There's something I should tell you...

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Ya ne znayu, Lili...ya nadyeyusʹ, chto on pridet. No tak sluchilosʹ v dome...i ya ot srochka..."

She exhaled noisily, glancing down at the pup (http://i42.tinypic.com/osemfn.jpg) strolling along contentedly at her side. At least, Lana mused, they were meeting outside. It was too nice of a day to spend it cooped up anywhere...and the park had quickly become one of her favorite spots after Alex first showed it to her.

"...tam tak mnogo ya dolzhen skazatʹ yemu."

The young woman eventually sat cross-legged on a wide, flat rock on the edge of the water. The full afternoon sun radiated down on her, slipping warmly across her skin and her senses as her body absorbed it. It felt...beyond good. There just weren't enough words in any language to describe just how amazing it was.

Lily, with her thick coat getting fluffier by the day, eschewed the sunlight and instead flopped down in the shadow of her perch. The pink harness (http://i40.tinypic.com/17bqzp.jpg) and leash she wore were each adorned with a bow and little crystal accents...something Alex had been quite amused with the first time he'd seen it.

Her smile at the memory soon faded, however, replaced with the concern of the last few weeks. Knowledge weighed heavily on her mind and held nearly every one of her waking thoughts in its iron grasp. Fingers tucked the end of the leash in the pocket of her shorts (http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=29958081), before plucking her sunglasses off of her face and setting them aside. There was no one to see her eyes as they brightened to a shimmering gold that glowed even in the bright sun.

So much had happened the day of the rally. The day they were attacked, and she was shot. Fingers rose absently to touch the scars that marred the side of her neck. Her entire life turned upside down by the revelation that Saladin was her father, and not Dimitri. Seventeen years of lies, the worse of them coming after Mikhail's death. How could she explain to Alex without having truly come to terms with it herself?

Lana wasn't certain that she could, but had delayed it long enough. Alex deserved to know...and if it drove him away, then...so be it. Better he know the truth than live a lie like the ones she'd been fed all her life.

Her breath caught in her throat rendering her silent, though Lily still popped her head up and whined softly, nudging Lana's leg with her nose. She extended a hand to rest atop the puppy's head, giving skritches where she liked them best, right behind her ears.


----------

Phonetic Russian taken from Google Translate:

"I don't know, Lily...I hope he comes. But so much has happened at the house...and I've been delaying..."

"...there's so much I have to tell him."

[Alex Kaine]

Alex slumped facing the window glass as the city bus rumbled past the old shops and townhomes that constituted the nice end of Los Santos. This was the historical district, where most of the pre-1950s construction was still standing, where most of the civic restoration budget had gone ten years ago when there still was one. Anna used to take the kids here on summer afternoons for a movie at the dollar theater and ice cream at Benito's. But they had closed, and the neighborhood had filled up with Starbucks and chain drug stores. About the only thing worth coming for anymore was the park, which was, conveniently, just about halfway between Redención House and Lana's apartment.

Lana. They'd hardly spoken since the night of the Rally. They'd hardly gone a day all summer without a visit or a phone call or at least a few guilty text messages, and then, the day after Alex had reluctantly left her to have dinner with Saladin - with Saladin! - she'd been shy and cagey over the phone, saying only that everything was all right, that she was going to tell him everything, but that this was something she really needed to say to him in person.

Their schedules had misfired the first couple of days, him with work, her with tennis lessons. Then everybody at the House had bundled off to the Fernandez homestead for the Fourth of July weekend, and they'd come home to a nightmare. So, yeah. Things fell through the cracks.

The hiss of the bus's brakes jerked him out of his thoughts, and he piled out of his seat and slouched down the aisle to the exit with a handful of other passengers who quickly scattered to mind their own business - mostly at Starbucks. Alex waited, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his faded jeans, until the bus had rolled on down the street, and he watched for a gap in the traffic and jogged over the zebra crossing.

It didn't take him long to find Lana by their favorite spot, tucked away off the main path by a pond with a fountain and clumps of willow trees. Lily saw him before Lana did, and she gave a throaty little bark of alarm before she recognized him and dissolved into wiggles.

"Now, see," Alex said, "that's mixed messages right there."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

The bark startled her, sending her eyes wide as she glanced around for the sudden source of Lily's attentions. The pup's enthusiastic wiggles pulled the end of the leash out of her pocket, setting her to racing over to meet him. Lana rose a bit more slowly, her heart beating faster at the sight of him.

He'd come...he'd really come.

A soft, almost shivering smile curled her lips as she approached, holding her hands out to him. Glowing golden eyes drank in the sight of him, wandering up and down so she wouldn't forget a single detail. Lana sighed as she tried to speak and found her voice unwilling to cooperate. This was going to be so much harder than she had thought.

"I missed you..." she murmured, eyes searching his.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex crouched down to take the brunt of the clumsy, slapping paws and sticky doggy kisses, and he snagged the silly pink designer leash to make sure she didn't wander any farther. As he stood back up, Lily was spinning circles on her lead and sliming his jeans with the side of her mouth on every pass. That was one relationship restored. Things were a lot simpler with dogs.

He flicked his eyes up to Lana's and walked Lily back toward her. "Yeah, I... I missed you, too." It was derivative, but it was honest - at least it was one of the emotions he was feeling. Lana couldn't be blamed for all the rest.

He stepped closer and extended the end of the leash toward her. "Doesn't really seem like it's just been a week, does it?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Nyet...its seems much longer than zat."

Lana couldn't mask the disappointment and fear that marred her features, dipping her head to stare down at Lily as she simply took the leash and dropped her hands to her sides. At least he seemed as pleased to see Lily as the pup was to see him.

"How's Anna?" she asked softly, eyes contemplating the leash in her fingers as she spoke, turning slightly to sit back down on their rock, reflexively making space for him beside her. Lily sprawled out at last, in the shade, panting as she watched Alex intently and waited for him to sit.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex dropped cross-legged onto the sun-warmed stone, listening to the spray of the fountain that kept mosquitos out of the pond. "She was pretty shaken up," he said. "The baby's fine, though, and she's been resting. We've all been chipping in to try to take the load off of her."

There was a quiet detachment in his voice that was fundamentally un-Alex, as if the short link between his passions and the sleeve he wore them on had been cut. But sometimes venting your rage didn't make it feel any less futile.

He fiddled idly with the leather bracelet on his wrist and slowly turned his eyes back to Lana. "How are things with you? All healed up from the Rally?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Things are relatively well. Tennis camp was grueling as usual...we worked with several professionals and had individual coaching sessions with each." Lana replied softly, looping the leash around her wrist as she wound her fingers together. That way, at least, Lily couldn't easily dart away, and Alex couldn't see her fingers shaking.

He didn't sound himself. And she wasn't sure what to attribute it to, but the fear coiled in the pit of her stomach insisted that it was her fault. She tilted her head as she turned slightly to meet his gaze, fear tinting her golden gaze. "All healed, but I have scars where the sedative pellets exploded. Not too bad though...I don't mind them."

Lana cringed at how hollow everything she'd said sounded. Her gaze returned to the rippling water a few feet away, unable to hold onto his. "I have...I have some things to tell you. And I need you to not say anything until I finish, please, Alex."

He was silent for a moment, and Lana took that as tacit approval to continue. "That night after the rally, I stayed at the Brotherhood headquarters for several hours. I had dinner with Saladin...he knew...he knows my mother. And Dimitri. And..."

She swallowed hard and closed her eyes tightly, letting the words tumble out in a rush. "...he's my father, Alex. All these years, I've been lied to. My mother lied to me. Dimitri hated me because I wasn't his...the night Mikhail died, that was supposed to be me. I was supposed to be dead in a ditch by the side of a road. Dimitri had paid the Bratszvo to take me but they went into the wrong bedroom. My whole life has been a lie and I didn't know what to think. We talked for hours. About him, about my mother, about the twins."

"I...I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to burden you with this. I...I'm afraid of what you think of me now. I don't even know what I think..." she finished in a bare whisper, pale green 'tears' trailing down her cheeks as her slender shoulders shook from the effort of speaking and trying to remember to breathe.

[Alex Kaine]

The revelations rolled in like a succession of tidal waves. Each one had the power to change the landscape, but as the water level rose higher and higher, the only thing you could do was keep backpedaling for a steady place to plant your feet - either that or hold your breath and hope you still recognized something of the scenery when the waters receded.

Saladin's daughter. The man who'd been a focal point for Alex's mutant activist ambitions, the man he'd idolized and quoted obsessively, whose face was folded up on a novelty T-shirt in his dresser.

Lana's father. Who, if Tess was to be believed, was far more dangerous than Alex had ever guessed. Who crowned the most wanted list in more than a dozen nations, who had made a career of putting himself at the flashpoint of human-mutant hostilities. As often as Alex had fantasized about taking his place in Saladin's revolutionary architecture, it had been as much about what he was leaving behind as it was what he'd be joining. Because you didn't throw in your lot with someone like Saladin if you had any stake in the mundane world.

Lana was the one with everything to lose. Mundane materiality was her world, something Alex had just been beginning to accept. But her lot had already been cast all along. And now Alex didn't know what world she belonged to.

The waters receded. Alex let out the breath he'd been holding, then took a few more for good measure. When his eyes stopped staring into the middle distance and the world came back into focus, he could see only one thing: Lana, in tears.

"Hey..." He slid across the stone slab toward her and reached an arm around her back. She folded against his chest, and he wrapped her up and held her there, letting her press her wet face against his shoulder.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

There was nothing to do now, but wait.

Until the silence ended. Until he said something. Until he got up and simply left her sitting there.

Lana's heart stopped beating for a second as pain lanced across her senses from the thought. She didn't know what to do. So she sat and stared out at nothing, while pale green tears turned from a trickle into a flood. She shook as the sheer weight of her words hung in the air around them both.

The implications were...terrifying. Her life was no longer her own, no longer as simple as she'd come to want it to be.

Lana swallowed hard, and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, trying to stop either her tears or her random, racing thoughts. She wasn't sure which. But then Alex decided for her, and she fell apart all over again. Turning as he pulled her in close, she gasped at the familiar sensation and collapsed against his chest. Taking the shelter his arms offered from the confusion and pain her life had become.

His warmth and strength slowly worked through the haze of her pain and brought her past the worst of it...though speech still hadn't returned to her. Time passed - she didn't know how much - but it saw her sobs reduced to softer breaths, and her shuddering stop completely. Lana was exhausted, and simply sat there in the circle of his arms, eyes closed tight.

"Aleksanderr..." she said softly, her voice thick with fear "...do you...still...love me?"

[Alex Kaine]

The question caught him by surprise and tore a little laughing breath from his lungs. Not that Alex meant to laugh. But his insides were still juddery with shock and surprise, leaving him almost as volatile as Lana was. She felt warm and solid in his arms, though, and he began gently stroking a bare shoulderblade.

"Well, let's see," he said. "You're still you... which means you're brilliant... funny... one of the sincerest people I know... you've got a penchant for the dramatic, but hey... and, oh yeah, you're also still hot as hell. Meanwhile, I'm still me, so, QED..."

He bent his head down and kissed her on the side of the head, where it was covered in a sweeping curtain of golden-blonde hair. It wasn't his first choice, but with her still burying herself against his chest, he didn't have a lot of options.

"This changes a lot of things, but not that."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Her sigh was soft, but perhaps the first relaxed sound she'd uttered in days. She smiled against his shoulder as he kissed the side of her head, his fingers trailing across her sun-warmed skin. Her cheeks did warm, though from what exactly, she couldn't be sure.

He was here, and with his arms around her, nothing else mattered beyond that.

They remained there for a while, before Lana shifted slightly, tilting her head back to gaze at him. One hand lifted to trail fingers across his cheek as she smiled and kissed him soundly. "Ya ochenʹ lyublyu tebya, Aleksanderr."


















-----
Google translate: "I love you very much..."

[Alex Kaine]

Alex hadn't picked up a lot of Russian during his time spent with Lana, but he knew that much. He'd even tried to reciprocate now and then, but his tongue-tied pronunciation always made her laugh.

"I love you too," he said back, and he kissed her again. And then... and then...

The hissing of traffic was distant enough that it could has passed for wind, and the fountain was a blanket of white noise punctuated by the staccato piping of birdsong in the trees. The heat was rising, but there was a breeze that cut away the worst of it, and it only heightened Lana's smell, not the perfume and shampoo that cost more than month of his paychecks, but the nearness of her that lay hidden underneath, that he could only access when he was this close to her.

Alex wasn't in a hurry for this moment to end. But there had to be a then.

He took several long, unassuming breaths, fully intending with each one to speak. But it took five of them before he finally got the words out, and by then the sound of his voice surprised even him.

"So what happens now?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

She sighed softly, trying to formulate a response to his softly worded question. Bright golden eyes blinked slowly as she breathed deep, using his warmth and strength to find her own ground.

"I don't know? He said he wants to be involved in my life, but that being who he is and what he is isn't going to make that very easy. He...skirted around the issue of my mother. Which...I think...means that he might know something he's not telling me." Lana frowned, pausing for a deep breath once more as she shifted slightly in his lap.

"But for us? I don't...I don't want anything to change. I've had enough change. You're the only good thing in my life right now..." she said softly, her voice trailing off as she rested her head on his shoulder.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex lifted his hand so he could card his fingers through her hair. And then Lily decided she had been ignored for too long and jumped to nip at Lana's hair from behind.

Alex laughed and twisted to push the puppy away. "I wouldn't say the only thing," he said. "You've still got Lily."

Enormously pleased with the new game she'd invented, Lily danced around and took a bite of Alex's hair. "Hey, you!" He turned to shoo her off, and -

Well, that had done it. He and Lana were no longer folded together like two parts of a matching set, and that kind of intimacy couldn't be manufactured. A cloud passed over Alex's face, but Lily pranced around with an ear-to-ear grin on her face, happy to be finished with this cuddling nonsense so something productive could get done.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

There were times, Lana mused, that Lily was a pain in the ass with the worst sense of timing.

But she couldn't stay mad for long, not with that adorable furry face prancing about looking all too pleased with herself. Lana laughed breathlessly, cupping Alex's face in her fingers and kissing him lightly.

Gold eyes glittered as she cast him a heated glance before turning to face the bouncing puppy. "Lily, some day, I will manage to teach you when to not interrupt..." Slender fingers tossed the fuzzy pink tennis ball which sent Lily racing off to fetch it.

She rose slowly and stretched, before holding her hands out to him. "Come on, she's not going to let us sit here much longer."

[Alex Kaine]

Alex heaved up to his feet and gripped Lana's hands in his own. Lily may have changed their course, but he wasn't ready to let the moment slip away.

"Well, we could always go someplace quieter." He ducked his head a little, aiming a searching look into Lana's eyes. "You know. Someplace... private."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Private..." she said softly, answering his gaze with one of her own, a lush smile forming on her lips.

"...my place, perhaps? We'd have it all to ourselves..."

[Alex Kaine]

The heat started rising under Alex's collar. It seemed like Lana was thinking along the same lines he was. Except the lines he was thinking of ran on curves, soft and supple and inviting, and the conspiratorial smile on Lana's lips set his heart pounding.

"That sounds perfect."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

She dared a soft, lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth before she freed one of her hands from his. Sunglasses went back down over her eyes, dark lenses obscuring the soft glow of her gaze. Lily trotted up as they started walking, happily carrying her ball as Lana absently picked up her leash.

It didn't take them long to reach the tall, shining steel and glass structure Lana lived in. She waved absently to the young woman at the desk, the cheerful greeting barely registering in her mind as Alex's fingers slid under the hem of her top to splay across her lower back.

They paused at the entrance to the elevator, as it took her two tries to swipe her card properly. "Aleksanderr, you're distracting me..." she murmured warmly under her breath as the door opened and she drew him inside and into her arms.

[Alex Kaine]

"Yeah, well, look what you're doing to me."

He stepped into the elevator with her, the elevator with the gold doors, the only one of eight elevators in the building that went up to the penthouse on the top floor. There was a time that the idea of a private elevator had seemed a luxury so deliberately exclusive it bordered on the obscene, but Alex didn't care about that now.

The moment the door slid shut he tested her with a deep, probing kiss, and when she didn't pull away, he pushed her back against one of the mirrored walls and then began exploring, hungrily. His hands found their way to her hips and worked their way up under the pleated frill of Lana's top.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

They'd been building up to the moment for months. Kisses had gotten deeper, touches carried more heat, and need had slowly simmered just beneath the surface of each of them.

It wasn't simmering anymore.

Energy crackled in the air around them and danced across their skin. Electricity and sunlight inextricably intertwined, pulsing to the combined rapid beat of their hearts.

Their lips parted only twice in quick succession, and even those two instances were deliciously brief. Long enough for her fingers to pull his t-shirt up over his head, and then just long enough for him to slide her tank-top off. Both were tossed aside in short order, leaving her to shiver slightly until he pressed her back once more, his fingers trailing along the edge of her lacy bra.

One of her hands settled on the back of his neck, while the other trailed down the center of his chest, fingers hooking into the waistband of his jeans. The elevator came to a stop and the door slid open with a soft sound. Lily, who normally darted out, growled darkly.

"Svetlana Ekaterina Ustinova, kakogo cherta vy dumaete chto vy delaete, baryshnya?"

The familiar voice made Lana go perfectly still. Blinking, she tilted her head to the side and looked over Alex's warm shoulder to see her mother standing just outside the door. Arms crossed and a sculpted brow raised, an unreadable look on her features.

"O, ya znayu tochno, chto ya delayu. Vopros v tom, kakogo cherta ty zdesʹ delaeshʹ?" Lana snapped back after catching her breath, flatly refusing to move from where she was, glaring defiantly.




---

Gods bless GoogleTranslate:

"...what the hell do you think you're doing, young lady?"

"Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing. Question is, what the hell are you doing here?"

[Alex Kaine]

Lana may have gone still, but Alex whirled around to face the unfamiliar woman with a face full of uncomprehending shock. It took him a moment to process that a stranger was standing in the foyer of what was supposed to be a private penthouse, and another moment to match the Slavic beauty and statuesque poise to the woman he'd seen smiling primly alongside a bearded bear of a man in a photo on Lana's mantle.

Alex felt torn between the impulse to protect Lana and the urge to go diving for his shirt. He was completely at a loss amid the rapid-fire Russian vitriol.

[Gaia]

"Do you think she'll be happy to see us?"

"Of course she will, my love..."

"Do you think she's mad at me?"

"No, love, I'm certain she isn't. The only person she'll be mad at is me."

"You should have told us, mama. Should have told her especially."

"I know, love...I...know. Would you...go inside, won't you? She'll be here soon enough, and I need to tend to these plants."

Piotr nodded and wandered off inside the apartment, while Yelena remained in the atrium space. Fingers extended towards the plants, and leaves rustled in response, shifting, rippling, and moving towards her as she extended her power to them. They were strong, healthy, and well maintained...obviously Lana's work as she detected the familiar trace of her daughter's energy.

Pain lanced across Yelena's features, lingering there as she drew her hands back so as not to wither them. Her bright teal gaze darkened with all of her swirling emotions. She'd made many mistakes in her life, but lying to Svetlana was among the worst things she'd ever done. She wouldn't be able to blame her daughter if she never forgave her.

Fingers smoothed out the delicate lace of her dress (http://www.polyvore.com/yelena_tsisty/set?id=29955024) as she rose from her seat on the bench, stilettos clicking along the marble floor. There were a thousand things she should have done, but hadn't, and now everything was going straight to hell. Looking down at her hands as she entered the vast apartment, she could remember vividly how it had felt to finally break free from Dimitri. How his blood had covered her like so many precious rubies, his body crushed and pulled into the earth, her life finally her own for the very first time.

Piotr's voice rang out and interrupted her train of thought, calling her into the living room where he was toying with the tablet that controlled the entertainment system. The large flatscreen TV was split into four sections, apparently one security camera to each. Yelena could see the patio in one, the pool in another, the lobby and its lush plants just outside the front door, and in the fourth was an interior view of the private elevator.

And her teenage daughter in an alarming state of undress...

"Piotr, turn that off and wait here." Yelena said a bit more archly than she'd intended, before stalking out to wait for the elevator. Piotr winced and did as he was told, gingerly setting aside the tablet and drawing his knees up to his chest. This wasn't going to be a very happy surprise.

-----

She shifted her position as Lana spoke back to her, a flicker of something sharp and unforgiving dancing across her face before disappearing. Glittering teal eyes took in the sight of her daughter's boyfriend, Alex, whirling around with a complete look of shock writ on his features. At least, she mused, Hektor had told her about him. Though if he knew, he hadn't mentioned just how close they apparently were.

"Take a moment to gather yourselves, if you please. I would like to speak to you both inside." Yelena said quietly, before spinning on her heel and leaving them to follow.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Her hands gently slid to his waist, turning him back to face her. Features unreadable, she held him tight and kissed him. The moment had been utterly ruined, but the comfort of having him so close and so warm was undeniable.

Lana would have preferred to stay right there, wrapped up in his arms up against his skin. But she couldn't. With a soft, pained sigh, she shifted, putting some space between them. It was enough to allow Lily to whine and demand attention from each of them, her own distress palpable.

Slender fingers tugged her frilly tank-top back over her head and into place, smoothing out the pleats before reaching down to skritch behind Lily's ears.

"You don't have to come in if you don't want to, Aleksanderr..." she said softly, blinking as she cast her gaze away from his. He'd dealt with enough in one day, she wouldn't blame him in the least if he chose to leave right then.

But god, did she hope he'd stay.

[Alex Kaine]

Maybe it would be best to go. The last time Alex had heard, Lana's mother was still in Russia and out of communication. Whatever had brought her halfway around the world to LA was probably deeply personal, deeply familial, and Alex wasn't a part of that circle yet. For all he knew, the reunion was supposed to be a happy one, and here he was intruding on it.

But there was no mistaking the sudden look of panic in Lana's eyes just before she'd turned them away. And whatever else she'd said, Yelena had asked them both in. If she'd meant to exclude him, all she'd needed to do was speak in Russian. Backing out now would be cowardice.

He squeezed Lana's hands together. "She asked for both of us, didn't she?" he said. "I have to meet her sometime."

Alex stooped to gather up his shirt and quickly pulled it on. Then he took a hold of Lana's hand and stepped out of the elevator.

[Piotr Ustinov]

Popping his head up from where it rested on his knees, dark eyes watched his mother stalk by without a word, pain radiating from her features. She went out onto the patio and wrapped her arms around herself as she stood looking out over the cityscape.

Blinking, Piotr wondered what had happened until her heard the pattering of feet coming in the doorway, and then he just couldn't help himself.

"Lana!" he crowed happily, racing down the hallway and launching himself at his sister.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

My god, she loved him even more in that moment.

Lana nodded as they walked into the apartment and let the door close behind them. Her free hand tossed her phone and access card into the waiting basket on the nearby table, then reached down to free Lily from her harness. The pup shook herself vigorously before looking up and whining softly.

It was all she could do to remain standing when Piotr hit her, forcing her to let go of Alex's hand. Her arms wrapped around him tightly as she held him close, kissing into his hair as she murmured. "You're here to? Oh god, I missed you so much...are you alright? Piotr, tell me you're alright...look at you! You've gotten so tall!"

She forgot everything else for a few moments, alternately holding him at arm's length to stare and hugging him tightly. Eventually, she remembered herself and gently turned Piotr around to face Alex, though her arms remained wrapped around his shoulders.

"Alex, this is Piotr. My baby brother...the one I'm reasonably sure you're tired of hearing about. Piotr, this is my boyfriend Alex." she beamed a bright smile. Lily, for her part, had slunk behind Alex to hide, peering around his legs but refusing to move.

"You know there's a camera in the elevator, right?" Piotr quipped with a sly grin even as he extricated himself from his sister's grasp and offered Alex a hand.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex's face froze in place as he shook the little tyke's hand.

"I do now," he said. "So... when did you and your mom get to LA?"

[Piotr Ustinov]

"Just a few hours ago..." Piotr began blinking as his eyes glowed crimson for a moment. He stared off to one side, letting go of Alex's hand after shaking it, gaze distant and not at all 'there'.

Lana gently cupped his face murmured softly in Russian as her 'glow' brightened considerably and enveloped him as well. He sighed after a moment and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder.

"Mikhail says hello." he mumbled after a moment or two.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

She let her glow dissipate as she held onto him and kissed into his hair. There would come a time, she mused distantly, when he wouldn't be so comfortable with being held by his big sister. Lana dearly hoped it didn't come anytime soon.

Lana smiled as she peered in the direction he'd been looking in briefly, then gently shifted so Piotr was tucked into her side. She smiled softly up at Alex and tilted her head for him to join them as they walked down the hall and through the living room.

She paused as Piotr spoke, glancing down at him.

"I think she did what she thought was best."

"But she still lied to me. I wasted my life trying to please someone who wasn't even my father."

"You should be glad he wasn't. Mikhail and I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Lana sighed as she gently let him go, leaving him to stand beside Alex. "Try not to tell Alex too many embarrassing stories about me, alright?" she smiled faintly as she glanced at them both and stepped outside.

Soft footsteps took her over to where her mother stood, where she paused beside her. Lana twisted her hands together nervously as she took a deep breath. "You lied...you lied to me..." she nearly choked on the words as a bit too much emotion threaded its way through the syllables. Pain halted her voice as she turned away and wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

[Gaia]

What have I done.

Slender fingers rose to pinch the bridge of her nose, a reply lingering on the tip of her tongue. But Lana continued before she could say anything.

"Why? Why, mama?"

Yelena uttered a soft, pained sound that she couldn't hold in even though she tried. There was an entire speech she had come up with. A dozen reasons. Excuses. Pretty words of apology.

Things she'd rehearsed on the long trip over, after she'd spoken to Hektor. There was another relationship she was certain she'd irrevocably ruined. The only man she'd ever truly loved, and she'd...well. She'd screwed that up in equally spectacular fashion.

Turning to Lana, she reached out and gently turned her daughter to face her. "Svetlana...I..." Yelena swallowed and struggled to keep her composure, to keep some modicum of the armor she'd spent so long forging. "...I was afraid. I wanted to protect you. And...it tears me apart that I failed so terribly. My god, when he told me you'd been hurt..."

She couldn't finish the thought as it drove the breath out of her lungs. Instead, she pulled a stunned Lana into a tight, shuddering embrace and struggled to breathe.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Her mother had always been tender and loving, but this vulnerability was a side of her that Lana had never seen before. It was shocking, confusing, and even a bit frightening. What else had she been hiding that she'd never noticed before?

The time would come soon enough, she mused, when she could ask. Their relationship had irrevocably changed the day of the Rally, but right now...there were other things to attend to.

Lana pulled back after lingering there, in her mother's arms, hiccuping as her sobs eventually subsided. Her control had crumbled the minute she'd seen the sorrow in her mother's gaze and felt the normally strong woman shake. A moment later, she heard the glass door slide open and Piotr's footsteps as he raced over and joined them.

She had to laugh as she caught her breath, given that he tucked himself between them. Lana kissed his forehead and accepted the tissue he proffered, watching as he looped their mother's arm over his shoulders. He helped her over to one of the chairs surrounding the table beneath the pergola. Her glowing gaze narrowed with concern, a glance which her mother caught and gently shook her head at.

"Why don't I go get Sergei and Natasha...I'm sure you must be hungry. And Sergei can make your usual, mother. I think you need it." she said softly, padding inside to the kitchen where she spoke to Sergei through the intercom, a stream of rapid Russian sliding past her lips.

[Alex Kaine]

So, your girlfriend reveals her father is an international revolutionary. Her supermodel mother turns up unannounced to deliver a flurry of Russian invectives. Her kid brother pipes in with messages from the dead. And now you're left sitting on the couch trying not to intrude on an emotional reunion you know you can't understand, and not just because it's in Russian.

Yes, even by mutant standards, today was a weird day.

Alex listened as the raised voices in the dining room quieted to a tender murmur, then finally ceased altogether. He heard whisper-quiet footsteps crushing the plush carpet behind him, and he stood and rounded the back of the couch to meet Lana there. She looked as vulnerable as he'd ever seen her, and he'd seen her lying helpless in the grass after taking a tranq round at the Stanly Mosk Courthouse rally. She looked similar now - pale, delicate, absolutely spent.

He lifted his hands behind her shoulders and pulled her close, relishing her long sigh of relief as she leaned into him. "Are you all right?" he asked softly.