2019-06-25 - Small Steps

Summary:

Piotr returns to the house after the argument in the pancake place. Small steps are made - or are they?

Log Info:

Storyteller: {$storyteller}
Date: June 25, 2019
Location: New York

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Theme Song

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keikopiotr-rasputin

Illyana had taken Keiko and Elena 'home'. It's not home for Keiko yet but maybe it will be. It's all too new and raw. That had been some time ago and Keiko had been alone with Elena for that long.

Right now the girl and the woman are in the lounge area, going through what look like kata's. Because of course, Keiko would be training after putting the clothing they'd been sent away.

"Try again pequeno…" Keiko's saying. "… like this. Slowly at first, get the form right and the speed will follow…"


Piotr had to go out and think. Just to get away from everyone for a while, be alone with his thoughts. It’s the first time he’s had a chance to do so in nearly seven years. He smashed rocks in the quarry until he was exhausted.

And then he sat down and had a good think. And the forefront of that was… now that you know it all, what do you do?

That’s why there’s a knock at Keiko’s door. He doesn’t want to intrude. He knows she wants her own space - her own privacy. And he’s trying his best to respect it. Of course, the door in this case is at the edge of the lounge. He’s not entered yet, in case Keiko tells him to go away.

In his hands he carries a pair of items. One of them is a large overstuffed bear that Elena could probably just as easily use as a bed, much less a pillow. The other? He carries a small bouquet of wildflowers that he had found at the quarry. That’s for Keiko, and he watches mother and daughter with quiet worry and apprehension.


It's uncanny as Piotr watches the pair, how much alike they really are. The way they move, the way they look - Elena is a good blend of the two, but right now with the way she's concentrating, the set of her mouth and her movements, it's almost like she's a mini-me.

"Almost, pequeno …" Keiko is about to make a correction when the door opens and she glances up. Which means Elena does. "See, pequeno estrella, Papa is home…" The girl squeals and rushes to Piotr, throwing herself at him in a way she just can't do with her Mother.

The peruvian doesn't move from where she is, just watches and waits. He's invited in - it's his home too, right?


Elena is picked up and hugged tightly to him for a moment, before he sets the girl down and frowns. “You should not let my arrival interrupt your practice.” he says quietly to his daughter. It’s not chastising, he just knows how important the training is to Keiko.

His eyes lift to Keiko, taking in the Peruvian, and he swallows. Why was this always so hard? “I.. saw these, and thought of you.” he says finally, the flowers in his hand suddenly feeling inadequate. As if he had not done enough for what he is about to say.

“I do not want to be like you, my spark. You are who you are. And I can never understand that wholly. But.. you will not be alone.” he finally says with a fidget as he settles his daughter in the crook of his arm with the bear. He stops short of asking her if she wants him to leave- he’s afraid of that answer.


"We nearly done." Keiko answers instead of Elena. "If you want time with her, I have clothing to adjust." The yellow in her eyes has receded again leaving the dark chocolate brown they usually are.

Elena hugs Piotr as he holds her, eyes moving between her mother and father.

Why is it so hard? Keiko doesn't emote easily anyway, now she knows how much pain she's caused him - not that she really appreciate the depth of it.

"The flowers are beautiful, Piotr." she says quietly. "… thank you." That really cost her. She's trying here but it's so very difficult. "Do … you want … to sit?" She really sucks at this interpersonal stuff.


“I’d like to. But…” Piotr glances at Elena, and considers. “Would you like to spend an evening with Tetya?” It’s strange how close Russian and Spanish come to each other sometimes as Piotr lifts his eyes back to Keiko.

“We were together for seven years, Keiko. And in that time together, I realized, I never asked to spend personal time with you.” In other words, a date. “..I know that we are doing things piecemail. But, if you would like, I would like to take you on a walk in the park. To get to know you better.”

“I don’t even know your favorite color.” he admits. “Or if you have a favorite movie. Or meal. And yet we made a beautiful child together that is the center of my world. But her mother is not too far off. She was never too far off. Are..”

He looks unsure. Is it too late. “Would you be willing to?”


Elena nods happily at the question when asked though Keiko opens her mouth to say something and then shuts it again. "Only if Tia is willing, pequeno. She's had a big time as well." All four of them, Sam included, are nursing different wounds and to ask Illyana to do that ….

Keiko's not sure.

"You did once, long ago before she was born." Keiko remembers how hard Piotr tried. "We … yes, we can walk and talk, if we can. " beat "Are you sure you wouldn't rather talk to Illyana, first? You two …" she shrugs. It should have broken her heart watching them fight.

"Purple and green. They were my favourite colours." Once, what seems a long time ago.


“We are siblings.. We have our moments. I… no. Maybe she will apologize to me.” Piotr is still feeling some heat from his sister’s words, even if they are true. He’s not exactly happy with the situation as it stands.

“Purple and green. Mine are red and yellow.” As if she couldn’t tell from the X-Men uniform he was wearing when he was pulled into Limbo. He draws in his breath, and he rubs the back of his head in thought as he offers the flowers to Keiko a moment later. He had forgotten he had him. He could be a little distracted.

“Then a walk. We can talk. And learn about each other. I would like that.” he admits finally. “When would you like to?”


If Illyana actually apologises, Keiko would fall over but she's not going to interfere between the siblings. "If we fought in the compound, which was rare…" she starts to offer "… they would make us finish the fight till only one of us stood."

It was effective in so many ways. Proving who was strongest and ensuring that fights were kept to a minimum. It had bigger disadvantages for the children though.

"Like your uniform." she picks up on that, remember the outfit when he'd arrived beside her. It's a very awkward Keiko who steps forward to take the flowers from Piotr. She's not really sure what to do with them and ends up sticking them in a glass.

"When? Uh … " that's thrown her. For seven years she's followed the lead, done what he's said when he said to. Before that … much the same with different players. "That would depend on when you can get Illyana to watch her, wouldn't it? I … could now, if it could be arranged."


A glass is a good start. As Keiko takes the flowers, she may notice that his knuckles are raw and still bloodied from what he was doing earlier. There's a slight smile as she the flowers are put away and he bounces Elena in his arm. "Do you mind if I spend a little time with your mama, little star?" he asks Elena in Russian, before setting her down with the bear.

Once Elena is settled, she looks at the bear oddly. "It is bear. We will take you to the zoo to see bear. And lions, and monkies that look like you." His eyes crinkle at the side with his smile, and while Elena smiles back, he knows she has only an inkling of what those are.

And as much as Piotr would like some alone time with Keiko, the thought hits him. "Maybe we can all go together?" he asks her. "We can talk, and Elena can see the animals, da?"


"A bear …" Elena frowns and looks to her mother. "Like the one that bowed in Tia in park on our way home? And all the other animals."

Keiko sighs at that mention. She was hoping to that Illyana would be able to find Piotr before they spoke. "Yes, pequena, just like." Her dark slitted eyes turn to Piotr.

"We can now." That's a question, she has an inflection she uses that marks it as such. "If it pleases you."

"Go and get your jacket, Elena." It's not harsh but there's little warmth in the instruction that Keiko gives. Elena bounces up, grabs the bear in both arms and starts to walk off. That's going to take a moment for her to achieve.

"Illyana has named you, her heir but she wants to speak. About Elena." Noting his fists, there's the slightest of frowns as she turns to one of the boxes by the couch and takes out some salve. "SHIELD sent supplies. Use this."


That brings a lift of one of the Russian's eyes in confusion. What bear? He doesn't ask it out loud, but the question is clearly in his eyes as he looks to Keiko. There's a glance to the boxes as he's offered the salve, and for a moment, he looks like he's going to turn her down.

Finally, he takes it, and works on getting the lid off so he can apply it. At the news that Illyana named him heir, there's a snort. "May the Queen long reign." Someone is still just a little bitter as he finally gets out some of the salve to work into his hands.


"Animals came from everywhere. Some spirits, others. They bowed to Illyana and acknowledged her Limbos Ruler. They want stability." The bitterness in his tone has Keiko sighing.

Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned it but it's done now. Well, almost. "I and Elena knelt to. It is what you wanted in the first place. Her to regain her throne."

Should she offer to help with the salve? She … doesn't but she wonders.

"Or are you going to tell me you still want to be there?" There's no heat to it. She knows he's hurt and angry about what was done but she can't change it.

They can hear Elena shuffling around her room, judging by the noise she's managed to get the bear on the bed. They hear a cupboard door open. She's getting the jacket.


He wouldn't have stopped her if she had offered. But he seems to have it well in hand at the moment. At the question, there's a glance to Keiko. "No more than you would want to be." Though that may be a loaded statement, considering their recent argument.

"And yes. That is why we held on as we did. Because we knew someday Illyana would come back." There's a heavy sigh in Piotr's chest as he considers. "I am going to enroll Elena at Xavier's. She can get help with her powers there. But only as a daytime student. At night and weekends, she will be with u.. you."

He stops short. He doesn't know if Keiko wants him there. To be honest, he knows now (or at least assumes) she probably doesn't care. "You spent seven years with me." he finally says. It wasn't perfect for either of them, and now he's feeling the guilt of it all weighing on him.


"Then what you did was worth it." Keiko's heard the loaded statement but doesn't react to it. Maybe she can't - as she'd been told earlier, she was numb.

Xavier's is a school for the gifted. Anyone outside it, particularly non-mutants, aren't supposed to know that it's for mutants. Which is why Piotr is almost is dancing round the subject.

Maybe he can apply for exception for Keiko, but given her current situation, that's not likely to be approved.

She looks at Piotr when he makes that pronoucement though. "Me? Where will you be?" It's the first truly direct question she's asked. Yes, she heard him stop and change his words.

"I did spend seven years with you. You spent seven years with me as well." Those cat-slitted eyes fix on him, trying to work out where he's going with this.


"I want to be where you are." It's not a question. But he also knows that she wants space. And he's already started the paperwork for Keiko's exemption. She's the mother of a mutant's child.. and well, while it would carry more weight if she was said mutant's wife and sister in law to his other sister, that's not a step they took in Limbo.

He lifts his shoulders in the approximation of a shrug as he moves to close the salve and put the tube back in Keiko's hands, but his fingers linger on hers for a moment longer than necessary as he considers things. "We can discuss it more later." There's a sadness in his eyes.

And while he won't admit it, there may be a slight lean towards her - a habit from being with her the last seven years.


"You aren't staying here? There's lot of room." Later is now it seems. Elena is still banging around in the bedroom. Goodness knows what state it will be in when she finally emerges.

Whilst it might it make easier for there to be a legal familial connection, that's not something that's on the cards immediately. She's too broken and he knows that.

Or does he?

"It's a big house and Elena needs a mother and a father." She's echoing something she heard earlier. It was meant in a slightly different way to what she's outlined - not that she understood that bit. "Piotr …"

Kieko takes the salve and doesn't pull away when his touch lingers "… she needs you more than she needs me. I'm not … material for a mother." It's clear she loves her daughter but being anything but cold and distant is beyond her.

"We can discuss it later." It's resigned. She certainly doesn't move, even if Piotr is leaning into her.


Piotr stops himself short of kissing her. He wants to, even she, who usually is oblivious to such things should recognize that. "Then I will stay with you." It's not just for their daughter's sake.

At least that's what he's trying to tell himself. "And I am not material for a father. I did not have a soul when we had her. I did not have the chance to let her mother decide if she wanted to have this. Or if she had feelings she wanted to have. I took so much from you, Keiko. And you gave without complaint."

"Let me at least try to.. start us back the way it should be?" he asks her finally. "I don't know what that is. I just know right now, I would want nothing more than you and I with an outing with our daughter, and getting to know each other …"

And there's a smirk. "And no hot dogs involved. Pizza. Definitely pizza."


Keiko recognises the sign and puts a hand on Piotrs chest. To keep him at that distance but also reassure him. "You have a place in your daughters life, Piotr. She'll need both of us." At least that's what Keiko has been told. "You can let her be what I can not. You can make her smile and let her be a child."

Shaking her head at the rest, Keiko turns to put the salve back. "There were two of us, Piotr. We both did that." It wasn't Piotr that didn't give her the choice, it was a perfect storm of events. Keiko had told Koa earlier that Elena was hers in a way a real mother would say she loved her daughter.

Piotrs offering to start over. Keiko understands that "Fetch our daughter then and we can do that. And Pizza - a hot, fresh one…" because demons got distracted when they went 'shopping' for them.

Piotr will need to choose a room as well, but that can be done later.

"SHIELD has offered all of us access to a counsellor and therapy." The details are in the packages on the table near Piotr. There's also marriage counselling for the Limbo pair - not that that was mentioned to Keiko.(edited)


"Just don't tell me you like pineapple on your pizza, Keiko. You might hurt me." There's a brief smile there as Piotr at least /tries/ humor. It's not the large man's wheelhouse. As artistic as he is, having something funny to say has never been his strong suit.

"Elena, come little star, I want you to see real animals, and not just the ones of spirits taken!" he calls out to his daughter, as he considers ideas. He knows that Keiko is keeping him at arm's length. Was he really that terrible? He can't address that.

Though at the mention of needing therapy, there's a small grunt. "They offered same to Illyana, once. I thought it was because they wanted to register her." There's a certain pain in his voice that speaks of his own registration, but he gives a dismissive shake of his head. "I will consider it."


Was Piotr really that terrible? When he can think a little clearer he might start to understand. She had a brief taste of freedom between the Nightfall and this, the fact that she's just numb from everything, the corruption in her soul … is it any wonder that she's having trouble connecting with him?

Was she ever really different in Limbo?

The attempt at humour though gets a cats-eyed stare, the small broken woman just looking. "I don't." It's so flat and unemotional that he'll have trouble deciding if she's joking. There's the slightest glimmer in her eyes though.

"Coming Papa!" Comes the five year olds voice and Elena appears in that tie dyed T-shirt dress and jacket. The jacket is plain, mundane really - provided by SHIELD. They thought giving some normalcy to the new family would be useful.

"We shall go then." Keiko answers and waits for Piotr to head out.

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