Introduction - The Tonic Note
It was snowing, as expected of the weather in Russia.
Ivan Braginsky held out his gloved hand and grimaced at the snowflake that landed on it. Winter was his least favourite time of the year, even though it was just about the only season in most of Russia. Ivan wiped the snowflake onto his pants and sighed, a large cloud of his breath escaping his mouth. Somewhere in the distance, children were laughing and yelling, dogs barked, and a violinist was practising with their window open. Ivan smiled. Yes, his country had issues to work through, but it was still beautiful.
Ivan was almost literally thrown from his thoughts when a small, dark haired child with round glasses ran into him, causing the little boy to fall over. Ivan stared down at the boy as he stood, wiping off his pants and shirt.
"Прости!" The little boy exclaimed, his eyes shining.
Ivan smiled warmly at him, a strange feeling rising in his chest.
"Mitya!"
Before Ivan could respond to the child, the boy was being pulled away from him by a worried married couple.
"Dmitri," the woman scolded him, although somewhat jokingly. "I told you not to speak to strangers,"
Ivan made eye contact with the mother and looked away, frowning in both confusion and curiosity. He had a feeling this family, this boy, was going to play a large role in his life and country in the next few years.
And as usual, his feeling wasn't just a feeling. It would soon become a reality.
Honestly, I have no real excuse for this fic, other than I'm a huge Shostakovich fan and I wanted to write about him and Russia. If you don't know who Dmitri Shostakovich is, I highly suggest you check out his works. I'll be mentioning a lot of them in this fic so if you don't feel like looking them up now you always can when they show up (if you want that is lol).
Anyway, the intro takes place in like...1911ish. So a few years after the 1905 revolution and six years before the Bolshevik Revolution.
Hope you enjoyed!