"Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw."
-Fran Lebowitz-
***
"Good morning, are you ready to go out?" Damian woke up to the knocking sound from his door, while he had set his alarm to eight, at exactly 7A.M Lana was already disturbing him with her early chirp. He was still dressed in his black t-shirt and shorts when she was already all dressed up in a complete winter outerwear.
It was typical in Russia during winter to wear layers upon layers of outfit to ensure maximum warmth during the extreme cold, so he could only imagine how long it took for her to get dressed, which meant she had woken up so early in the morning.
He had not even washed his face and his hair was still a mess as he had not applied any pomade, but she did not look bothered at all, instead, she asked him if she could come in because she knew otherwise, he would not have the initiative to do so.
Well, suppsedly he should have learnt from the previous day incident, but just to be sure. It was one of Damian's fatal flaw, he was quite insensitive, perhaps too much staring at a computer screen had made him oblivious to real life social interaction.
Since she asked, he could not refuse her, with a semi-heavy heart, he allowed her in and for the first time in a while she felt victorious. It had been a while since she had her favors granted by the people around her. Living on her own had been quite boring
"I'll get ready first, you try and make yourself comfortable." he said as he pulled out a towel from his suitcase and headed inside the bathroom. Lana thought it was the perfect time for her to explore his space. The apartment itself was not that large, it did not take long until she had gone to every room, which was impolite, but since it was Lana, she did not care.
He would never know anyway. Perhaps one of Lana's worst trait was her ignorance toward things she had set her eyes on. Once she decided to do something, no matter how inappropriate it was, she would do it. Because she did not care.
While she was walking to the kitchen, she realized he had not made himself any breakfast, and while he was taking a shower, she searched up the pantry to see what he had bought yesterday, to her lick, he had some flour and eggs ready.
He had stocked up enough that she could make him some pancake, she knew it might come across as rude to mess with other people's belongings while they were not there, but she could not help herself and the earlier they left the place, the more time they had to explore the city.
When Damian walked out of the bathroom, he was dumbfounded when he saw two plates of pancake ready on his dining table. When he asked her what she was doing, she told him she was fixing both of them some breakfast before they went as if she was doing him a favor, which she was.
As expected, he was a bit annoyed because she dared to touch the things in his place without his permission, but for a strange reason, he could not get angry at her. The way she looked innocently at her as if she had no guilt. Something about her smile made him held himself back from expressing any discontent and he had not even realized it.
"Is it good?" she asked as he took his first bite, he nodded. It was delicious indeed. She was a terrific cook, the food she brought over to him the day before was also quite delicious. Scarlett could definitely learn a thing or two from her.
"About today, we will just take a taxi to get there, it should not take that long." that much he knew but he remained silent anyway. He finished his meal while she was still eating. It seemed like she was a rather slow eater, so afterward he washed the dish first as he waited for her.
After a while, they grabbed a taxi and headed over there, in his head, he knew it was much more convenient with her around because he did not need to take out his phone for translation every time he needed something. It was not as if he was going to take advantage of her, but hey, it was her who insisted on coming in the first place.
As they were passing by the Grand Kremlin Palace around The Red Square, he turned his head to face her, parts of her cheeks and nose were getting slightly flushed from the cold, yet it only made her appear even more angelic and innocent. Damian found her to be such a strange woman.
He had never understood women, but he knew a few types and she was one he had never thought of getting himself involved with. He thought that if he was ever stuck with a woman, she would definitely be a sleazy tech or science woman, who always had her hair up in a ponytail and perhaps wore something like a lab suit or camisole.
Life is strange.
As promised, she was acting as his tour guide for the day, she started to explain to him the brief history of the Kremlin and why it had become a notable attraction of the city. He knew that there were not many fluent English speaker in Russia, therefore he was amazed by her fluency as she explained everything she knew in details, he could pick up some of her accent but it was nothing major. Of course he would never let her know. At the end of her little tour around the area, she turned to him with a soft smile on her face.
"Do you have any other question?" He was not exactly interested in history, art or any of the sort so for him, what she had been saying for the past fifteen minutes was completely useless. However, he wanted to ask her something that he had been questioning since the previous night.
"Why do you like to hang around me so much?" he eventually gathered the courage to ask her the question. Since the first time he met her he had been wondering why the woman seemed so comfortable around him, despite only knowing him for a short period of time.
"Hm? That's an interesting question." She replied as she put her hand in her coat. They stopped and turned at each other. Her fluttery green eyes appeared brighter than usual.
"It's because you are one of the few men whom I can talk to who did not try to flirt with me. It makes me feel more safe and comfortable around you because I know you would not try to do anything funny." her answer appeared obscure to him. It took him a minute to fully comprehend what she had just said.
Was she being overly confident or was she telling the truth? Though he would not doubt her if it was the latter. The way she admitted it was so pure he solemnly thought she was just being honest.
"Now, to be able to get a tour inside the palace we need to get ourselves some ticket, do you want to go in or would you prefer to take another walk around this area. Both are fine with me." he thought about it for a moment and he was not really interested in seeing the palace, but one building he would love to visit was none other than the famous icon of Moscow.
"Let's go to St Basil Cathedral." He was Christian by birth and atheist by belief, unlike his sister who still practiced Christianity, he was not someone who believed in the existence of God, however he had to admit that the belief in religion had produced some of the most astounding creation of mankind, from grand churches, temples, to religious monuments. He knew if Scarlett was with him, she would definitely appreciate the architecture.
Lana who was born in Russia had been an orthodox since birth and her faith still had not changed since she moved to the states and back to Russia, however she was not the most religious woman either, since she had spent more of her times with science and technology like her late father than at the churches with her mother. Despite having lived there for four years, she still had not visited the place so while she was taking him on a tour, it was a tour for herself as well.
As they were walking down the hallways full of religious paintings on the wall, she had asked him about himself. Such as what he did for a living, what his hobbies were and the things he liked and dislike about himself. The last question was simply to awkward for him to answer, so he only answered the first two questions, he did not want to reveal too much of himself to a stranger, especially since she was technically still a stranger.
"I work as an IT engineer, mostly dealing with computers and stuff, and as for my hobby, I like reading and technology, but on the side, I also learn martial arts." his professions enhanced her curiosity toward him.
She had not revealed it to him yet, but she herself was very fond of those two matters, for her they had a connection to the past, of course Damian was born a genius, while she was clever, but was not a genius, still, she was full of wit and quite the fast learner, it became her greatest advantage in her escape from Vincent a few years ago.
Vincent. The name alone sent shiver down her spine, he was the last person on earth she would wish to meet. She had to get rid of her thoughts of him before it ruined her present moment. Though Damian was not fully comfortable with her, he did enjoy her company throughout their walk around the cathedral.
The luxurious golden and amber filled rooms were astonishing, he had seen many people took pictures from the outside, but he had no idea what the inside was like until he witnessed it himself. He felt like he was warped in another dimension, everything around him was so opulent and magnificent.
As they walked, they kept on chatting about some random topics, she had tried to keep the conversation light and refrained herself from bringing up heavy subjects, she wanted both of them to enjoy themselves without getting into a heated argument about the most irrelevant things.
Damian himself had started to feel grounded to the present, he no longer allowed his mind to wander off to other places, as he wanted to truly enjoy himself and the moment he had. The place was too astounding to be missed.
Though he had little clue which was more mesmerizing, the building itself or the woman he had by his side. She had asked him so many questions about himself in such a short period of time, and he was willing to answer them, yet he had no idea who she was beside her name, he could not bring himself to ask either, because he thought their meeting would only be short term. In a few days he would return to the states and never saw her again.
At least that's what he thought.
"Caring, about people, about things, about life is an act of maturity." -Tracy McMillan- *** That morning Damian woke up with a throbbing head, his body was shaking, freezing, he was feeling unwell for some reason without any idea why. The night before he was completely fine, though he was having more fatigue than usual, but he did not feel any symptoms of illness. Yes, he did remove his winter hat yesterday a few times because they were scratching his head, but he never thought the cold he felt for only a few minutes could make such an impact on his body. As he slowly tried to open his eyes, he took a seat on the edge of his bed and felt his body burning up, he touched his forehead and found his temperature rising. His nose was slightly clogged and his throat was dry.
"Never love for me, only obsession."-Carrie Fisher-***"Oh, god, yes..." The moaning escaped her lips as he rode her like a cowboy. The dimly lighted room casted shadow upon part of their sweaty bodies as the raven haired woman clenched her fist on the sheet like her life depended on it. He was not holding himself back either, he had both of his hands on her breast as a support. Both were in tremendous pleasure when there was suddenly a knock on the door."Fuck, I have told them not to disturb me." He groaned as he pulled himself out from her."Who dared to disturb me?" He shouted. From the other side of the room, Dimitri was standing with his phone. He knew exactly what his boss was doing inside. Vincent had hired another high class prostitute to please him like he always did every single week. This time he had a low class model as his companion and they had been fuckin
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."-Benjamin Franklin-***"You will be back to US tomorrow, right?" she asked him as they were walking down the Gorky Park, it would be his last destination in Moscow. They were passing by the ice skating rink, silently watching as people skated around with nothing but smiles and giggles on their face. The sky was getting slightly dark and they knew that soon they would have to go back."Yes, work will start soon." He replied briefly. She had gotten used to his cold attitude, which she found was mostly due to his introverted nature. Lana did not mind it at all, in fact she thought it was quite charismatic in a different directionThe two had spent so much time together
"You can't master your future if you are a slave to your past."-Unknown-***Lana was smuggling her way into the airplane as the passengers started to enter one by one. She did not want to admit it but she really hated flying. Slowly, she turned to find her seat which was located in the middle of the row. Both her and Damian had booked themselves tickets with seats number beside each other. Hers was supposedly in the middle of the three row seat, but instead she picked the seat near the window, gaining herself gazes of displease from Damian."What? You can surely take the middle seat, can't you?" she grinned made him unable to get mad. Something about the way she smiled was magical. It was almost as if she knew she could get whatever she want with that sweet yet wicked smile of hers.Definitely a fox.
"Opening up your soul to someone, letting them into your spirit, thoughts, fears, future, hopes, dreams. That is being naked."-Rob Bell-***Lana had finished telling her part of the story and Alexander could see she was trying her best to hold back the tears which had gathered around the rim of her eyes. For some strange reason, Damian did not understand why but in his heart he felt a sharp pang, his insticnt had told him to grab some tissue to wipe away her tears but he held himself back because he did not want her to get the wrong idea. Before long she continued the story."It was probably the second most traumatizing thing in my life. The first one was the loss of my father and a few years later just whe
"Sociopaths are often quite satisfied with themselves and with their lives and perhaps for this very reason there is no effective 'treatment'."-Martha Stout-***The room felt dark, cold and uninviting. The young master was sitting behind his desk wearing a black suit and pants which matched his personality. The guards inside the room were quiet as they silently watched him. Every movement he made made them nervous, for they had never known what he would do afterward. Such unpredictable temper he had, it was almost impossible to predict his mood, one moment he would be laughing, the next second he would snap someone's head off.Vincent pulled out his second cigarette from its pocket, placing it in between his lips and signaled one of the guard to lit it up. The tan muscular guard stepped forward with a match placing the fire on the edge of
"We cling to hierarchies because our place in hierarchy is, rightly or wrongly, a major indicator of our social worth."-Harlod Leavitt-***The heavy sounds of footsteps against metal floor echoed throughout the room. From the front door one could see dozens of computer being turned on as dozens of people in the hood sat in front of the computers clicking and typing codes only few would understand.One man in particular had just entered the room. He stood there and watched everyone from afar, ensuring briefly that none of them were slacking. Though that was not his intention of the day, he had something much more important to do than observing others, he walked to the end of the room where there was another door which could only be accessed by certain people. They had installed the most ad
"One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt."-Georgia O' Keefe-***"Lana, Lana, wake up, the plane is about to land." Damian softly nudged on Lana who was still asleep. It was not always the easiest thing to wake her up, but since all she did in the plane was either sleeping or eating, she had enough of those. She was still in a trance when she straightened her body on her seat. Unable to stretch her hands like she usually did without hitting Damian. The window was already opened and she could feel the sun touching her face.Her fingers softly rubbed her eyes while she closed her mouth with her other hand as she yawned. She had never slept so deeply in a plane before and she actually had a decent dream. She thought having Damian beside her might have something to do with it. Maybe his presence besides her made her feel a l