Post by lanie on Aug 8, 2006 22:39:42 GMT -5
In the sweltering heat, Evgeny Potemerenko was walking into the National Mall in Washington, D. C., while on tour with the Ice Champions show. He wished he could have had Slava and Ira with him, but they were at the hotel. He wouldn't hear of them being out in this heat. He shouldn't have even been out there, but he promised Slava he'd get him some suvenirs from some of the stores. Evgeny carried with him a bottle of water, which he sipped on a regular basis.
He was relieved at how cool the mall was, and marvelled at the vastness of it.
"This place has everything," he said to himself. Too bad it was too hot for Slava and Ira to be out. He strode to various stores and checked them out briefly before stopping at a nearby T-shirt stand.
Anastasia, after a day of sight-seeing at the Smithsonian, was chilling out. She was hanging out by one of the stands in the large building, sipping a frappuchino or something of the kind from the Starbucks just a few feet away, lounging on a bench watching people go by. "I know you!" she just about shouted at Zhenya with a goofy grin.
Zhenya laughed and walked over to her. He greeted her with a tight embrace and kissed her cheeks. "Ahh, how are you? Staying cool?" he asked casually.
"Very cool! And hyper," she said, referring to the caffeine in the drink she was finishing. "Oh my God. It's horrible. The weather is sooo bad. I am melting. I feel bad for the other people from cold places."
"I know, we have the air conditioner in the hotel on high. Poor Slava wanted to come with me and get suvenirs here, but the poor thing would get heat exhaustion or stroke in a half hour." He shook his head. "I promised him we'd come in the fall or winter when we could enjoy it more. He wants to take the tour of the White House too." He smiled.
"The fall and spring are supposedly very pretty. I've never been in DC long, just, you know, on the tour." Anastasia shrugged. "I like touring Europe better in competition than I do America, it's all...the same. But seeing the monuments is fun, I just saw the new World War II Veterans Memorial and I stopped by to say hi to Honest Abe."
"That's great! I remember when we were here one year... I can't quite remember when, but didn't Arcasha take you out to the cherry blossoms and pick some off the branches? Isn't that like, a crime of some sort?" Zhenya asked with a snicker. "Yes, I like touring in Europe too. So many languages in such a clustered area. Here all one has are funny accents. 'Howdy, ma'am!' 'Sup, dude!'" he mimicked various accents one hears while in America.
"Oh, he did. I totally forgot about that..." When Zhenya began to mimic accents, Anastasia cackled. "We have enough funny accents on tour. Speaking of funny accents I dragged Alice here yesterday and we seriously blew like a thousand dollars on clothes. I am so ashamed of myself."
Zhenya blinked and his eyes widened. "My goodness, Nastya! Hope they're not all for you," he said with a wink, nudging her. "How is Alice doing by the way?"
"Oh no. She bought some stuff. But I was much worse. Maybe because I have more money." Anastasia giggled. "She's doing okay, I guess. Whining about how Christian needs to propose to her already because she says her mom found out they're living together and her mom had a fit."
Zhenya winced. "Oh, her mother must be the traditional type. My father was the same way. He wouldn't have approved of Katya living with me until she had my wedding ring on her finger," he said with a soft chuckle. "Of course, circumstances didn't exactly allow that as soon as we'd have liked it to be." He smiled.
"Yeah, circumstances change things! Alice is funny though. She's so super-religious. But, you know, according to all that--living in sin, big time. I don't know, it makes no sense to me." Anastasia shrugged. While she certainly was a religious young lady she didn't quite care about those types of moral aspects. She'd do things when she was ready to. "She said her mother was going on about how she was going to kill Christian the next time she saw him." Then she laughed. "Moms are weird. Mine wouldn't really care. Not like she does care."
Zhenya put his arm around her. "Natasha is a surrogate mother, and I guarantee you she does care." He kissed her head. "Of course, you're old enough to make your own decisions, so I think if you wanted to move in with a man, as long as Natasha gets to know him, she wouldn't have any objections." He laughed. "Mothers can be strange though, that's a fact. The world is a different place than it was when the Bible and other religious texts were written. I learned that in December. So I'm starting to be a bit more... liberal I guess you could say. Some things the Bible says, just doesn't apply these days. Like the nonsense about shellfish being an abomination before God," he said with a laugh.
Making a face at the display of affection, Anastasia nodded. "I know. I have Natasha," she confirmed. "It'd be weird living with someone. I like being alone just fine. Of course, I'm only 21, no age to start shacking up with someone!
Zhenya snickered. "I agree, truthfully. But you will find someone soon, malenkaya. Of that I'm sure. Hell, for all I know, Arcadii could be planning a surprise for you when the tour is over and we return to Pittsburgh. Course heaven knows with him, considering how flighty he is." He chuckled.
Anastasia's blue eyes got big. "Please tell me you're joking. He's my friend. Us dating would be just...strange." She paused, and giggled. "Alice AND Angie both told me I should go out with him. They're stranger than the ideaof me dating Arcasha."
"Sometimes the strongest romances begin when you make the transition from friendship to something more," Evgeny replied seriously. "But of course, it pays to explore your options too. But of course, if you're satisfied with being single, then by all means, remain that way. It's when you feel a longing for something more that it pays to check out potential mates," he advised. "I've felt alone all my life, truthfully, so that's why I moved so quickly with Katya and Raven and Hana and... well, a lot of girls." He sighed.
Nastya stuck her tongue out. "Alice said the same thing and used herself as an example," she said. "I can't see how she can stand him. Yeah, he's hot, but that's about it." She paused. "Oh, shit, don't tell him I said that. I know you're his buddy. Please. I will be dead!"
"And, uh, Arcasha's cute too. But um. Oh man. Yeah." She was really flustered now.
"Nastya, your secret is safe with me," he smiled and tweaked her nose. Despite their small age difference, he still looked at her as his surrogate little sister.
"Good. I don't want Alice coming after me with a sledgehammer or something." Anastasia felt very stupid. She shoved Zhenya, in quite the little sister manner. "Leave my poor nose alone."
Zhenya laughed. "Okay, Little One," he teased. "Hey, when I'm done, do you want to join Ira and Slava and I for dinner?" he asked. "We're planning on going to that Italian pizza place at 6, when it should be cool enough outside to not be a danger."
"That sounds good! We should bring other people. It can be a party!"
"That would be great! Why don't you get in touch with Alice and Chris, I'll call Alyosha, Peter and Danil, and Hae Young and her family. That will be a blast! Hae Young loves Slava, she calls him her little sparrow, how adorable is that?" he asked with a grin.
"Sparrow? That's cute! I should start calling him that, but in Russian, see if he gets it," Anastasia said with a giggle. "It'll be one huge party."
Zhenya grinned. "I think he would. He's such a smart kid. I can't believe he'll be five years old next week! The time just goes by!"
"Seriously?" Anastasia seemed shocked by this news. "Wow, that's crazy. Makes me want to have a kid. Almost!"
Zhenya laughed. "You'd make a wonderful mother. I see you work with those kids at the rink and I sense it. Sometimes you can tell a great deal about a person just by observing them." Zhenya paused, and picked up a small plastic snow globe with the White House inside. "Oh, now this is perfect! He'd love it!" He grinned and shook it, showing it to Anastasia.
With a sly smile, Nastya said, "Well. One day. Before I'm too old." She examined the snow globe and laughed. "He would, wouldn't he? You should buy it."
Zhenya grinned and looked at the other things. "Do you think it's silly to collect mugs?" he asked, picking up a nearby black mug with the Capitol in gold on it. "Ira collects them. So does Angie, as I recall."
"I think collecting anything is rather silly, really. I just collect medals," Anastasia said with a perfectly straight face.
Zhenya laughed. "I know what you mean. I still have all my medals and trophies that I earned in my entire career, from novice to junior to senior. They're all in a case downstairs at home." He picked up two different mugs, and set them carefully in a small handheld cart nearby, along with the snow globe. "Well, I think that'll do it. I want to get back to the hotel with you, and we can get in touch with our friends and go to the restaurant!" he said with a grin.
"Mine are in storage, except the Olympic one, you know where that goes," Anastasia said with a laugh, as she had it framed and it sat among other photographs in the living room area of her little apartment. "I can't pack THAT one up! -- That sounds good, we can all go pig out and be dorks and take lots of pictures!"
"That's perfect!" Zhenya agreed, and walked to the cashier with his things. After paying, he walked with Nastya outside the mall. "Let's get a taxi, it's not good to walk in this heat," he suggested, and hailed a cab. "Merriot please, the one close to the ice arena," he said to the driver, helping Anastasia inside, then joining her. "So are you still learning sign language?" he asked.
"I'm trying. I'm not very good with my hands," Anastasia said, "so I'm afraid I'll try to say something to him, and I'll end up... I don't know, corrupting his mind!"
Zhenya laughed. "Not to worry, Peter is an expert at signing. He's even better than me! He'll be happy to translate for you." He smiled gently and put his arm around her.
"Oh goody!" Anastasia sounded mildly sarcastic, but like always, it was a good, funny sort of sarcastic and not rude. "So where are we going? Should I go like, run around trying to find other people's rooms? Will anyone even be here? Isn't everyone out?"
"Hey, when all else fails, call their cell phones!" Zhenya suggested with a grin. "We'll call the front desk first, get connected with everyone's rooms, and anyone we don't reach we can call their cell phones." He rubbed the back of his hand against his sweaty forehead. "The air conditioning in here feels good," he sid with a sigh.
"That works," Anastasia said, heading over to the front desk and checking to see if she could get a hold of some of the aforementioned folk they wanted to drag out to dinner.
Zhenya called Aleksei's hotel room first. No answer. He tried his cell phone and got the voice mail. Zhenya frowned. So much for that... Well, he'd keep trying later, until they got to the restaurant. His next call was to Hae Young Choi's room.
"Hello?" Gi Soon answered.
"Hello, is Hae Young there?" Zhenya asked. He didn't know Hae Ye's family well, so he didn't know how best to talk to this man.
Hae Young's father smiled. "Just a moment, please. Hae Ye," he said, and there was a pause.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hae Ye! It's Zhenya, how are you?"
"I'm well, great to hear from you, Zhenya!"
"Anastasia Yurchikova, Ira, Slava, and hopefully a few others are coming out to dinner at the Italian wood oven pizza place across the street at 7. We'd love it if you and your family could join us," he offered.
"Oh, that would be wonderful! Hold on." She went away from the phone to speak with her father, and after a few moments said, "Soo, his family, and mine will be happy to join you. Italian wood oven pizza huh? Sounds fabulous!" she said with a grin. "We'll meet in the lobby at... quarter till seven?"
"That sounds perfect!" Zhenya replied. "We'll see you then. Take care!"
Anastasia managed to get ahold of Alice. She put her hand over the receiver. "She says she'll come and she'll force Christian to," she said with a giggle before saying goodbye and hanging up. "I don't know if I'll come though, I want to get some rest. I'm pretty tired. If I don't meet you guys down here, just go without me!"
"All right, Svibzik," he teased, and kissed her forehead. "Get some rest. Hopefully we'll see you, quarter till seven. The offer still stands until we get to the restaurant, so you can always come join us until the food comes!" He stroked her cheek. "Stay cool, malenkaya."
"God, stop acting like my brother," Nastya commented with a laugh. "I'm not ten! Honest! I'll see you later!"
Zhenya snickered, and headed to the elevator. On his way to get back with Ira and Slava, he called Danil's hotel room next.
"Speak to me," Peter answered.
"Peter," Zhenya said with a laugh. "Is that any way to answer a telephone?"
"Hell in America it is," he said with a grin. "Sup?"
"We're going out to dinner at the Italian wood oven pizza place. We'd love it if you could join us. We're inviting Hae Young Choi and her family, as well as Alice Ordway and Christian Dwight."
"Hey, that sounds great! What time?" he asked.
"We meet in the lobby at quarter till seven. I look forward to seeing you!"
"Yeah, you too! Don't worry, we'll behave," Peter teased sarcastically.
Zhenya laughed. "All right. See you then."
He turned the corner to his hallway and phoned Aleksei once more, still not getting an answer on either phone. Since he loved swimming so much, Zhenya assumed he was in the hotel pool. He went to the hotel room and greeted his wife and son.
"Hey, guys! Guess what, we're going to have dinner at the Italian wood oven place, with Hae Young, her family, Alice, Christian, and Danil and Peter! We meet them in the lobby at quarter till seven." He kissed Ira's lips gently.
"Oh, that'll be fun!" she said happily, and signed to Slava, "Wouldn't that be fun? I bet they'll give you some gifts!" Slava cheered.
"Oh, speaking of gifts," Zhenya said, reaching into his bag for the snow globe, "I have one for you." He handed it to Slava.
"Ooooh, so pretty! Thank you, Papa!" Slava replied, shaking the globe in delight.
"And I have mugs for you," he said, pulling out the two mugs carefully and giving them to Irina.
"Oh, they're lovely! Thank you, sweetheart." She kissed him once more.
"Now, I'm going to get ready. Are you guys cool enough in here? That air feels divine."
"We're fine, thank you. Drinking plenty of water too." She smiled. Zhenya grinned, and got the outfit he had laid out. He took it into the bathroom and got a nice cold shower.
After his shower, he still tried to reach Aleksei. Still no answer, but he wasn't worried about him. He understood how busy he was. At twenty till seven, they made their way down to the lobby. Zhenya was carrying Slava, who was eager to get real Italian-style pizza. They sat down in some of the comfortable chairs, watching the television there, while they waited for everyone else to arrive.
Hae Ye and her family came down first. She grinned as she saw the distracted Zhenya, and whispered to Ji Sook, her husband's eight-year-old sister. The girl giggled and walked softly over to the chair Zhenya was sitting in. She put her hands over his eyes.
"Guess who!" she exclaimed happily.
Zhenya laughed. "Ji Sook, am I right?"
"Yep!" she grinned and went in front of the chair. "Hae Ye and all of us are here now!"
Zhenya embraced her and stood up, turning to them, standing nearby. "Great! Just have a seat for a few minutes, we'll see who else will come."
Hae Ye quickly introduced Zhenya and his family to hers, and they settled down to wait for the others.
Alice had been lounging on the bed, staring at the ceiling, when Anastasia called. Christian was rifling through a suitcase trying to find a shirt to wear after getting out of the shower.
"We're going out to dinner," she proclaimed.
"That is not a surprise." He threw clothes onto the floor. Alice wrinkled her nose. He was in a hurry, and it amused Alice. Like she hadn't seen him shirtless before. It was a nice view anyway.
"The poor maid," she lamented. "Anyway, we're going out with Zhenya and some other people. Anastasia. I don't know. We're just going out."
Christian was not surprised that Alice didn't know, nor that she hadn't asked. He finally just decided on a button-up white long-sleeved that he could wear without being too hot. He'd roll up the sleeves. "Where?"
"Some Italian place," Alice said, sitting up to swing herself off the bed and go find a skirt to replace the ratty pair of jeans she was wearing. "It sucks you can get away with wearing those horrible old denims. How old are they? Ten years old?" She narrowly avoided a clothing attack, wherein Christian tried to whack her in the rear with a shirt he'd thrown on the floor. She unbuttoned her jeans and pulled on a cute black skirt that was just above knee-length. It showed off her legs. "Okay. We're going."
Christian looked confused. "Now?"
"Yes now." She headed into the bathroom to put on some mascara and lipstick. It took about five seconds, as she never was much of a girl to spend time on make-up. "Where's my purse?"
He threw it at her, and she caught it. "There it is."
"You're welcome." Christian was sitting on the edge of the bed now, tying up some black sneakers that looked fine with the dark colored jeans. "I hate this." Even in the hotel room he was sweaty, but being used to cold, rainy days in a grey sky made him want to melt at any temperature under 70F.
Alice swung her purse around impatiently. "You hate what?"
Christian got up and brushed his shirt down. "This heat," he said as he headed to the door, holding it open to Alice and looking at her, bemused.
"I know I'm hot," she commented with a laugh, certainly not finding that true, but hey, at least HE thought so. With that they headed down to the lobby, not really talking until they got to the group of people who'd assembeled there. "Hi!" That of course was Alice. Christian just looked mildly uncomfortable at the sight of all those other folk.
Irina turned, having been engaged in a conversation with Bo Bae, Hae Young's mother. "Ah, Alice! Christian!" She went over and embraced them. "You know the Choi and Kangta families?" she asked, and went around with a quick introduction. "And of course you know Zhenya, and that is our son, Miroslav."
Christian neatly side-stepped the hug from Irina, wanting nothing to do with greetings of that kind. He offered her a wan smile, sending Alice a look that said 'please get me out of here, you're tormenting me'.
Alice did not see, and if she did, she probably didn't care. He was always like that. "No, I don't!" She smiled brightly at Hae Young and her family. "I'm Alice."
"Alice Ordway, Christian Dwight," Hae Young marvelled. "You're wonderful skaters. One of the finest of the generation!" she said with a grin, shaking their hands. "Great to meet you."
"Can I have your autograph?" little Ji Sook asked shyly, holding out her little notebook she kept with her all the time, so that she could get autographs if the occasion allowed it.
"Hey," Peter called. "Who started the party without us?" he asked with a grin, walking over to them with Danil.
Danil embraced Irina, Hae Young and her family. "Great to see you guys," he said, then finally made his way to Zhenya and Slava, Peter along with him.
"So we going out to eat or what?" he asked.
"I don't know... should we wait a few more minutes?" Zhenya asked.
As soon as Ji Sook asked for an autograph Christian seemed to warm up considerably, smiling at her and crouching down so he could be more eye-level with the girl as he signed his name in her book.
Alice flushed a bit with pleasure and amusement at Hae Young's compliments. "Don't go on about that, we're good, but not that good." She glanced over to Christian who was ignoring everyone but the little girl, chattering with her with a big smile on his face. "You two can sit together, how's that?" She looked to Zhenya. "I think we should get going before we end up with too many people."
He was relieved at how cool the mall was, and marvelled at the vastness of it.
"This place has everything," he said to himself. Too bad it was too hot for Slava and Ira to be out. He strode to various stores and checked them out briefly before stopping at a nearby T-shirt stand.
Anastasia, after a day of sight-seeing at the Smithsonian, was chilling out. She was hanging out by one of the stands in the large building, sipping a frappuchino or something of the kind from the Starbucks just a few feet away, lounging on a bench watching people go by. "I know you!" she just about shouted at Zhenya with a goofy grin.
Zhenya laughed and walked over to her. He greeted her with a tight embrace and kissed her cheeks. "Ahh, how are you? Staying cool?" he asked casually.
"Very cool! And hyper," she said, referring to the caffeine in the drink she was finishing. "Oh my God. It's horrible. The weather is sooo bad. I am melting. I feel bad for the other people from cold places."
"I know, we have the air conditioner in the hotel on high. Poor Slava wanted to come with me and get suvenirs here, but the poor thing would get heat exhaustion or stroke in a half hour." He shook his head. "I promised him we'd come in the fall or winter when we could enjoy it more. He wants to take the tour of the White House too." He smiled.
"The fall and spring are supposedly very pretty. I've never been in DC long, just, you know, on the tour." Anastasia shrugged. "I like touring Europe better in competition than I do America, it's all...the same. But seeing the monuments is fun, I just saw the new World War II Veterans Memorial and I stopped by to say hi to Honest Abe."
"That's great! I remember when we were here one year... I can't quite remember when, but didn't Arcasha take you out to the cherry blossoms and pick some off the branches? Isn't that like, a crime of some sort?" Zhenya asked with a snicker. "Yes, I like touring in Europe too. So many languages in such a clustered area. Here all one has are funny accents. 'Howdy, ma'am!' 'Sup, dude!'" he mimicked various accents one hears while in America.
"Oh, he did. I totally forgot about that..." When Zhenya began to mimic accents, Anastasia cackled. "We have enough funny accents on tour. Speaking of funny accents I dragged Alice here yesterday and we seriously blew like a thousand dollars on clothes. I am so ashamed of myself."
Zhenya blinked and his eyes widened. "My goodness, Nastya! Hope they're not all for you," he said with a wink, nudging her. "How is Alice doing by the way?"
"Oh no. She bought some stuff. But I was much worse. Maybe because I have more money." Anastasia giggled. "She's doing okay, I guess. Whining about how Christian needs to propose to her already because she says her mom found out they're living together and her mom had a fit."
Zhenya winced. "Oh, her mother must be the traditional type. My father was the same way. He wouldn't have approved of Katya living with me until she had my wedding ring on her finger," he said with a soft chuckle. "Of course, circumstances didn't exactly allow that as soon as we'd have liked it to be." He smiled.
"Yeah, circumstances change things! Alice is funny though. She's so super-religious. But, you know, according to all that--living in sin, big time. I don't know, it makes no sense to me." Anastasia shrugged. While she certainly was a religious young lady she didn't quite care about those types of moral aspects. She'd do things when she was ready to. "She said her mother was going on about how she was going to kill Christian the next time she saw him." Then she laughed. "Moms are weird. Mine wouldn't really care. Not like she does care."
Zhenya put his arm around her. "Natasha is a surrogate mother, and I guarantee you she does care." He kissed her head. "Of course, you're old enough to make your own decisions, so I think if you wanted to move in with a man, as long as Natasha gets to know him, she wouldn't have any objections." He laughed. "Mothers can be strange though, that's a fact. The world is a different place than it was when the Bible and other religious texts were written. I learned that in December. So I'm starting to be a bit more... liberal I guess you could say. Some things the Bible says, just doesn't apply these days. Like the nonsense about shellfish being an abomination before God," he said with a laugh.
Making a face at the display of affection, Anastasia nodded. "I know. I have Natasha," she confirmed. "It'd be weird living with someone. I like being alone just fine. Of course, I'm only 21, no age to start shacking up with someone!
Zhenya snickered. "I agree, truthfully. But you will find someone soon, malenkaya. Of that I'm sure. Hell, for all I know, Arcadii could be planning a surprise for you when the tour is over and we return to Pittsburgh. Course heaven knows with him, considering how flighty he is." He chuckled.
Anastasia's blue eyes got big. "Please tell me you're joking. He's my friend. Us dating would be just...strange." She paused, and giggled. "Alice AND Angie both told me I should go out with him. They're stranger than the ideaof me dating Arcasha."
"Sometimes the strongest romances begin when you make the transition from friendship to something more," Evgeny replied seriously. "But of course, it pays to explore your options too. But of course, if you're satisfied with being single, then by all means, remain that way. It's when you feel a longing for something more that it pays to check out potential mates," he advised. "I've felt alone all my life, truthfully, so that's why I moved so quickly with Katya and Raven and Hana and... well, a lot of girls." He sighed.
Nastya stuck her tongue out. "Alice said the same thing and used herself as an example," she said. "I can't see how she can stand him. Yeah, he's hot, but that's about it." She paused. "Oh, shit, don't tell him I said that. I know you're his buddy. Please. I will be dead!"
"And, uh, Arcasha's cute too. But um. Oh man. Yeah." She was really flustered now.
"Nastya, your secret is safe with me," he smiled and tweaked her nose. Despite their small age difference, he still looked at her as his surrogate little sister.
"Good. I don't want Alice coming after me with a sledgehammer or something." Anastasia felt very stupid. She shoved Zhenya, in quite the little sister manner. "Leave my poor nose alone."
Zhenya laughed. "Okay, Little One," he teased. "Hey, when I'm done, do you want to join Ira and Slava and I for dinner?" he asked. "We're planning on going to that Italian pizza place at 6, when it should be cool enough outside to not be a danger."
"That sounds good! We should bring other people. It can be a party!"
"That would be great! Why don't you get in touch with Alice and Chris, I'll call Alyosha, Peter and Danil, and Hae Young and her family. That will be a blast! Hae Young loves Slava, she calls him her little sparrow, how adorable is that?" he asked with a grin.
"Sparrow? That's cute! I should start calling him that, but in Russian, see if he gets it," Anastasia said with a giggle. "It'll be one huge party."
Zhenya grinned. "I think he would. He's such a smart kid. I can't believe he'll be five years old next week! The time just goes by!"
"Seriously?" Anastasia seemed shocked by this news. "Wow, that's crazy. Makes me want to have a kid. Almost!"
Zhenya laughed. "You'd make a wonderful mother. I see you work with those kids at the rink and I sense it. Sometimes you can tell a great deal about a person just by observing them." Zhenya paused, and picked up a small plastic snow globe with the White House inside. "Oh, now this is perfect! He'd love it!" He grinned and shook it, showing it to Anastasia.
With a sly smile, Nastya said, "Well. One day. Before I'm too old." She examined the snow globe and laughed. "He would, wouldn't he? You should buy it."
Zhenya grinned and looked at the other things. "Do you think it's silly to collect mugs?" he asked, picking up a nearby black mug with the Capitol in gold on it. "Ira collects them. So does Angie, as I recall."
"I think collecting anything is rather silly, really. I just collect medals," Anastasia said with a perfectly straight face.
Zhenya laughed. "I know what you mean. I still have all my medals and trophies that I earned in my entire career, from novice to junior to senior. They're all in a case downstairs at home." He picked up two different mugs, and set them carefully in a small handheld cart nearby, along with the snow globe. "Well, I think that'll do it. I want to get back to the hotel with you, and we can get in touch with our friends and go to the restaurant!" he said with a grin.
"Mine are in storage, except the Olympic one, you know where that goes," Anastasia said with a laugh, as she had it framed and it sat among other photographs in the living room area of her little apartment. "I can't pack THAT one up! -- That sounds good, we can all go pig out and be dorks and take lots of pictures!"
"That's perfect!" Zhenya agreed, and walked to the cashier with his things. After paying, he walked with Nastya outside the mall. "Let's get a taxi, it's not good to walk in this heat," he suggested, and hailed a cab. "Merriot please, the one close to the ice arena," he said to the driver, helping Anastasia inside, then joining her. "So are you still learning sign language?" he asked.
"I'm trying. I'm not very good with my hands," Anastasia said, "so I'm afraid I'll try to say something to him, and I'll end up... I don't know, corrupting his mind!"
Zhenya laughed. "Not to worry, Peter is an expert at signing. He's even better than me! He'll be happy to translate for you." He smiled gently and put his arm around her.
"Oh goody!" Anastasia sounded mildly sarcastic, but like always, it was a good, funny sort of sarcastic and not rude. "So where are we going? Should I go like, run around trying to find other people's rooms? Will anyone even be here? Isn't everyone out?"
"Hey, when all else fails, call their cell phones!" Zhenya suggested with a grin. "We'll call the front desk first, get connected with everyone's rooms, and anyone we don't reach we can call their cell phones." He rubbed the back of his hand against his sweaty forehead. "The air conditioning in here feels good," he sid with a sigh.
"That works," Anastasia said, heading over to the front desk and checking to see if she could get a hold of some of the aforementioned folk they wanted to drag out to dinner.
Zhenya called Aleksei's hotel room first. No answer. He tried his cell phone and got the voice mail. Zhenya frowned. So much for that... Well, he'd keep trying later, until they got to the restaurant. His next call was to Hae Young Choi's room.
"Hello?" Gi Soon answered.
"Hello, is Hae Young there?" Zhenya asked. He didn't know Hae Ye's family well, so he didn't know how best to talk to this man.
Hae Young's father smiled. "Just a moment, please. Hae Ye," he said, and there was a pause.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hae Ye! It's Zhenya, how are you?"
"I'm well, great to hear from you, Zhenya!"
"Anastasia Yurchikova, Ira, Slava, and hopefully a few others are coming out to dinner at the Italian wood oven pizza place across the street at 7. We'd love it if you and your family could join us," he offered.
"Oh, that would be wonderful! Hold on." She went away from the phone to speak with her father, and after a few moments said, "Soo, his family, and mine will be happy to join you. Italian wood oven pizza huh? Sounds fabulous!" she said with a grin. "We'll meet in the lobby at... quarter till seven?"
"That sounds perfect!" Zhenya replied. "We'll see you then. Take care!"
Anastasia managed to get ahold of Alice. She put her hand over the receiver. "She says she'll come and she'll force Christian to," she said with a giggle before saying goodbye and hanging up. "I don't know if I'll come though, I want to get some rest. I'm pretty tired. If I don't meet you guys down here, just go without me!"
"All right, Svibzik," he teased, and kissed her forehead. "Get some rest. Hopefully we'll see you, quarter till seven. The offer still stands until we get to the restaurant, so you can always come join us until the food comes!" He stroked her cheek. "Stay cool, malenkaya."
"God, stop acting like my brother," Nastya commented with a laugh. "I'm not ten! Honest! I'll see you later!"
Zhenya snickered, and headed to the elevator. On his way to get back with Ira and Slava, he called Danil's hotel room next.
"Speak to me," Peter answered.
"Peter," Zhenya said with a laugh. "Is that any way to answer a telephone?"
"Hell in America it is," he said with a grin. "Sup?"
"We're going out to dinner at the Italian wood oven pizza place. We'd love it if you could join us. We're inviting Hae Young Choi and her family, as well as Alice Ordway and Christian Dwight."
"Hey, that sounds great! What time?" he asked.
"We meet in the lobby at quarter till seven. I look forward to seeing you!"
"Yeah, you too! Don't worry, we'll behave," Peter teased sarcastically.
Zhenya laughed. "All right. See you then."
He turned the corner to his hallway and phoned Aleksei once more, still not getting an answer on either phone. Since he loved swimming so much, Zhenya assumed he was in the hotel pool. He went to the hotel room and greeted his wife and son.
"Hey, guys! Guess what, we're going to have dinner at the Italian wood oven place, with Hae Young, her family, Alice, Christian, and Danil and Peter! We meet them in the lobby at quarter till seven." He kissed Ira's lips gently.
"Oh, that'll be fun!" she said happily, and signed to Slava, "Wouldn't that be fun? I bet they'll give you some gifts!" Slava cheered.
"Oh, speaking of gifts," Zhenya said, reaching into his bag for the snow globe, "I have one for you." He handed it to Slava.
"Ooooh, so pretty! Thank you, Papa!" Slava replied, shaking the globe in delight.
"And I have mugs for you," he said, pulling out the two mugs carefully and giving them to Irina.
"Oh, they're lovely! Thank you, sweetheart." She kissed him once more.
"Now, I'm going to get ready. Are you guys cool enough in here? That air feels divine."
"We're fine, thank you. Drinking plenty of water too." She smiled. Zhenya grinned, and got the outfit he had laid out. He took it into the bathroom and got a nice cold shower.
After his shower, he still tried to reach Aleksei. Still no answer, but he wasn't worried about him. He understood how busy he was. At twenty till seven, they made their way down to the lobby. Zhenya was carrying Slava, who was eager to get real Italian-style pizza. They sat down in some of the comfortable chairs, watching the television there, while they waited for everyone else to arrive.
Hae Ye and her family came down first. She grinned as she saw the distracted Zhenya, and whispered to Ji Sook, her husband's eight-year-old sister. The girl giggled and walked softly over to the chair Zhenya was sitting in. She put her hands over his eyes.
"Guess who!" she exclaimed happily.
Zhenya laughed. "Ji Sook, am I right?"
"Yep!" she grinned and went in front of the chair. "Hae Ye and all of us are here now!"
Zhenya embraced her and stood up, turning to them, standing nearby. "Great! Just have a seat for a few minutes, we'll see who else will come."
Hae Ye quickly introduced Zhenya and his family to hers, and they settled down to wait for the others.
Alice had been lounging on the bed, staring at the ceiling, when Anastasia called. Christian was rifling through a suitcase trying to find a shirt to wear after getting out of the shower.
"We're going out to dinner," she proclaimed.
"That is not a surprise." He threw clothes onto the floor. Alice wrinkled her nose. He was in a hurry, and it amused Alice. Like she hadn't seen him shirtless before. It was a nice view anyway.
"The poor maid," she lamented. "Anyway, we're going out with Zhenya and some other people. Anastasia. I don't know. We're just going out."
Christian was not surprised that Alice didn't know, nor that she hadn't asked. He finally just decided on a button-up white long-sleeved that he could wear without being too hot. He'd roll up the sleeves. "Where?"
"Some Italian place," Alice said, sitting up to swing herself off the bed and go find a skirt to replace the ratty pair of jeans she was wearing. "It sucks you can get away with wearing those horrible old denims. How old are they? Ten years old?" She narrowly avoided a clothing attack, wherein Christian tried to whack her in the rear with a shirt he'd thrown on the floor. She unbuttoned her jeans and pulled on a cute black skirt that was just above knee-length. It showed off her legs. "Okay. We're going."
Christian looked confused. "Now?"
"Yes now." She headed into the bathroom to put on some mascara and lipstick. It took about five seconds, as she never was much of a girl to spend time on make-up. "Where's my purse?"
He threw it at her, and she caught it. "There it is."
"You're welcome." Christian was sitting on the edge of the bed now, tying up some black sneakers that looked fine with the dark colored jeans. "I hate this." Even in the hotel room he was sweaty, but being used to cold, rainy days in a grey sky made him want to melt at any temperature under 70F.
Alice swung her purse around impatiently. "You hate what?"
Christian got up and brushed his shirt down. "This heat," he said as he headed to the door, holding it open to Alice and looking at her, bemused.
"I know I'm hot," she commented with a laugh, certainly not finding that true, but hey, at least HE thought so. With that they headed down to the lobby, not really talking until they got to the group of people who'd assembeled there. "Hi!" That of course was Alice. Christian just looked mildly uncomfortable at the sight of all those other folk.
Irina turned, having been engaged in a conversation with Bo Bae, Hae Young's mother. "Ah, Alice! Christian!" She went over and embraced them. "You know the Choi and Kangta families?" she asked, and went around with a quick introduction. "And of course you know Zhenya, and that is our son, Miroslav."
Christian neatly side-stepped the hug from Irina, wanting nothing to do with greetings of that kind. He offered her a wan smile, sending Alice a look that said 'please get me out of here, you're tormenting me'.
Alice did not see, and if she did, she probably didn't care. He was always like that. "No, I don't!" She smiled brightly at Hae Young and her family. "I'm Alice."
"Alice Ordway, Christian Dwight," Hae Young marvelled. "You're wonderful skaters. One of the finest of the generation!" she said with a grin, shaking their hands. "Great to meet you."
"Can I have your autograph?" little Ji Sook asked shyly, holding out her little notebook she kept with her all the time, so that she could get autographs if the occasion allowed it.
"Hey," Peter called. "Who started the party without us?" he asked with a grin, walking over to them with Danil.
Danil embraced Irina, Hae Young and her family. "Great to see you guys," he said, then finally made his way to Zhenya and Slava, Peter along with him.
"So we going out to eat or what?" he asked.
"I don't know... should we wait a few more minutes?" Zhenya asked.
As soon as Ji Sook asked for an autograph Christian seemed to warm up considerably, smiling at her and crouching down so he could be more eye-level with the girl as he signed his name in her book.
Alice flushed a bit with pleasure and amusement at Hae Young's compliments. "Don't go on about that, we're good, but not that good." She glanced over to Christian who was ignoring everyone but the little girl, chattering with her with a big smile on his face. "You two can sit together, how's that?" She looked to Zhenya. "I think we should get going before we end up with too many people."