Bad endings come from Good Will (open)

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia picked at the donut that she was holding. She was downtown, just enjoying herself by herself today. She spent most of her time between her work and the house that she shared with Ben, but today had seemed like a nice day. Then again that was proof enough that the weather in Vermont was misleading. It was a chilly enough morning and so she pulled on a sweatshirt in order to walk downtown. None the less it seemed like people were out and about today, but what could one expect from the first Sunday of summer? People were actually enjoying themselves and relaxing, since summer was more or less a perpetual weekend for some. At least this first break held that atmosphere.

Yulia herself felt very relaxed as she wandered about. She had walked downtown from the house, moving briskly in order to keep warm. Then again this didn’t feel too cool to her, just Tshirt weather. Now those residents who were not from the arctic circle might have found themselves in need of a jacket. She picked the easiest thing she could find to walk in, a pair of old faded jeans that she had bought second hand. They were perfect, nice and worn in. Naturally the bakery had been the first spot. Donuts happened to be a weakness for her, delicious and convenient for handling as they were.

Yulia was walking behind a couple when the man took his hand out of his jacket pocket and slipped it around the woman next to him, and something fell out of his pocket. Yulia paused and bent down to pick it up and give it back to the still moving couple when she heard a noise that no one wants to hear. Rip. Yulia froze for a moment and then immediately backed up against the brick wall behind her. Yulia felt the seat of her pants as subtly as she could and, yes, oh crap, what a rip. She stayed there, trying to look casual as she leaned against the wall. How many people had seen? Her eyes scanned around trying to see if anyone had seen before she remembered that she was trying to be subtle about it. Well this was a great start to summer…

[Conrad Manne]

Conrad loved Sundays, he always had. Back when he was a kid, it meant the whole Manne clan (smaller then than it was now) would pile into the van and head to church, then come back home and all help make a big brunch. Now, he didn't go to services unless he was visiting his family--it was nice to sleep in as well, particularly if he and Alex (and sometimes Ann now too) were up late, playing videogames. And he hadn't had breakfast yet, but that was why he was going to the---

Oh shit, was that Yulia?

The young researcher still didn't know all of his fellow staff members all too well, but he knew who they were. He knew Yulia had been in the Russian army, and now he also knew what color underwear she was wearing today. Conrad glanced around, hoping that no one else had seen, though he didn't doubt that Yulia would prefer no one had seen. Too late.

But now he was in a fix. He wanted to help, but he had only encountered the trainer in the halls of the school. It was a nod of the head, maybe a "Good Morning" at a stretch. She had to be embarrassed by it, and wouldn't it be worse, confirmation that someone she worked with had seen?

Conrad hesitated for a moment, trying to be subtle about watching her leaning against the building. Call it a big brother instinct, he was going to help her. He shrugged out of his light windbreaker--it wasn't too cold. He wouldn't look strange for having just a long-sleeved tee on--and approached her.

The researcher leaned against the wall next to her, offering a sympathetic smile and the jacket. "Here. You can tie it around your waist."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia stayed, her butt as good as glued to that brick wall. Her face was blank despite it, but she wasn’t going to give away any discomfort on her face. After all, people were friendly here and she didn’t want to explain that she had managed to rip her pants to anyone. There were downsides to living in a friendly town. Now is only she had a way out of this. She didn’t have a cell phone so she couldn’t pretend to talk to someone. Maybe someone she knew would show up, in fact she was praying for that when it sort of happened.

She caught sight of Conrad out of the corner of her eye, recognizing him from Hammel but not knowing much more than his name. Still he was coming closer and she wanted to flinch away. Was he going to try to talk to her? She really would not mind it at all if she had been in any other situation, really, but right now she wanted to stick to the wall.

She looked at him, slightly suspicious. Maybe he’d be decent enough to cover her for a moment so she could slip into the store right there and get another pair of pants. Then again he was apparently way ahead of her on that. Out came the hand with the windbreaker and she took it thankfully. She gave him a rueful smile. “So you saw that? I was hoping no one noticed.”

She tied it around her waist and straightened up off of the wall. She was not free to get some pants that were in one piece, because she wasn’t going to walk around all day like this. “If you could possibly wait here one minute,” she said as she moved away from him. She went into the store, grabbed a pair of sweatpants, bought them, and then slipped them on in the bathroom, and then came back out with his windbreaker.

“Here, thank you again,” she said holding it out to him. “Let me buy you a coffee? It is the least that I can do.”

[Conrad Manne]

"Yeah, I saw it. Sorry." Conrad smiled slightly and shrugged, because it was up to her what was worse, no one seeing and her not having a cover, or having her coworker help her out and know about the whole thing. It wasn't like he would go back home and tell Alex or anyone about it. He was a good big brother, and good at keeping private things private. (Though those two were to separate traits that had little to do with each other. Often, being a good big brother meant sticking his nose into RC's life to get him to loosen up a bit, and into Jean's to get him to calm down. Between the two of them, they probably made one well-adjusted teenager.) "And no problem?" He didn't understand why she'd want him to wait, did she live nearby? Yulia could just give him the windbreaker back the next day at Hammel.

Soon enough, when she walked into the clothing store, he picked up on what she was doing. Okay, he could wait for her then. It wasn't like he was in a rush or anything. So the researcher just leaned against the wall outside, keeping an eye out for anyone who might have seen the incident. If anyone did, they hadn't stuck around. Yulia was probably in the clear there.

When the trainer got back, he took the windbreaker from her and put it back on. "Hey, it's no problem. And you don't have to. You just had to add another pair of pants to your budget." He wasn't going to let her pay for him; his momma raised him well. "But I was actually headed to the coffee shop, if you would like to join me." He gestured towards the little mom-and-pop place he loved and smiled at her. Might as well get to know his coworkers, right?

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia’s brow furrowed, only to be replaced with a light bite of her lip. So he had seen, well that was ok. At least that meant someone had helped her out, but so help him god if he mentioned what color her underwear was…

Then again Conrad, from what she had seen and heard of him, really did not seem like the sort who would act that way. Yulia was clearly fortunate in who she had run into today. And low and behold he was a gentleman no matter what. While she did really want to treat him as a way of saying thanks she let that go. It would be nice to make a better friend inside of Hammel itself. Most of the people she spent time with did not work there, and it was about time she started to really get to know her coworkers.

“Yes, I think that would be nice.” She headed down the street with him to the coffee shop. It was one that she had been to before with Leila, and she liked the place. One thing that she did love about living in Vermont, well America, well not being in the military, was caffeine. Oh what had she been missing all of these years! She was in love with coffee, almost in love with it as she was with her cigarettes. She got herself a cappuccino and took a sip.

“Would you mind if we sat outside? I would really like a cigarette and I will sit downwind of you. If not, that is ok too.” She certainly needed one after the pants incident.

“If I lacked a little more sense I think all I would buy with my money is cigarettes and cappuccinos.”

[Conrad Manne]

When they reached the shop, Conrad stepped forward first and held the door open for her. Honestly, it was reflexive for him, not even a conscious action.

He ordered a large mocha--because if ht was going to pay more for a cup, it would be more than he could do with the coffeemaker on his kitchen counter--and gestured towards Yulia's cappuccino as he pulled out his wallet. "I've got both of these," the researcher said to the barista. Really, the woman had started it by offering to pay for him. This was Conrad's way of preventing that from happening.

"No, that's fine. I don't really mind." He didn't smoke, but it didn't bother him all too much. And at least she'd been considerate about it and asked. "And I think my roommate's the same way, except his is tattoos and videogames." And possibly sharpies, but it depended on the day for that one. "I have to remind him when it's his turn to buy groceries." But now that he thought about it, he realized that he wasn't sure if Yulia had been Alex's trainer. Yeah, probably best not to talk about his roommate until he had that confirmed. Conrad didn't want to embarrass Alex accidentally--though he usually didn't mind so much when he was doing it on purpose.

With the coffees paid for, Conrad again held the door open for his coworker. Even without the smoking issue, he wouldn't have minded sitting outside. It was perfect outside."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was kind of surprised by how he was treating her, how, gentlemanly. It wasn’t that anyone had ever been crude or rude to her, she just wasn’t used to it. Ben was kind but he was motherly, and god forbid she should ever expect to be treated as anything other than just one of the guys when it came to her old unit. That would have been a huge mistake. So as thrown as she was by it she smiled appreciatively.

Then her cappuccino had also been bought for her, and she wasn’t sure what to say. Now she felt a bit like she was double indebted to him, first for the wind breaker rescue and then this. Perhaps it would have been different if she knew him a bit better but, frankly, she didn’t. “Thank you,” she said to him.

She laughed at the bit about his roommate, mostly because it was so the opposite of Ben. “My roommate always does the grocery shopping, probably because he is the only one who knows how to cook, and has a car. I am still working on getting my license here in America.” Yulia headed outside as he once again held the door open for her. She appreciated the gesture, second time around as well. Yulia found a bench, sat down, and took out a pack. She pulled a cigarette out, grabbed a liter out of the other pocket, and lit up. Yulia took a drag on that, blew the smoke out and then took a sip of her drink. “Thank God, I needed that one.”

“So what exactly do you do at Hammel? I don’t always pay the most attention to, well, anyone other than my trainees.”

[Conrad Manne]

As previously stated, Conrad's Momma raised him well. Perhaps his gentlemanly demeanor came from his family; his parents took in a houseful of children with different disabilities and health issues, never questioning the fact that it was both hard and expensive to do so. But they had room in their house and hearts for all of Connie's siblings, and ultimately, that made them the best kind of role models for him. He'd never bullshitted an essay about why a professional athlete was his hero; his only option had ever been his parents. "Not a problem." And that was it. He wasn't the type to make a big deal about anything being "owed."

He followed the trainer out to the street, where he took a spot beside her on the bench. Connie didn't really like the smell of cigarettes, but like she'd promised, she was sitting downwind. It wasn't going to be an unbearable conversation. "Mine just graduated Hammel, and he's going to University of Vermont in the fall, and he can't cook." With a grin, he added, "If it was up to him all the time, we'd be eating a lot more instant ramen."

"Well, I'm a researcher, but I'm the most junior one in the office, so most of the time I just do whatever Esme tells me to. I'm working on my own research project as well, but I'm mostly a general assistant at the moment." No, it wasn't a glamorous position, but it was what he liked. Conrad had always been interested in how things worked. Now he got to investigate how people worked. "You've been a trainer for a couple of years, yeah? I only started with the research team in November, but I was a student a few years ago."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was still getting used to the new status qui here in a sense. She had come from a place where being owed a favor could save your life and would definitely save your ass at some point. She was still getting used to, and enjoy the idea, that this was not how things worked here. Sometimes it threw her off but she was getting used to it all now. So if Conrad wasn’t going to say anything she was simply going to appreciate the gestures, because they were worth appreciating. So instead she did the least she could do, which was make sure that she blew any smoke away from him when she let out. She knew that a lot of people just didn’t care, but she liked to think of herself as a thoughtful smoker.

Yulia smiled when he spoke about his roommate. She guessed that she was that roommate in her situation with Ben, so she grinned and nearly nudged him a little. “I bet you wouldn’t ask for any other roommate though.” She grinned and then laughed about the ramen. “Now I’ll be fair and tell you that I have managed to burn soup, so I have no right to judge anyone else’s cooking methodisms. However I have heard that easy mac is not altogether unmanageable.”

Yulia took another drag on the cigarette, nearly ghosting it just to calm herself down a little still. So he was a researcher, that was what she thought but she hadn’t been sure. Then came the a simply enough question, but it was the kind of thing she would normally answer very abruptly. “Um no,” she started. “I have only been a trainer at Hammel since December.” And for once in this kind of conversation she had decided to continue. “I was in the military in Russia for seven years before I moved over to Vermont. I was discharged due to a bad injury in the line of duty, really a benefit in all fairness. I love it here.”

[Conrad Manne]

"He's not completely hopeless, but definitely relied on the cafeteria while he was at Hammel. Maybe he'll graduate to easy mac this year." All teasing aside, Alex was his best friend, and Conrad wasn't a wiz in the kitchen either. He could handle himself, but he wasn't a gourmand or anything. "We've been friends since he was recruited and ended up in my dorm. The only time since then we haven't been roommates was when I was at college."

"Oh, wow." Okay, so maybe Conrad didn't know what had put the thought into his head that Yulia had been a staff member for longer than he had. And he certainly hadn't known about her previous career path. "Must have been an adjustment, though. But it's good you like it here. After spending so much time as a student, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else."

He'd been in the Pilot Ridge area for about seven years now, ever since his own recruitment. Conrad had been homesick for a while, but then he'd met Alex and his brothers had manifested, so he hadn't been alone for long. He had the right job, the right surroundings...hell, the only way to improve anything was if his parents decided to move with the rest of the family to the area.

Conrad took a long sip from his coffee and smiled. "What made you want to be a trainer?" He hoped it wasn't too intrusive, but he really was curious about it. He liked a lot of the students he'd met at Hammel, but he'd never want to be the one responsible for making sure they learned their power.

((Oh I am so sorry. I forgot I had this thread. If I ever do this again, kick me in the face, please.))