffees. It didn’t really matter which one, they were both the same. She proceeded to dump some hot sauce in it before taking a sip.

Illya arched an eyebrow as he watched Liv add hot sauce to the coffee and he was most definitely staring as that was the first time he’d seen that happen. He knew Americans had some very strange and bordering on odd habits but adding hot sauce to coffee? Well, that was a new one.

“Is there some sort of American tradition that I am not aware of?” He asked.

“Hm?” Liv asked before realizing he was referring to the hot sauce in her coffee. “Oh, no,” she said taking a sip. Not spicy enough. She wrinkled her nose before adding more hot sauce to her drink. “I just like my food,” or drink in this case. “To be extra spicy.” A pause as she took another sip. Yeah that was better. Could still use a little more though.

Liv added a bit more hot sauce to her drink before looking back over at Illya. “You want some?” she was all about sharing though she had a feeling he probably didn’t. She was well aware that her hot sauce addiction was gross to everyone but her.

He held up his hand and shook his head. “No, thank you.” She could keep her hot sauce and coffee, he didn’t think he would like the flavour. He stuck to his black coffee and sipped at it slowly as he watched her sip at her hot sauce coffee.

Idly he noted that she was very pale, too pale, and she was by far the least tanned person he had seen since moving to Orange County. Perhaps she just used really high sunblock protection?

“Don’t blame you,” Liv said taking another sip of her spicy coffee. “It’s an acquired taste.” One that only Liv seemed to have. At least unless other zombies from her dreams started showing up but she doubted it.

“Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time. Thanks again for helping me with the bags!”