9-

"That's, like, no fair! I wanna go toooo!"

It was the night of the stupid fancy party Alfred was dragging Natalya to. Apparently, it wasn't clear to Feliks that he had to stay home with Toris. So when Alfred and Natalya were ready to leave, Alfred and Toris had to take the extra time to pry Feliks off of Natalya's back. Once they did, he continued whining. "Like, come on! I have, like, tons of dresses I could totally wear! Toris can, like, come with me and be my date!"

Toris piped in with,"Eheh, I don't think that's a good idea..."

"And, like, why the hell not?"

Natalya punched him in the arm. "Just shut up and stay home, Feliks."

"But Nat-"

She then grabbed him, shoved him into the closet hastily, and locked it. Ignoring the loud banging on the door, she calmly left the house with Alfred trailing close behind her and Toris telling them to have a good time. In the car, Alfred drilled Natalya more on her socializing skills. It were as if this whole thing was an important school exam instead of just a party. Natalya wondered how long the whole thing would last. She hoped they wouldn't have to stay the whole time. It was the type of party that would end early in the morning, and everyone would be hungover and dead the following day.

Upon arriving at the venue, Natalya immediately frowned and wished she was back in her room reading crappy romance novels. The "ballroom/banquet hall thing" was way too grand and attention-grabbing for her taste. They weren't even inside yet and there was glitter all over the parking lot.

"Are you sure we didn't end up at your favorite glorified strip club, Alfred?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a pervert, I got it already. Now let's go have fun and socialize with people!"

She groaned loudly as soon as he said the "s word", but got out of the car with him anyway. She just wanted to get it over with already. As they walked across the parking lot, Natalya kept her eyes on her shoes. She practically glared at the ground when she knew that she was getting glitter on them. She felt extremely tense as other people walked around, some of them inevitably following them into the party. It felt as if they were walking in slow motion. Natalya was so tense and focused on just walking like a normal person, she was completely taken by surprise when Alfred decided to pull her closer to him and wrap his arm around her, as if telling her silently that it was going to be okay. Instead of reacting coldly and violently like she usually did, she looked away from him and held on tighter.

Once they were inside, she braced herself for the worse. It was way worse inside. It was too crowded and loud. She scowled, taking in all the bright lights and cheerful people chitchatting. She felt claustrophobic and wondered if she could actually go through with it. She knew she couldn't just leave though, and she actually felt like she owed something to the idiot who took her in and dealt with her not just once, but twice. As she continued being sickened by the sight all around her, she realized that Alfred never let go of her. She wasn't at all surprised, knowing how clingy he could be, but she soon realized that she was the one who never pulled away. She stopped scowling at everything in the room to consider this, but was distracted when a group of people suddenly walked up to them and started making loud conversation with Alfred. She slipped away quietly, attempting to get away from the group. She almost made it, but then another small group of women ambushed her out of nowhere and started chippering away at her.

"Oh my gosh, you're so pretty! How old are you?"

"Where'd you get that dress?"

"Which one's your husband?"

Uncomfortable with being attacked by questions, one after the other, Natalya grew flustered. Glancing over at Alfred who was still talking with his own group, she noticed him glancing back at her occasionally, making sure that she was okay. She flashed him a quick glare before plastering on her best fake smile and greeting them as cheerfully as she could. To her ears, she was extremely fake and awkward and hoped it sounded a lot better to the group than to her. Each woman's pair of eyes were glued to her as she spoke.

"Um, thank you. I'm nineteen.. A random store downtown, I'm not really too familiar with America. And that one." She kept a straight face as she pointed at a certain fatty who couldn't stay away too long from the food, and she felt like her voice went flat with that last sentence. The women glanced back at her supposed husband and continued chirping away at her.

"Oh my gosh you're both so young!"

"You guys look so cute together!"

"Wait, is he the one with the pink house and seizures?"

"My, you have such a strong accent! You say you're not from around here? Where are you from?"

She felt her eye twitch a little at that third statement, but kept herself calm. She feigned delight and pulled off a pretty convincing out of character giggle in response. "Thanks again. Yes that's him." She made sure her voice didn't go flat again. It was just a habit she had whenever she talked about him. "I'm from Belarus."

They all squealed, overly excited. Natalya then decided that talking to them was almost as braincell-killing as it was talking to Alfred and Feliks at the same time. Almost.

"Ooh, that's so cool!"

"Can you say something in your native language? I'd love to hear it!"

This time, she genuinely smiled. Anyone else would've believed it to be endearing, but the people who did know her found it poisonous and mischievous. Alfred watched her closely after he noticed it.

"Gladly." She switched to Belarusian. "I'm going to rip off your head and spit down your neck." She made it sound like the sweetest, most pleasant thing she could ever say.

Alfred did a spit take and quickly ran over to her side. Grabbing her arm, he greeted the group warmly and excused himself and his "dear wife" to the less crowded side of the room, with a way too convincing happy husband voice. Although they were pretty much out of earshot to everyone, Alfred started whisper-hissing at her. "Nat! I know they wouldn't know what you're saying to them, but still, don't say things like that! Who knows, maybe there actually is another person here who could speak Belarusian!"

She scoffed in his face. "Well, sorry for trying to amuse myself at this stupid party that's wasting my time. And I'm pretty sure I lost half of my brain cells talking to those women, almost like talking to you."

"Well, I got you out of there so you should be thanking me! I'm such a her-"

"Shut the fuck up, may I remind you that you're the reason why I'm stuck here in the first place?" She paused and furrowed her brow for a second. "Wait a minute. Is that the only Belarusian you know?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Pretty much, yeah. Only because you kept repeating it to me so many times before you knew how to speak English. Along with, 'I hate you', 'You're a dickhead', and 'I hope you fall down a bottomless black pit one day and no one will ever find you.' And then there's the ever so endearing 'cat shit bastards' you save for Feliks and Toris."

She gave out a short laugh. "How sweet of you to remember all of that."

He gave her his proudest grin. "I know right? I'm such an awesome husband!"

For the rest of the night, Alfred clung to Natalya even worse than usual, making sure that no other groups of people ambushed her. She honestly couldn't tell if she was annoyed or grateful for it. When it was time for ballroom dancing, she took a deep breath. She felt awkward and hated every single second of it. She felt ungraceful and clumsy, but every time she faltered a bit, Alfred would notice and hold her tighter.

After dancing, Natalya took the deep breath she didn't realize she was holding. Alfred patted her head and ignored her as she glared daggers at him. "Good job, I told you you could do it!"

Her eyes softened for a second, and she punched his arm. "Shut up, never speak of this night to anyone ever again."

"Ow! Okay, I promise, no need to be so embarrassed, geez-"

"I'm not embarrassed."

She turned away as her cheeks grew red. She found it strange how well he actually knew her. "When the hell are we leaving anyway? It's getting late."

Alfred glanced at the clock and saw that it was already a little after midnight. People were still moving about, drinking and talking, still full of energy. Natalya found herself scowling at the sight.

"We'll leave right now!"

"Huh?"

She was glad but didn't expect that they'd leave so soon. Then without any warning, Alfred picked her up and carried her toward the door bridal style.

"What the fuck!"

She knew she wouldn't be able to hold the outburst in, so she decided to yell in Belarusian so the guests couldn't tell what she was saying. It didn't make it any less of a distraction though, and everyone's heads turned in their direction. Alfred smiled and waved at the guests while Natayla was kicking and screaming in his arms. Everyone was still staring in their direction as he shut the door behind them. He was still carrying her until they got to his car in the parking lot. As soon as he put her down, she stomped on his foot with her heel.

As he flailed around in pain, she got in his car and realized that he'd only be in a rush to leave a party if it had something to do with politics. He made her pretend to be his wife to improve his status and then avoided doing actual work. When he got into the car beside her, he was greeted with an endearing punch to the stomach. "You're a jerk."

He flinched. "What, no I'm not!"

"You didn't take me here because you wanted me to have fun, you took me here just to improve your reputation with the big shots."

"Natalya, you're wrong."

He sounded serious for once, and using her full name made her look him in the eyes. She looked away. She could never keep eye contact with him for too long. Suddenly, he took her hand in his and used the other to turn her face towards him. She blushed and scowled at him, shifting uncomfortably. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he said something.

"Yes I wanted you to pretend to be my wife, but not just to look better. I really wanted you to have fun. I love trying to make you laugh and smile. I just want to make you happy. I like you."

With that, he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and kissed her. Her eyes widened and her face burned with each growing second, and she questioned why she didn't pull away or beat the shit out of him. Instead, she couldn't think at all and kissed him back passionately, pulling him closer. She couldn't believe what she was doing, and when they pulled away after a few moments, they stared at each other. Both of them didn't expect her to kiss him back, and she blamed exhaustion and not being able to think straight, any excuse she could think of. But deep down, she finally admitted her feelings to herself. Silence fell between them for a few more moments, both of them just sitting there and still processing what had just happened. Finally, she turned her face towards the window. "Are we gonna leave or what?"

There was a pause before he answered. "Yeah, of course! I'm beat!" He started up the car and began driving out of the parking lot. Natalya still faced her window, and looked at the building. As they drove away, she bid the building and guests there goodnight, hoping she'd never have to go there ever again. At the same time, it became kind of a special place to her. It marked when she finally acknowledged the feelings she'd been burying. They drove in silence, and they stole glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. After a while, Natalya fell asleep with her facing Alfred. When they got to a stop light, Alfred couldn't help but lean over and kiss her forehead.

When they finally got back to the house, it was almost one in the morning. Alfred carried Natalya out of the car, thinking to himself how cute she was when she wasn't awake and killing him. Of course, he liked her just the way she was. He then looked away from her and realized the the lights were on in the living room. It was strange for anyone to be awake in the house at this hour, so he quickly unlocked the front door with one hand and entered. After he shut the door behind him, he found Feliks, Toris, and Natalya's older sister, Katyusha, sitting together and talking on the couch.

Toris smiled warmly and greeted them softly, but was interrupted by Feliks who didn't try to control voice volume at all. "Hey, like, welcome home love birds! You're, like, super lucky Nat's sleeping right now, your dick will totally be cut off as as soon as she wakes up."

Natalya stirred a little in Alfred's arms, but they all sighed in relief when she didn't wake up.

Alfred was about to ask why Katyusha was there when she hopped off the couch to speak with him. She spoke in halting and heavily accented English, but he understood her and his heart sank when she was done.

"Thank you for taking care of my little sister! I've come here to take her back with me."