Even though he didn't exactly realize he was doing it, Anatoly couldn't exactly help but expect Elena to have the same reactions as Natasha would have. Despite his sister having been dead for sixteen years, he still remembered her mannerisms and personality down to every last detail. Time had not withered those memories even in the slightest. Not even the past five years when all he'd cared about had been chess. So really, when Elena started teasing him, he wasn't shocked by it. At least not in the way most people might have been. He was shocked, but it was mostly because of the fact she had so many similarities to his sister as he could see so far.
"Um yes. Sorry," he awkwardly apologized, scratching his head a bit. As she made the comment about Katherine, he looked at her, no recognition on the name aside it from potentially being the same Katherine they'd been advised to filter posts against. Honestly, he hadn't exactly paid much attention to who Katherine even was beyond that. Though with everything he and Svetlana had been going through of late, it wasn't exactly surprising that he didn't pay much attention to what people were talking about on the boards.
"No, not Katherine." All right, so how exactly was he going to phrase this so as not to sound awkward or sad? Well, there really wasn't a way of avoiding that. So might as well just say it and get it out there and move on from there. "I'm speaking of my sister, Natasha." While there was a twinge of sadness in his brown eyes, there was a bit of an awkwardly cute smile on his lips. "You also seem to have the same sense of humor she had." Which was meant as a compliment.
And that's when it dawned on him that he had not had the decency to introduce himself. Which caused him to flush slightly in embarrassment once again. "Oh, I am sorry, my name is Anatoly." Timing. Oh Anatoly was such a master of awkward timing with things sometimes. It had been happening a lot more of late, which could only be a sign that he'd finally shed the walls he'd built up after being taken under Molokov's wing. And for this, he was exceptionally glad.
Perhaps now he could truly be the man, husband and father he'd always wanted to be.