Our Pursuits

Yet another set of robes were moved aside as Ksenia's frown deepened. Nothing was suiting her wishes that particular day. She needed something elegant, seductive, but appropriate at the same time. Something that would make Silas show his interest in her as a woman, and not simply as a carrier of an ancient power.

"None of this works," she muttered to herself as she moved to another rack. the girl was too preoccupied with her task to pay attention to what the others in the store were doing. They did not matter. If someone wanted to talk to her they would approach her themselves. But she didn't feel like talking at that moment. It had been almost an hour and she was yet to find a single outfit that she would like.

"Slap me, and I'll punch you." Jaelyn threatened nonchalantly, easily slipping past the familiar face and standing on the opposite side of the rack, idly peering at the dresses.

She'd gone further into Russia. Disappeared from Durmstrang- it had all been caused by a rather impromptu visit from her brother. Family business- nothing that had anything to do with the friend in front of her. In hindsight, the Hitrost supposed that it would have been polite to tell her.

Jae had never been the best with manners.

"Miss me, Sokol?" Her green, mischievous gaze snapped upwards to the other girl, her lips set in their trademark smirk.

Ksenia's head snapped up at the sound of the familiar voice. "Morozov?" she asked, as if to make fully certain that the girl in front of her was indeed her only friend. "Where the fuck have you been?" she asked coldly. The robes were pushed away and she stepped around the rack so there was nothing obstructing her view of her friends.

Se frowned, her arms coming to settle across her chest. God, she had missed the other girl, even though she would never admit it with those exact words. And it was the perfect time for her to come back.

"Yes, hello." Jaelyn murmured in response to her last name, her attention more focused on the emerald green dress she had stumbled upon. Pretty. Unhooking the hanger on which the dress was placed from the rack before her friend could push it aside, she held it up before her and studied the intricacies.

Jaelyn turned at the girl's sudden change in tone. She had expected a warmer welcome. Trust Sokol to deliver.

"I'm sorry I was out late, mother." she drawled in a sarcastically tired voice, putting the dress back in its place.

"You didn't answer my question, Sokol. Did you miss me?"

Ksenia sorted at the other girl's sarcastic response and grinned, recognising her friend in every syllable. She didn't say anything herself as she moved forward and warped her arms tightly around the other girl, hugging her.

"I missed you," she said simply as she stepped back, a grin tugging on the corner of her lips. "Did you miss me?"

"And you haven't answered my question. Where the fuck have you been?" she asked again, pointedly.

Jaelyn stiffened uncomfortably as she found arms wrapped around her in a hug, and she wrinkled her nose in an obvious disgust.

"Ugh, Sokol." she squirmed, giving her friend a brief moment before readily pulling herself away. "You haven't gone soft in my absence, have you?" she narrowed her eyes, as if Ksenia had done something wrong already.

"I noticed your absence from time to time." Jaelyn teased, smirking and crossing her arms- mirroring the other girl's movement.

"Kaliningrad. Family issues- nothing particularly hard to sort out." she added conversationally.

"Never," Ksenia smirked at her friend. "I thought I would be polite enough to extend some common curtsey for a change. You know, just so our relationship does have some normalcy in it."

"How lovely," Ksenia drawled, appraising the girl for a second longer before turning to another rack of robes.

"You've been gone more than a year. You missed my depression, I suppose that is a good thing," she murmured as she held up a set of dark blue robes in front of herself. "Oh and I have gotten engaged," she added, almost offhandedly. Those statements were spoken like any regular conversation would be, like she was used to doing with the other girl. God, how much she missed having someone who understood her to talk to.

"Normal's dull." Jaelyn dismissed, shaking her head. "So never try that again, Sokol." she warned, half teasing, half serious. The girl was not one for hugs and cuddles.

"I am quite lovely, aren't I?" A little laugh escaped her lips, and she began to pace around the rack of robes, physically incapable of standing still for too long.

"Have I?" A small frown creased her brow, trying to calculate how exactly how long she had been gone for. She knew it had been a while- but over a year? Somewhere along the line she may have lost track.

"Depressed about my absence, I assume." the girl muttered underneath her breath, smiling just a little.

"To who?" Her green eyes looked up at her expectantly, somewhat interested.

"Yes normal is dull," Ksenia agreed. "That is why you are still my friend," she drawled.

"Yes, yes. Just how many clueless fools have fallen at our feet simply because of our beauty?" she asked as she put the robe. She had missed these talks."Not that we have ever bothered to count them," he muttered. A grey dress caught her attention. She lifted it up examining it. It would look good on her in a formal setting, but wouldn't do much to seduce Silas. The red dress that she wore to their first date was much more alluring.

"What do you think of this?" she asked her friend as she held the gown up. It felt almost strange to be discussing dresses of all things with Jaelyn. They were far from normal girls and normal girly topics of conversation hardly ever made an appearance in their discussions.

"Oh please," Ksenia rolled her eyes. "Regardless of how highly you think of yourself, your absence was not as depressing as the aftereffects of an abusive marriage," she drawled.

"Silas Raske," she stated, looking up at the Hitrost finally. "He asked me to marry him on our first date. Well, he didn't really ask. He just stated that we are going to marry. I do appreciate a man confident and ambitious man. And he is from a good family as well. And very handsome. So there weren't any reasons to refuse him," she shrugged her shoulders.

"So then, why did you even-" Jae began, before trailing off and shaking her head at the girl. "Make sure that doesn't happen again- unless you're dying and feel the need to check it off of your bucket list." Jaelyn smirked, amused by her own sentence. She'd allow a hug if her friend was in mortal danger- but then, it wouldn't be a particular priority.

Jaelyn was silent for a moment, regarding the other student carefully. "I've decided to keep one of those fools." She said, sweeping her hair away from her face. "At least for a little while. For entertainment- a, uh," Her nose wrinkled slightly, not fond of the word she was about to use. "Boyfriend."

The Hitrost raised an eyebrow at the extravagant dress. "Frilly." She commented, reaching out one hand to touch the grey material. Dress talk was alien to her- although she could understand to some extent why girls her age tended to indulge in it. It was, admittedly, entertaining.

"And how do you know Raske won't be abusive?" Jaelyn questioned, her voice suddenly defensive. "One date? How long was that- a few hours? You aren't stupid, Sokol. How much do you know about this man?" She interrogated, ignoring the dress and focusing her intense green gaze on her closest friend.

"I will do that," Ksenia said, chuckling, as she moved more robes aside. Why was it so hard to find something decent to wear?

"What?" she asked in surprise, completely shocked by the other girl's voice. "You actually decided to keep one?" her eyebrows rose dangerously high for a few moments before she was frowning. "Please tell me who you are and what you have done with Jaelyn Morozov," she muttered, her eyes sweeping up and down the Hitrost's figure, as if trying to understand where her friend had gone without her noticing.

"Hmm...yes I guess it is a bit frilly, but I like the colour," Ksenia mused as she turned the dress around in her had, looking at it from all sides.

The Slushatel's eyes returned to her friend's face at the next statement. "I dom't," she murmured truthfully before glancing down briefly. "I don't think he is the type of man to do something like that." her hands scrunched up the fabric of the dress, all amusement gone from her face. "The Raskes are a well known pureblood family. They are respected by the rest. He also has taken the time to find me. To find Kyra," her voice grew softer as she said her real name. "He could have kidnapped me if he wanted to. I am sure of that. But he didn't. And besides, I will always be under Sicarius protection, whatever happens." A small sad smile appeared on her face, all the masks gone. "I am just...happy to not be alone anymore."

Jaelyn scowled at the Slushatel's reaction, crossing her arms defensively over her chest- and looking very much like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum.

"Just for a while." She insisted, clenching her jaw together. While she had been away in Kaliningrad, she had come to the realization that Sokol was her only true companion. Everyone else was either too little of interest, too irritating, or- No. No, it was only out of those two options. Shaking her head and blowing out a barely audible sigh, the young woman raked her hair away from her face. "Well? Is there anyone worth my time at Durmstrang now?" she asked expectantly, eyebrows raised.

The girl smirked, eyeing the other mischievously. "Who ever said that frills were bad?"

Jaelyn's previous playful nature dissolved almost instantly, and turned to face her friend head on.

"Perhaps I was wrong. You are being stupid." She narrowed her eyes at her, obviously irked. "You're engaged to a stranger- and working on the assumption that he's a "good man" from what old pureblood mothers have gossiped about around tea tables?" Jaelyn interrogated, voice becoming more aggressive as she continued.

"And When were you alone? What am I, an apparation?" she hissed, shoving a dress back onto its rack with much more force than necessary.

Ksenia laughed at the behavior of her friend, shaking her head slightly as she turned back to the dresses. She was sure that she was the only person who was allowed to witness such childishness.

A snort came at the next insistence. "If you say so," she drawled, amusement clearly heard in her voice. It was hard to believe that Morozov was talking about boys now, when after all the years she had known her, the Hitrost hadn't mentioned a boy once. Perhaps it was the age, or hormones. She was not particularly sure. "Hmm, there has been one interesting fellow that I have run into quite recently. Darke, his name is. Rude and confident," she summed him up in two words as she studied a black dress. "He is not like the other, that's why I mentioned him. Tried to intimidate me I think," she stated unimpressed. "Does he sound interesting to you?" she raised an eyebrow at her friend in amusement.

"You do have to keep the purposes of the dress in mind," she nodded in agreement. "I think I will buy this one."

She turned to face Morozov fully, her face solemn. "I....." she begun, but didn't know how to end the sentence. Her head dropped and she sat down in a chair, her hands coming to cover her face. "I've gone on a date with his younger brother." That releasation came to her very suddenly. Her eyes widened behind her fingers. "I think I was the first girl who kissed him."

Her neck snapped up very suddenly at the girl's hiss. "I didn't mean it like that!" her voice raised slightly in exclamation. "And besides," she said as she leant back into the chair. "You've made it quite clear that I will never be able to get rid of you, and I like it that way," she said with a smirk.

Jaelyn rolled her eyes at the other girl's laugh, dropping her crossed arms limply to her side again. She was certain that Sokol was just created to both wind her up and entertain her- at least, in her eyes, that was the only purpose of the Slushatel.

"Yes- if I say so." The blonde narrowed her eyes at Ksenia, her tone deciding that her word was final. It was annoying enough that Jaelyn had realised she had finally succumbed to the social convention of a boyfriend, but to have the other girl tease her about it-

It was a miracle that Jaelyn was so strongly attached to Sokol.

"Darke." She tested the name on her lips, tilting her head to the side. "Confident, not like the others." She repeated the key phrases that had stuck out most to her, weighing his alleged traits in her mind. "He doesn't sound," Jaelyn paused, careful to avoid any language that could result in her friend teasing her again, "all too boring." She finished.

"Frills it is." She clapped her hands together, smiling mockingly brightly. Dress shopping with her best friend- what in Merlin's name was she turning into?

Admittedly a little puzzled by the other student's sudden shift in mood. She moved towards the chair Ksenia had collapsed into silently, eyes bright with a sort of curiosity. "You dated his brother, too?" Jaelyn raised an eyebrow. "Christ, Sokol. Talk about working your way around the family." She smirked, amused at her own words.

"Then what did you mean it as?" Her eyes narrowed even more, still obviously irked. "Or did you just forget my existence?"

Ksenia only chuckled quietly to herself, not looking at her friend as her fingers moved nimbly through the robes on display.

"Oh please, Morozov," the snort of a laugh that left eh girl's lips did not suit her usually composed self at all. "We are human. Stop trying to hide that fact behind constant layers of bitchiness." She laughed at her friend, mostly to rile her up like Jaelyn had done herself so many times before. "Any wizard with such as name is worth of notice by witches like us."

She smirked at her friend's reaction to the dress and put it aside on a table to collect later when they were finished.

"Oh, shut up," she sighed the words out, her hands rising to uncover her eyes. "Merlin, you should have seen me during that summer. He was sweet. That is why I ended up kissing him. I needed you there to slap some sense into me. I was turning into a normal girl. I ran from our first and only date because the sweetness of it all was getting too unbreakable. You should have been there to slap some sense into me. God, it was becoming disgusting."

The Slushatel's eyes didn't stray from the wooden floor as she described the romantic details of her life. "And I never intended to date his brother. Silas just happened to be the one who found me." The last part sounded more like a whine as she tried to defend her position.

"I am not the one who left for more than a year without a word of warning!" Ksenia snapped at he Hitrost girl, her back straightening, becoming rigid. "If one of us has the right to be upset it's me. You chose a bloody good time to do it too,” she said lowly, her eyes narrowed, her voice carrying the bar hints of a growl. “You have no idea how fragile I felt that year. I was depressed, I even had a couple of panic attacks. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I looked terrible.” A defeated sigh followed those words as the Slushatel glanced down at her hands which were clenched in her lap. “That’s the way scars are made.” The scars that made her stronger. A part of herself couldn’t help but feel grateful for all the lessons that life has taught her already and another part was revolted by that.