#;irishka

[codenamenikolai]

Irina: sings dear future husband to ilya kamarov

Nikolai: casually begins cleaning side-arm in the living room

[codenamenikolai]

[Tiny Irina laying out her hands for her uncle Yuri to tattoo. He gets her markers and draws a spider on her hand, as per her instructions. Now she has ink like her Papa and Dyadya.]

[codenamenikolai]

[3:01:42 PM] Analis: NIKOLAI TEACHING HIS CHILD THE ART OF BIRB THROWIMG

It was probably wrong to get Alexei and Irina any more hyped up than they already were, but Liliya never could resist spoiling her little family. Balancing three ice cream cones, she hummed under her breath, hoping Irina still liked strawberry the best. The girl had been so picky recently that it was difficult to know what she liked to eat anymore. As she rounded the corner to where she had left her family, she smiled beatifically, as if trying to look like a housewife in a magazine.

The smile fell from her face the moment her husband and child entered her line of sight.

"Alexei, that's unsanitary!"

Nikolai looked up, confusion plain on his face. She wondered if this was normal to him, holding a pigeon in each hand. Beside him, their daughter gripped a squirming pigeon in her tiny hands, staring at her mother with a wide smile.

"Put that bird down now, Irina."

Irina's pleased expression faltered, and she looked to Nikolai for answers. Liliya rolled her eyes.

"It's fine, my flower. Yura and I used to do this all the time!"

It seemed impossible that the ever so careful man her husband called brother would ever pick up a winged rat. Liliya shuddered, imagining the germs now spreading across her daughter's palms. "Alexei, she'll get sick."

Sighing, Nikolai gave his daughter a look that was an unspoken apology. Stepping back, he pulled one hand back, before thrusting it forward.

"You heard your mama!" he announced, as the bird soared past Irina's face before taking flight. Irina squealed with delight, tossing her own bird at her father. The irate pigeon flapped as it nearly collided with Nikolai's face, and it was all Nikolai could do not to cackle. Spinning around once, he threw his final pigeon to Irina, though it veered away and took to the left.

Liliya almost enjoyed it, the looks of happiness on her family's faces evident. It was rare that Nikolai had enough time off to take his girls on vacation, and rarer still that he had time to teach Irina new things. Like bird throwing.

Liliya shuddered again. How boring were things in Yakutsk that her husband and Yuri had to make a game of tossing birds at each other?

"Go wash your hands, you freaks."

[codenamenikolai]

He will be, rather, when Liliya finds out their daughter has a black eye and a busted lip. The man called Nikolai has always encouraged his daughter to be a fighter, wanted her to be anything but a passive flower of femininity like so many of the girls he grew up with, but it was always within reason. None of the people his daughter fought with ever really fought back.

She does not cry, even as he kneels to her level and examines her face. The sickly purple shade around her eye makes him angry. Nobody raises a hand to his daughter, he does not care how old they may be, they will pay.

"What happened?"

It's his tone that finally makes her flinch back, and his shoulders slump. He has never been short or cross with her, even when she misbehaves. He isn't even mad at her now, only at what has been done. The tiny blonde stares down at her lap, and he thinks he might not get an answer.

"They said bad things about Mama."

His Irishka is so quiet, for once, as she has never been before. His hands drop to her shoulders, squeezing them in reassurance. She is so little, and it scares him to death now.

"What sort of things, Irishka?"

She fiddles with the hem of her skirt, still refusing to look up at him.

"The bigger boys said she was a whore."

His heart sinks.

"And then they hit you?"

Her pale face finally tilts upwards again, and a scowl has situated itself on his girl's pink lips. It takes him aback, how easily she can look like a little cat. Her dark eyes are absolutely blazing.

"No! They called Mama names and I beat them up!" Her small hand flies up to cover her newest bruise. "One of them got in a good hit though."

He wants to be horrified, he truly does. He finds it is replaced by a strange sense of amusement. Shaking with laughter, he hugs his little girl, uncaring if it seems mad.

As he leads her to the car after speaking with the principal, he is in high spirits. So high that he does not see how his little girl continues to pull at her skirt and stare at the ground until they get in. Once they are halfway home, she finally speaks again.

"Papa, does Mama really do bad things?"

Nikolai considers it a small miracle that he does not crash the car. Define bad, he wants to say, but he knows what she worries about. The truth, that's all, what her mother did what seems like a lifetime ago. The thing Liliya forbid him from speaking about.

He has never believed in lying to his daughter. She is one of the few people he is truly honest with, because he is sure she deserves as much. Even so, he cannot see a way to smoothly explain what a gray area prostitution is when you're involved in it.

"Why would it be bad?"

She has no answer, only knowing what a few punks called her mother is a terrible thing to be. Her wide eyes dart back to her window. For God's sake, he thinks, she doesn't even know what it means.

"Do you think your Mama is bad?"

"No!"

There is conviction in her high voice, and it makes him smile.

"Then that is that. It does not matter what she did. All that matters right now is that we are going to get some ice cream."

Her head whips around, so fast that her long ponytail smacks her in the face. Chuckling, he reaches out to smooth it back.

"When we are done, I say we take Sasha for a ride before Mama gets home."

Wide-eyed, all Irina can manage is a series of furious head nods.

Her exuberance is enough to make him feel like things are alright again, even as he knows Liliya may well kill him when she sees the sorry state of their baby girl.