Мороз и солнце; день чудесный!

[balancedlight]

Who: Svetlana and Open!
What: October Catchall + House Calls. Feel free to get with me if you think your character would like a little check in from Doctor Nazarova
When: October
Where: Milton, usually, but a peek into Lakeside

Content Warnings: Nothing yet!

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

“What if you know him?” Chloe’s laughing too. “I guess then you could tell me what his name is.”

[balancedlight]

She hums. "I believe that you have answered your own question," she points out.

[desperate_times_right]

“You must know almost everybody, considering your work.” Doctors must be in high demand in a place like this.

[balancedlight]

That gets a shake of her head. "No," she answers with a sigh. "I'm afraid not many have sought me out. Though...I suppose that might be a good thing."

[desperate_times_right]

“Yeah, could be.” People not getting hurt is always a plus. “I remember you telling me that you weren't ready, but here you are putting in the work.”

She wonders whether Sveta even remembers anything they'd talked about then. The fog had her pretty out of it.

[balancedlight]

She frowns.

She doesn't remember any of that. At least, not anything that she said.

"When did I say that?" she asks, more confused than concerned.

[desperate_times_right]

“When that fog made a bunch of people sick. I helped you get home, made some tea to help you sleep.”

Chloe smiles a little. “You were pretty delirious, you said a lot of interesting things to me.”

[balancedlight]

She puts a hand over her mouth. "Chloe! What did I say?"

[desperate_times_right]

“You were upset about something, a surgery you had to do, I think.”

And then she’d teased her about Lalo, but that's beside the point in Chloe’s opinion.

“And then you were telling me all of the people whose eyes you think are beautiful…”

[balancedlight]

Sveta blushes violently red.

"Oh no, Chloe. I am so glad that you didn't tell me this before!"

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe laughs a little.

“No, it was cute! But you described them so vaguely that I can only guess who it must have been about.”

[balancedlight]

"Good!" she laughs, her face still red. "I can't believe that I said that!"

[desperate_times_right]

“It was very egalitarian, one man and one woman.” Honestly sort of impressive, there aren't that many adult women here.

[balancedlight]

Sveta's eyes go wide.

"Oh. Well, I know - I know who the man must be. But the woman?"

She scrubs her face. "Oh no."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe realizes suddenly that she doesn't know what year Svetlana is from. In her own time, it's not exactly safe to be anything but heterosexual in Russia.

They can circle back to the guy crush reveal here in a second, but she needs to reassure her friend.

“I won’t tell anyone. I’m like that too.”

[balancedlight]

Sveta peeks at her through her fingers. "Oh, I - I didn't know." But she does lower her hands a little.

She and Olga were mistaken for lovers so many times that Sveta just grew used to it. Olga would handle the harassment and Sveta simply let her.

"Did you ever - were you ever with someone?"

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe smiles wryly. “I went to an all-girls boarding school for eight years. After that, though, just one night here and there. Not a lot of women in my social circles, and long term relationships aren't usually my thing.”

She probably guessed that from the Lalo situation.

“There’s this girl at home that like… maybe? But it's too soon to say. I don't wanna push it, you know?”

[balancedlight]

"Maybe?" she presses. "What do you mean by that?"

[desperate_times_right]

“You’ve got to be more careful with girls, don't you?” Chloe takes this as a self-evident fact. “A guy you can just ask, but women can give mixed signals, and if you read them wrong they can get pretty upset. I don't want to fuck up the friendship.”

[balancedlight]

"Oh. But - you can tell, can't you?" she wonders. "Or if you are true friends, it shouldn't - affect it."

Sveta sometimes doesn't realize just how naive she really is.

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe gives her friend an arch look. “If I told you right now that I was down for it if you wanted to try it out, that wouldn't affect our friendship at all?”

[balancedlight]

She looks up to her. "Well - I know you aren't serious," she points out. "And you know I'm - with Ben."

[desperate_times_right]

“Well, he could come along if he wanted.” It wouldn't even be the first threesome she’s had here - and she really should tell Sveta about that night sometime, she’d probably get a kick out of it - but she can't keep up the charade and shakes her head.

“No, you're right, not really possible to imagine. Do you think your pretty eyed friend knows you think that?”

[balancedlight]

Sveta covers her mouth. "Chloe! I think Ben might - " She sighs. "He might actually die."

She does giggle and it breaks the spell a little. "And I - it's complicated."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe laughs too. “I know! I can't even imagine… It's not really like my thing. I knew he was the one who’d saved you from the ice, though! I can't even be smug about being right because you don't remember it.”

Clearly it had meant something to him.

“Complicated?” she asks, a bit concerned. Sveta had said she’d hurt this person, which is hard to imagine. “Because of your relationship?”