A/N: My very very first fic. I'm ashamed to say that my little knowledge of the English language is wasting away, so I decided to write something. I started this an hour ago. It's not proper, then again, nothing I write is ever proper. Tell me if I should continue or stuff this up my *you know what*. I've been a little fascinated by the Trans-Siberian railway system lately, but I know jacksh*t about it really. Feel free to enlighten me and I apologise in advance for my ignorance. Oh and I don't speak Russian. Cheers.

"Transsiberian"

Chapter 1

Not even half way through between Perm and Yekaterinburg, she was over it. It had been a little over a day since she stepped on board. Simply calling it a 'train ride' was a little of an understatement of the year, given the journey was to take a total of seven days to complete. Seven whole days. Why she had decided she wanted to cramp herself in a little to no privacy compartment of four bunk beds on a super heavy moving engine was beyond her. They weren't kidding when they said that there would be live chickens and screaming children among other 'fascinating things' on board. Sure, she did as much of research as possible before embarking on this journey being a planner that she was, but never did she expect it to be this 'depressing' really. What was she supposed to do now? Jump off the next stop and then... what? Hitch a ride to the next town? It's the middle of fucking winter in fucking Russia after all. As spontaneous as she thought she was, even that idea sounded shit-stupid in her own head.

"Fuck's sake!" She mumbled under her foggy breath. *sigh*

She threw her ugg-booted feet on the floor, pulled on her heavy winter coat, and headed out of her compartment door. Not before grabbing her travel thermal mug from the side pocket of her backpack. She needed to stretch her legs anyway. Damn this stuffy live-animal-swamping farm of a train!

"Excuse me, the water boiler is empty?" She called after the retrieving back of lady in uniform of some sort. She needed to make herself a cup of tea, something hot to make this extremely icy condition bearable. But of course, the boiler had to be empty when she got there. Unbelievable!

"Chto?"

"No. Hot. Water." She punctuated each word using her especially raised voice while jabbing her index finger toward the offensive empty boiler. Oh yeah, they don't speak English on this infamous shit-hole of an international moving facility.

"Chto?" The lady attendant's patience was obviously running out.

"What the fuck does a girl have to do to get some hot water around here? Fuck's sake!" She half shouted even though she knew no one would understand her. Just needed to let that one out of her system.

Just then...

"I have some." A low timid, throaty voice came from behind her.

She spun around, not exactly one hundred percent sure whether she actually heard it or whether she was really going out of her mind. A sense of great relief washed over and she almost shrank down a size after letting out the huffed breath she'd been holding in. That was when she met with those brown eyes.

"Sorry?"

"I have some hot water if you still wanted it?" The low timid, throaty voice again.

She definitely heard it this time, but was too preoccupied in total blankness in her mind to say anything back.

And now, she was definitely staring.

"So... what will it be?" That voice again after a minute long pause.

Finally snapped out of it, she shook her head quickly to emphasize the fact that she was going out of her mind and wasn't sure what was real anymore.

"Yes! Yes! Hot water! Yes please!"

A warm smile crept across the perfect stranger's face. And she thought that had to be the warmest thing she'd seen in the last two weeks, so she couldn't help but smiled back.

"Right. Hot water. You have to follow me though. My compartment's not far."

"Sure," She smiled again before the girl made a 'follow-me!' gesture with her hand, turned around and started dodging other passengers through the tiny aisle toward her said compartment.

She had to slightly speed up after the girl through the crowd, dodging angry curses in Russian along the way.

"I'm Naomi by the way!" She shouted over the girl's shoulder almost a little too excitingly.

The girl twisted her head to look back, flashed her another warm smile, "I'm Emily."

"Thank you for this, Emily! I really appreciate you doing this." And really, she was grateful, not just for the hot water..

After a few minutes of dodging bodies (and scared shitless poultry in cages) through two long carriages, Emily abruptly stopped in front of a compartment and turned around to face Naomi.

"Well, this is me!" Sliding the door open and stepping inside, Naomi cautiously followed.

"You mind closing that? The noise out there is driving me insane!" Pointing at the door. Naomi obliged. And there, between the silence between them and the muffled noise coming from the other side of Emily's compartment door, it was almost pure peace.

"So, here's the promised hot water," Emily pointed at the vacuum flask on the tiny fold-out table against the window. "Although I have to apologise if I were to be completely honest." Emily broke the silence, but her timid, throaty voice made it even more peaceful than a moment ago, Naomi decided.

"What? Why?" For the second time, Naomi found herself snapping out of 'it'. Whatever it was.

"I didn't want to fight through the crowd out there back and forth, so I kind of took more than I should have. Although I swear on my sister's life, there was still some left in the boiler after I was done!" Emily grinned apologetically while hoping Naomi would get her 'joke'. She was rewarded with a come-back of course.

"Sure, sure, Emily. It's okay, we all have ourselves to take care of before others. I understand really." She was of course being sarcastic. But just to make sure, she added "Just kidding!"

"Ah... she has wit!" Emily's brown eyes twinkled and her grin grew wider.

Suddenly, a loud bang pierced through the peaceful small space of compartment marked with the number '48' making Naomi jump. The door abruptly slid open and an even more ear-deafening toned voice rang out startling both girls..

"ARE YOU OKAY, EMSY? AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"