Irina sat in the cafe with a smile on her face as she sipped the hot cocoa in her hand.
Opposite her sat Michael who had arrived in Russia just a day ago and on his face was a small frown.
It had been a couple of days since the meeting with the Belozerskys and they had gone oddly quiet.
Last she heard of them was that they were busy cleaning up messes, just for new ones to pop up and drown them.
Now, Michael was here because he had somehow heard about the wedding arrangement and he had apparently planned to take her with him if she showed any sign of not wanting said arrangement.
Only to realize that everything had been handled, hence the reason for the frown on her face and Irina’s chuckle.
"So you planned to be my knight in shining armor," She said with a chuckle, "how sweet."
"Shut it," Michael said which just caused her to laugh more, especially seeing the rare bit of embarrassment on his face.
Irina rested her chin against her palm, her eyes glinting with amusement as she watched Michael squirm under her gaze.
"You should have seen your face when you realized I didn’t need rescuing," she said, stirring the cocoa lazily. "Absolutely priceless."
"And here I thought you found me amusing."
Michael clicked his tongue and looked away toward the frosted window. Snow clung to the glass creating soft patterns on it, "I don’t find this funny."
"Oh, I do," she replied lightly. "Very much so."
Silence fell between the two and since there were only a few people in the cafe with them, it was completely silent.
"But I’m still getting married though," Irina broke the silence with a bomb.
Michael froze and looked at her for any sign that she was joking, but he found none, so he simply asked, "are you being forced to?"
"No," She said with a smile, "in fact, I’m just taking advantage of the situation and asking him to marry me."
That was a surprise.
But he had a bad feeling the moment he heard her words, he asked just to be sure, "who?"
"Ethan."
The name sounded familiar and for a while he couldn’t recall where he had heard it, until a familiar annoying face popped up.
It was the kid that had been rescued with her that night, the one that seemed very to love agitating him.
Last he knew was that she was interested in him, so how had that escalated to a wedding?
He placed a hand and massaged his forehead, "and he accepted you suggestion?"
"Well, he’s thinking over it," she answered, "but I’ve already gotten the support of someone very important to him."
A bond of two people that were definitely mentally unstable.
Michael stared at her for a long moment, as if hoping she would suddenly burst out laughing and admit it was a joke.
She didn’t.
"...You’re serious," he said slowly.

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