timestamp : mid - evening , — of december 1920 . location : the dining room of the volkov estate tagging : @bloodtorn
kolya usually kept a wide berth of natalya aleksevna . as far as he was concerned the woman from petrograd was a liability , a likely future target , and as cold as he was to most , a chilly november wind , he managed to be ice to her , picture the streets of moscow in early febuary . he saw no reason to attempt to be cordial , even as they shared spaces : the sidewalk when their destination was the same , the cathedral they both choose to attend , the estate she was lingering in , and , tonight , the dining room within it . the younger wolf thought he was alone tonight , was proud of himself for remembering a meal without a cue from some external source ; then she joined him , taking up a seat on the other side of the table , and he’s avoided any further — just two distinct people sharing a table , nothing else between them . and there really wasn’t .
he focuses on his soup and dumplings , letting them capture most of his attention for a moment , and saying a prayer quietly for his own benefit ; a cobbled together and personal thing , built over the years and faded memories , a mix of church slavonic with his native languages , folk tradition creeping in at the edges . after he’s done , he begins to eat , and seems to be in somewhat of a hurry as he does . that , however , was not her doing , but that while he had remembered this meal , he had not done so well with the one before it , and had slept in enough to miss breakfast . he was starving .