A Dangerous Friendship [Yulia]

[Leila Gold]

After meeting at the New Year's Party, Leila had determined to meet up with Yulia again and try to develop a better friendship. The way she saw it, the two women were in similar positions--they both spent most of their time with one guy and could desperately use some other friends.

This meant a little bit of work on her end (namely waiting until Ben came around, shoving Cobalt into a back room so he couldn't complain, and asking the unsuspecting psychologist for Yulia's cell number)--but she had managed to arrange a quick meeting. They were just going to meet up and enjoy a cup of coffee together.

Leila ordered herself a drink from the Starbucks--her favorite was the dark cherry mocha cappuccino, iced--and sat back to wait.

[Edited for Nu]

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was delighted at getting a call from Leila. She had been in a bit of a funk recently, since it was drawing close to the anniversary of Evgeny’s death. As a result she was starting to sulk a little bit, but the invitation had brightened her up. She had liked Leila since she met her at the party. The attorney had made it easy on Yulia, doing most of the talking that night.

After work Yulia headed to the starbucks. She walked to the mall since she still lacked a car, and a license for that matter. She got there and looked for Leila, giving her a small wave when she spotted her. Yulia got a cup of coffee, black, and headed over to Leila. She sat down with a small smile.

“It is nice to see you again Leila. How have you been?” Yulia tried to be as articulate as possible.

Yulia took a sip of her coffee and then looked at it. She kept forgetting how weak the coffee was in American, but then again she didn’t need a pick me up right now. She popped the safety lid off the top of the cup and let it cool off that way.

[Leila Gold]

Leila waved happily when she saw Yulia come into the shop. She took a nice big sip of her drink and waited while the Hammelite picked up her own drink.

"It's great to see you, too, Yulia. I'm so glad you could make it. I hope it wasn't too difficult for you to get here? I live just down the street, so it's easy enough for me, especially since I have my bike. I found that having a bike was just about the best thing over here, since everything is just close enough that you don't want to have to use a car, but just far enough that walking starts to become a bit of a hassle. It was difficult trying to get my bike shipped out here from Chicago, but it worked out just fine, in the end." She rattled on, unthinking for a while, before she remembered the rest of Yulia's question.

"Oh, and I'm fine," she said in an offhand sort of way. "You know, it's spring, and I think there's been a few bugs that have been going around--I've certainly caught just about anything that went through town, so I should know--but now that everything is starting to warm up I should be doing much better. Luckily I don't have any allergies, at least not to anything in this area. I am originally from Texas, though, and some of the wildlife there was horrible. I'd always be walking around in the springtime, sniffing and red eyes, the whole bit. I think it was the cottonwood trees, but I was never sure. Anyway. How have you been recently? I hope you are enjoying Pilot Ridge?"

Leila noticed that Yulia had her coffee black and made a note to serve up a stronger coffee if she happened to drop by the office at any point. While the two attorneys liked their coffee heavily milked and sugared, not everyone had the same tastes.

"How is it living with Ben, by the way?" she asked. "I have to just work with Cobalt. I can't imagine what it would be like having to live with him. Quite honestly, I'm of the opinion that I moved away from home to not have to live under my father, not to get a replacement. But Blue can be a little overprotective, and I just have to live with it. It's endearing in its own way, you know? I suppose it would be better with Ben, since he doesn't seem so...what's the word...anal. But then I don't know for sure. At least he doesn't seem as awkward as Cobalt, who can't ever seem to just relax enough to open up to anyone. Honestly, I don't think he'll ever end up truly happy, since he can never open up to let people know he really likes them and wants to spend more time with them. He just kind of lets himself get punted to the side. It's sad, really."

The torrent of words slowed for a bit. It had been a while since Leila had felt like she could just have "girl talk" with someone, and it felt nice. Even though she hadn't known Yulia very long, she could tell the other woman was incredibly nice, and so it felt almost natural to just continue talking in this way.

"I've been incredibly rude," Leila did say eventually. "I haven't really been letting you say that much. Please, don't let me hog the conversation."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia had just sat down with a smile when what was a somewhat expectedly one sided conversation began. Yulia was not ready for the full effect of Leila on a tangent, or a few tangents. She looked at Leila, trying to translate this all in her head quickly enough to keep up. It was too much for her to speak, she knew that already, but even facial expressions here could be tricky. Yulia did follow the thing about the car, she could follow that. Yulia had neither a bike or a car, which meant walking everywhere and running on good leg days. She didn’t mind it all that much, it was much better weather here than it had been in Russia. Still she had been spoiled by the comparably warm summer that she had just experienced and that was coming on quickly again in Vermont. She would have absolutely no complaints walked about then.

Yulia opened her mouth to respond but then Leila carried on, answering the very question that Yulia asked. Yulia closed her mouth quickly and listened to her. Yulia didn’t have any allergies that she knew about. Her eyebrows shot up when Leila said Texas though. Yulia couldn’t imagine living somewhere so warm. She already felt like she was melting during the hottest days of summer up here. Texas, for her probably would have been unbearable weather wise. She felt like she was going to start sweating at the thought of it.

On the bright side this conversation was delightfully easy for Yulia so far. Sometimes it was a struggle for her to translate all she needed in her head in order to reply well. Most of the time she managed. Still she was not fluent enough to just say the needed English except for greetings and a few other usual replies and such. Other than that she was still stuck in her head translating what was said into Russian, picking a reply, and then translating that to English. In that sense just being talked to was nice because she only had to run the translation one way.

“I like living with Ben. We do not fight much, just over my smoking. He does not like it but I do not want to quit.” Then she listened carefully to what Leila said about Cobalt. He was a person of interest to her, especially given how he had made more of a foray into Ben’s life. Additionally she saw his temperament, from what she had observed, as completely acceptable and natural. Being on the more withheld side herself she was comfortable with how he acted. Then again she was getting used to all of it. Now Yulia said nothing because she was not sure what to say. This was something that she was going to have to mull over.

“No, no,” Yulia instantly insisted. “I like to listen more than I like to talk in English, in general actually.” She was used to just obeying orders. “But tell me more on what you say about Cobalt.” Yulia paused after she said this and shook her head. “No, I said that wrong. Let me put this differently. I think that Ben with Cobalt could be good.” Then she scolded herself silently, it wasn’t really any of her business.

“Anyways, this bicycle , where can I get one? I have no car and I cannot always run because of pains in my leg. This sounds like a good alternative.” She took another sip of her coffee, feeling herself start to warm up to Leila even more. “I was very happy when you called, this is nice.”

[Leila Gold]

"I'm glad you at least like your housemate. It can really suck being with someone who you don't like. But then, I suppose you wouldn't have chosen to live with him if you didn't enjoy his company. Does he cook well?" Leila would not put it past Ben to be the house-wife type.

Leila quirked her eyebrow at Yulia's stumbling comment. "Together, huh?" she said quietly. "Well, I will say this. It would probably be a very good idea if Blue started to hang out more with Ben, namely because, from what I've seen, the two seem to tone each other down. Cobalt seems a little less cranky with the big one around, and Ben starts to look like he might be working to develop a stronger intellect. And, you know, a more sarcastic sense of humor."

Leila smiled mischievously. It was what some people referred to as her "evil grin," and it rarely boded well for whoever was on the receiving end. "You know," she said slowly, "we could always try to stick them together. I am not above manipulating my colleague's life if I feel that it is for his benefit." This should have been evident from the first time she stepped into his life. She didn't know, though, how Yulia would feel about starting to play matchmaker on a more serious level.

"You can generally pick up a bike in any sports shop, or, if you're lucky, you can find one second-hand. They'll sometimes have ads in the paper or something, or maybe you can find one at a garage sale. Those are cheaper, though they're sometimes not as nice. I like my city bike for in town, but sometimes I wish I had a mountain bike that would do better on some of the hills. I think there's actually a sports store around the corner, and there you could look at some of the different types of bikes and pick out what kind you might like."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia nodded enthusiastically when Leila asked if Ben cooked well. “Ben is a very good cook. That is good because I am not a good cook. I never learned how to cook. I did try to cook for him once while he was sick, I think that it just made him sicker. I managed to burn soup, I did not know that soup could burn.” It was the most that Yulia had said to anyone but Ben and her students so far, and a light laugh accompanied it.

Yulia bent her head back down to her coffee as Leila spoke. She nodded a little in between Sips as Leila mentioned how she thought that Ben and Cobalt should spend more time together. At first she was thrown for a moment when Leila referred to Cobalt as Blue, trying to connect it until Leila used the actual name. Yulia remembered that she had heard Ben use the same nickname to refer to Cobalt once before as well. Yulia’s brow did furrow for half a second when intellect came up but she let it pass quickly enough. Still it was Leila’s suggestion that caught Yulia’s attention.

Yulia looked up from the cup, more wide eyed. That thought had not crossed her mind before. She hadn’t seen or heard of anyone playing matchmaker since she was in high school, probably because it was unacceptable and dangerous in the army. As such the idea surprised her. She played it off with a couple of shrugs. “I do not know.” She shook her head, in hopes that the conversation would carry on to something else. Sure enough it turned to the bicycle again. “I think after this I will go get one. I will see if I can figure out to ride it, there were none where I came from.”

Still what Leila had suggested stayed on her mind. “Perhaps…” Yulia started slowly “Perhaps a little push would not hurt them.” Yulia added her own conspiratorial smile. “I think that you should come over for a movie and dinner on Friday, and bring a friend?” Yulia thought it was fairly clear who she was suggesting Leila bring. “I will make sure that Ben stays home that night too.” She nodded, thinking that this was a good plan, new to this as she was. “And do not worry, I will not cook, I will order a pizza.” It would be no good to get them both there and end up poisoning everyone with her cooking.

[Leila Gold]

Leila laughed with Yulia. "Congratulations, you have joined a nice group of people known as the 'boxed and canned' variety. If it's in a box, if it's in a can, fine. Don't make me cook anything else. And for a very long time I was one of them. But unfortunately, my housemate three years ago was also unable to cook, so I had to figure out a few recipes. I'm now in the 'pasta and cookies' category. Not a master chef, but I get along."

She was surprised to hear that the other woman didn't know how to ride a bicycle. "None? Geez, where did you grow up?" For some reason she'd never bothered to ask before. "What did you use to get around there?"

She was firm about one thing, though. "I can teach you to ride a bike, if you want help. And I'll help you pick one out. We'll get you a nice, sturdy mountain bike. It'll be easy to ride, and it'll take you up and down the hills like nothing, just as soon as you figure out the gears." She waved her hand in the air. "Don't worry about a thing. It'll be the easiest thing in the world, and a great experience." At least it should be.

Leila grinned again once Yulia looked like she was caving. She'd been prepared to let the idea pass when the Hammel teacher hadn't looked excited, but it really was a fun idea she wanted to try her hand at.

"That sounds like an excellent idea," she said. "You order pizza, I'll bring a salad, and I'll have my friend" she exaggerated the word to imply that she knew exactly where this was going, "bring drinks. And I'll get a movie for us all. What kind of thing do you enjoy?"

If she said no preference, then Leila already had a few video ideas, depending on the mood Blue was in at the time. It was just a matter of choosing between Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, or Zombieland.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia laughed again and shook her head in response to what Leila said. “No! No!” she said while she gestured enthusiastically. “I could not even cook the thing in the can, I burned the thing in the can. I am not even a box and can person, more like a cereal and sandwiches one.” This was followed with another laugh from the powers trainer.

The next question required some thought from Yulia, just in order to phrase everything she was going to say about it. “I am from Norilsk, a city in Russia in the arctic circle, Siberia. There my family had a car, but I have not been there for some years.” That was when she paused. She didn’t know about much Leila knew about Hammel so she thought it was best to skate around the edge of her ability. “Then I went to school and then I was in the military for… oh say, seven years about I think. We had better cars and other military grade transport. It was as little as snow mobiles sometimes to Helicopters, and more that I cannot tell you about. No bikes though, too snowy much of the year, too rainy otherwise.”

She thought that she handled that bit nicely. She was wary about speaking about what she was here, now that she was not in a unit where it was common knowledge what everyone was. That was a shame in a sense, as she would have loved to find someone with cellular manipulation to fix her leg the rest of the way. Still something like that could wait, it wasn’t hugely necessary.

Yulia was please that Leila agreed on the idea. Also she couldn’t help but to be happy because it would be nice to have a gathering at the house, no matter what purpose it was orchestrated for.

“Hmm, I do not have any favorites. There are so many and I do not know what is good and what is not.” Yulia took another good drink of her coffee.

[Leila Gold]

"You burned the canned items? Wow, I don't know that I was ever that bad..." Leila mused with a smile. "We're going to have to teach you how to heat up a can of Spaghetti-O's. Microwaves. They're a wonderful invention."

She was a little surprised to hear that Yulia had grown up in Russia. "That sounds like a really rough life. I can't believe you were in the military--you don't look the type. Is there a reason you joined up?" Then she remembered her lessons and the fact that Yulia was a teacher at Hammel. It meant that she was probably a metahuman, and a metahuman growing up in Russia would have grown up under different rules.

"Never mind," she said quietly. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want. But I guess you're pretty glad not to have the rain or the snow as much here, right? Vermont really is beautiful. I don't know that I could live somewhere that got any colder--I'm a Southerner at heart."

She laughed again. "You teach at Hammel, yeah? Did you know I went to school there? I never thought I would have come back here, though." It was her subtle way of letting Yulia know that she was powered without actually saying anything in public. "It was there that I got the reputation of being a bit of an airhead." She laughed again, tossing her hair. There was a tiny breeze that stirred the air, but she didn't let it get any more obvious.

"Let's plan for this Saturday. I'll grab a couple movies, and we'll be sure just to have fun." It was a good plan, and with such a small group there was little possibility of something going horribly wrong. Right?

[Yulia Sokolov]

“I just left it on the stove in the pot. I guess that I should have stirred it but I didn’t really think of that. Also I turned the heat all the way up. I do not know, it was just the perfect storm of bad cooking.” Yulia wasn’t all that upset by it, in fact she was amused more than anything.

That amusement faded away as she tried to think of a way to explain herself. She tilted her head one way, and then the other. “It was not a rough life exactly, I do not want to make it sound bad. When you do not know any better it is very fortunate. If I had to I feel like I could go back to it without much trouble. Though it is so much nicer here in Vermont, the air is much cleaner. Norilsk is a mining city, so all of that gets kicked up into the air.” She was ready to go on about the military when Leila told her that she didn’t have to.

“No, no its ok. It was tough, but very good company like here. Good people who were in the same situation. We did not have a choice, but that was ok. I think that I would have gone into the military if there had been a choice, there was nothing for me in Norilsk.” In the long run it had brought her to Pilot ridge and enabled her to get a job at Hammel, so she couldn’t really complain.

Yulia looked at Leila, slightly surprised when she said that she went to Hammel. Well then at least she was free to disclose that she was a Meta to Leila. Yulia took another drink of coffee but then she felt that breeze. Naturally, Yulia was able to target that it must have come from Leila. She stared wide eyed at the other young woman, shocked that she would have used her ability like that. Then she had to remind herself that some powers could be done like that and that she forgot because hers could not.

“It is a very different style of teaching, that I must admit.”

Yulia thought for a moment on her plans for the week. “This Saturday sounds good, I will make sure that Ben stays in with me. It will be fun.”

[Leila Gold]

Leila listened patiently to the story of Yulia's background. She was upset to hear that this woman, who seemed so nice, could have grown up in such a harsh environment. It didn't seem like the kind of place where anyone could be happy, no matter what they told themselves. But still, if the situations were reversed, Leila wondered if she would have been strong enough to pull through and keep her personality from warping.

"I'm glad you like it here," she said when Yulia was done. "Hammel is a great place, and I'm sure you'll have wonderful friends here. I really enjoyed all my time here, though I don't think I could stay forever."

She smiled a little, thinking of what it might be like to teach at Hammel. "Yeah, there are a few more problems at a meta school, and I suppose the discipline is a little different." But it wasn't like she had a lot of experience. She was a lawyer, not a teacher, and she had a feeling she wouldn't do well with kids.

"Great, then, it's settled." Leila finished off her coffee and slurped noisily on the straw. "Man, these things never seem big enough, and they cost you an arm and a leg in the bargain. I should just learn to make my own one of these days."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia sort of understood that she wasn’t representing her home as one that could actually be lived in well. She felt a little embarrassed by that in truth. Norilsk was cold and tough but it wasn’t bad. She bit her lip for a moment and then added quietly. “My family, my parents, were really great. They and my sisters still live there.” Her family was happy enough back in Norilsk, or were they? She never heard from them so she did not really know.

“Do you mean here in Vermont? I think that maybe I could stay here forever. I was never much for travel and I have traveled enough in my life. I am working on getting my green card, but I know that will take a few years. As long as I am employed I am ok though.” Even more so than her work Yulia always had immigration on the brain. She didn’t want to get into any trouble of that variety. There were few enough options when it came to immigrating, and she wasn’t about to hire someone to marry her so she could stay in the country. Then again at the moment she didn’t have to worry about it, she was perfectly safe.

When Leila mentioned Hammel and the possible teaching difficulties Yulia just smiled for a moment. “Oh, I have not had any trouble. I think my discipline may be too much, but it is habit for me.” Her personal amusement in this clearly showed on her face.

“So Leila, what kind of law do you do exactly?”

[Leila Gold]

"You have sisters? Are they older or younger? I was an only child, and I always wondered what it would be like growing up with siblings. Do you talk to them much?" Leila was glad to think of Yulia as having a happy family. With loving people around you, it was possible to weather just about any storm. Though maybe it was just because Leila had grown up in a warm area that she saw Russia as a barren wasteland.

"I'm glad you're happy here. It's really a nice place to settle, I think. While it may not be best for me, I think that it's really a great place for a nice, quiet life. Like I said, not best for me--I hope to go back to a bigger city sometime--but yeah...Pilot Ridge is a good place." And she did truly believe that. It was a good stepping stone for her, though she sometimes found the smalll-town atmosphere stifling.

Leila had to laugh a little as she imagined Yulia teaching the students. "Do you scare them all, then? I imagine they all come in excited to have such a pretty teacher, then leave the room in terror." She enjoyed the idea.

"I mostly work with employees caught in situations of abuse. Not abuse, really...prejudice. Metahumans who have been fired for being meta, things like that. Though I'm willing to work in some different areas. No criminal law, though. It's all law suits and stuff, really. The boring stuff. I rarely even go to trial or anything, so it's not like anything you'd see on TV."