"I'll look into it. Make sure you're home and don't leave for any reason." Alex started the lecture Annya's heard all her life, so she finished the rest for him. "Make sure all the bolts are locked, don't answer for anytone and if I do, make sure I have both a gun and knife with me behind the door. Thank you, Alex" She hung up, not waiting for a response. She made her way home going the speed limit, constantly looking in her rear view mirrors, checking to see if she was being followed. She stored her car into the garage, and made sure all the entrances were bolted shut and all her weapons were within reaching distance of each one. Once she knew everything was secure, she put on the movie and studied every aspect of it to see if there was a message in there that would aid in the search.
Although she enjoyed the movie, there was nothing that led her to who was looking for her, aside from those two songs and the fact that the main character was being hunted down.
Annya didn't know how to feel by the end of it. She was relieved that it wasn't a warning, but she was upset that they were still clueless. With a sigh, Annya got up to stretch her legs when there was a light knock at the door. She silently walked towards it, with both a gun and a knife like she was told, looking through the peephole seeing that it was only Sean with a bag of takeout. She opened it slightly, with the gun still aiming for him on the other side of the door and her knife behind her back.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded in suspicion.
"Comfort food" was all he responded with, holding up the paper bag with a Chinese restaurant label printed on it.
"How do you know I was here?" her voice did not change, and neither did her position,
"I may have been following you little by little for the past couple months. Okay, NOW BEFORE YOU KILL ME, i promise i don't mean any harm. I was just curious because you seemed really shady since we started training together and you kicked down my door. I wanted to make sure I wasn't surrounding myself with anything dangerous" Annya held in a scoff. He definitely got in university by scholarship
"I am shady. Go away" as she tried to close the door, he held out his hand to stop it.
"I know. And dangerous, but I'm smart enough to know that if someone shady and dangerous is paranoid, that means they're worried about something serious. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. If it makes you feel any better i'll take the first bite out of the food to show you it's not poisoned." The boy rambled when he was nervus. He wasn't a threat. She rolled her eyes, opening the door, placing the gun and knife back in the drawer by the door. His eyes widened, seeing what she was putting away, but didn't seem surprised.
She led him to the living room, letting him set up the food on the coffee table as she went to pull her hair back in two braids. Since she can't have her long hair out in front of the boy, the best precautionary hairstyle she could do was two french braids that couldn't get in the way or pulled in a fight. When she walked back into the room, she saw a big smug smile on Sean's face, his dimples sinking into his cheeks deeper than she's seen before. She didn't want to admit it, but his innocent light attitude was very attractive,
"What?" she snapped, making herself sound annoyed, trying not to get affected.
"You watched the movie" he said triumphantly
Annya rolled her eyes, trying not to smile again "Yah, and?"
"How'd you like it?"
"What do you want to drink? Nothing alcoholic, I Don't want you staying more than you have to" to which his face contorted into an over exaggerated hurt expression and his hand flew to his heart.
"You're not even supposed to be here." she let her voice soften just a bit, but it still held authority.
"For your safety or mine?" he asked suggestively. She knew he was kidding, but she couldn't answer.
"What makes you think any of your suspicions are even remotely correct? It all sounds insane." she yelled from the fridge. If her reflexes weren't as good as they are, she would have bumped into his large chest as she turned around with two cokes in her hand.
"I'm extremely smart," he said with a crooked smile and a wink. She looked up at him with playfully suspicious eyes.
"Are you, now?" she joked
"I have never had a GPA less than 4.5, took 3 college classes my junior year highschool, and 2 during my senior, i have a double major in psychology and investigative studies, and i'm now working on my business degree." he challenged.
"You want to be an investigative reporter? That's cute" she said as she walked around him to the food.
"I want to be a detective. I like solving puzzles and people are crazy interesting. Some are even just crazy" he joked. Annya didn't know what to say, all of her arguments just flew out the window. All she could do at this point is to level up her fake life.
"Then how can someone so smart be so off mark?" she asked, looking up at him as he came so sit on the floor next to her, his back to the couch. He looked her in the eye, all humor gone.
"You don't have to tell me what's going on, but you have to be honest with me. Are you in danger?"
"No." she hoped he wouldn't catch on to the lie, because on one hand, it was the truth. Both her and her brother are good enough to keep her out of danger, but on the other hand, she kind of is in danger. Sean searched her eyes, then gave up. He could tell there was some truth in the lie, but he still didn't like the answer.
She gave him the remote, showing him how to switch between Netflix, Hulu and Disney plus. He whistled when he saw all she had and started rummaging through all the selections
"Why do you care?" she suddenly broke the silence and Sean's head whipped around with surprise clear on his face. She was hoping it was because of the breaking of silence and not the question itself.
"I told you. your my friend" he said, looking back at what he was doing while she stared at his profile.
"Friends don't do all this" she said, her voice betraying her.
"Then you need better friends''. He said, giving her a quick glance. She knew he was joking but was too guilt ridden to smile back. Sean's eyes lingered on her face for a while. They both knew she was in deep shit, but neither said anything about it. Unsatisfied, he started looking though movie selections before she broke the silence. "Hey, Sean?" she asked in a small, shy voice. The difference of tone causing him to lookback, alarmed
"Can you dance with me please?" he looked at her in confusion "Um, ever since I was young, my father would teach me to waltz while my mother sang her lullaby and since they died, my brother had taken over in his place whenever I missed them, to make me feel like they were still with me. But now, neither is my brother. I was hoping you would dance with me." as she talked, Sean could see tears gather up in her eyes, making his heart ache. "I mean you don't have-"
"-Of course," he said softly, standing up, and taking her with him. He reached the remote, playing the song.
"Close your eyes" he instructed "tell me about it" Annya nodded and for the first time, Sean looked down to see a young girl who never got a chance to properly grieve. As the song started, Annya closed her eyes and they gracefully floated around the room. Sean looked down seeing a small smile on her face as she rested her head on his chest, and he knew she was remembering the times she would dance with her dad. As the song went on, she started singing along in Russian as she said her mother did when they danced.
Once the song ended, Annya opened her eyes to see Sean staring at her, then she threw her arms around him.
"Thank you" her whisper was muffled but all he did was hug her back tighter. After their moment was over, they didn't talk about it anymore and he knew she wouldn't want to. They both sat back down, to eat their food while Sean continued looking for a movie to watch, landing on princess and the frog.
"Seriously?" she asked in amusement.
"Well you started night Disney, it's only fair that's how you end it" he said laughing as he dodged a pillow heading for his shoulder. Halfway through the movie, Annya had already fallen asleep, resting her head on Sean's shoulder, but he didn't do anything until he was sure she was in deep sleep, before he picked her up and tucked her into bed. He hadn't noticed how young she looked until now that she was relaxed and not constantly worried or blocking herself off.
Before he left, he saw something dark on her head. As he was about to pick up what he thought was a piece of thread, he got a closer look to see it wasn't thread, but in fact hair. The fact that she was wearing a wig so drastically different from her natural hair confirmed even more so his suspicion. She was in hiding, and in danger. He let it go, deciding to let her think he hadn't seen anything. As he turned off the projector and all the lights, he decided against leaving the house, not wanting to wake her up just to have her lock up after him. He undressed and put his clothes in the laundry so they would be clen for the next morning and took a walk around the house to make sure all the entrances were locked, noticing that there were weapons at each one. For some reason knowing that she had so many dangerous precautions made him feel drastically at ease.
Looking back at the girl, sleeping like she hadn't slept in days, he felt like she didn't deserve to be living like this. He didn't know what was happening in her life, but he wanted to shield her from it, let her finally feel at peace. He decided to chalk up that feeling to her being a scared friend.
After he made sure everything was locked, he checked all around the house to make sure there were no intruders, while noticing how nice the place was. The main color scheme was blue, green and white. The kitchen had a large white island countertop with a wrap around countertop in between drawers and cabinets. There was a stainless steel oven, dishwasher, and one of those fridges that had a touch screen on one for the doors. The entryway of the house was a hallway with white marble and deep red walls, opening into the living room with a black leather couch and two sets of loveseats. A chandelier was hanging from the ceiling, looking like it was made of ice crystals and a tall bookshelf with books stuffed haphazardly on each shelf. All the spines were dented, but some were dented more than others where she had re-read them. He didn't recognise any of the names, but he could tell they were mostly fiction and romance. Once he was sure the house was safe, he found a linen closet and pulled out some pillows and a blanket so he would be able to sleep on the couch, and dimmed the display light so the palace would look like someone was still awake, but he could still sleep.
The next morning, Sean woke up to a distant alarm sound followed by the sound of something crashing and breaking, which he assumed was a phone being tossed in response. He went into one of the bathrooms to wash his face and get dressed and started to make breakfast, figuring it would take Annya a minute to get out of bed.
"Put your gun down, it's just me." he said, hearing a click and someone hesitantly walking towards his direction.
"Fuck, sean. Why are you still here?" she asked, her voice still groggy from sleep
"I didn't want to wake you up just to ask you to lock the door behind me. And considering how heavy you sleep and how long it takes you to wake up, you'd be lucky I was here if someone were to break in. Are you a vegetarian?"
"Am I to assume correctly that I didn't walk to my room before I fell asleep?" she asked, sitting down on a stool at the island grabbing some strawberries.
"Like I would let you sleep on a couch" Sean scoffed. Annya shot him a look of thanks before she went to get ready for school.
"Hey, don't forget we have training today after school" he yelled after her, to which she just responded with a groan from the hallway, making his smile widen.
An hour later, Annya ran out into the living room with only one strap of her backpack and one shoe on as she looked for her keys and Sean just watching tv, waiting for her, holding them up along with a breakfast bar without looking back. Once he felt her aggressively grab them out of his hand, he turned off the projector and got up, grabbing the strap of his bag. She ran out of the house, while he casually strolled behind her since his long legs let him keep up with her short strides.
They made the drive to class in silence, just making it into their desks with only 2 minutes to spare which Annya took as an opportunity to put her head in her arms on her desk to try to get some more sleep. She stuck up her middle finger, her head still buried as she heard Sean chuckle, making him laugh out loud. The class seemed to go by irritatingly slow with Sean taking vigorous notes, and Annya drawing on her notebook.
"Hey, wanna study before training?" Sean whispered
"No. i have work" Annya seemed to be back to her cold self, as though last night and this morning never happened. Sean internally kicked himself for expecting anything different.
"Where do you work?" Sean was trying to put the pieces together to find anything out about her.
"Online work for the family business" was all she said, without looking up
"Which is?" he drew out
"Not your concern" she finally snapped, looking up at him, he agreed, lifting his hands up in surrender, but noticed her eyes softened when she looked up at him.
After class was over, Annya's phone started buzzing. And without another word, she walked to her car, starting to speak Russian, with Sean trailing behind, giving her some privacy.
"Tell me you got something, Alex. I'm losing it here." Annya said after their code.
"I'm sorry, Annya. The songs were suspicious, but nothing else added up. You're just starting to see what you want to see." Alex's voice was sympathetic and frustrated.
"Yah", she sighed. "I figured. Any work for me today?"
"No. you're actually ahead on your work. There's nothing more to do for a while. Don't you have training today?" Annya considered telling him that she knew the trainer from school, but decided against it since it wouldn't make any difference.
"Yah, but it's not for a few hours"
"Then warm up like you used to back home. Anya, nothing's changed. If anything you should be amping up your training until the situation is resolved." Annya wanted to talk back, but although he was her brother, he was still her boss.
"Yes sir" she sighed
"This isn't the boss talking, sestra. I can't be there to back you up like I used to. I need you to get better incase whoever is after you finds you. I can't lose the only family I have left. Especially if it was the little brat I have always looked out for." His voice was soft and exhausted. It was rare that they had a heart to heart, but it always brought her comfort.
"I wasn't a brat. You were always uptight" Annya joked back, letting some hurt into her voice. "You were just jealous that dad liked me more." she laughed
"You weren't his favorite. You just needed constant supervision and he was the only one you would listen to because again, you were a brat, and rolling your eyes does nothing but prove my point." Annya laughed hard at how he knew her so well. She missed hearing him laugh. It's been so long since he's even held a smile on his face. "Okay, Anya. I have to go. Be safe." The line went dead, leaving her in deafening silence.
She looked around, seeing Sean leaning on the wall a decent distance away, giving her privacy. He looked up seeing the phone was away from her ear before he made his way to her and they drove again, in silence.
She walked into her house, trying to think of something to do, then settled on playing her harp. Growing up in such a powerful family, she had been taught almost every form of art to keep her busy since she was, in fact, always running around as a child. She went into the back room of the house where she had placed her painting kit, and multiple instruments. She learned to play the guitar, but had never had any interest in it.
Without a second thought, the harp was between her legs, and her hands and fingers were mindlessly moving along the strings, playing whichever songs came to mind.
The alarm on her phone suddenly broke her out of her trance to tell her she needed to get ready to head out. With one final look into the room, she sadly closed and locked the door behind her.
A half hour later, Annya was at the gym dressed and ready.
"Alright, here's what we're gonna do. Since you have some things to teach me and I have a lot to teach you, I figured we could train each other" she said as she walked up onto the mat.
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