Home
by Dark-Bat
"Are you sure about this?" Kitty picked nervously at the hem of her skirt.
"Of course, Katya." Piotr was looking excitedly out of the window of the Blackbird. "Don't worry. They are going to love you."
It was early May, and the duo were flying to Russia. Piotr was going back on a long overdue visit, and he had invited his girlfriend to accompany him. He had expressed his wishes for her to meet his parents for a long time, but missions and busy schedules had kept him from leaving the country for months. After a little bit of persuasion on their part, the Professor had agreed to let Kitty go along, giving her a psychic crash course in Russian for the trip. She was very nervous. Meeting the parents of a boyfriend was a big deal. They had been going out for nearly three years now, and Kitty had never had the opportunity to meet his parents, due to busy schedules and the long distance between them.
She was about to crumble under her anxiety. Kitty really wanted to make a good impression. She was twenty years old. She had faced monsters. She had saved the world. But she was nervous at meeting her boyfriend's family. Hours of the morning had been spent in front of the mirror, desperately trying to get her hair to behave. Piotr told her she looked lovely and ethereal, but she was still more nervous than she had been on her first mission.
Piotr, on the other hand, was close to jumping out of his skin. His excitement was nearly bubbling over. It had been much too long since he had been home. He ached for his motherland. He longed to see his family again. His nose was pressed against the window, like a little kid in front of a toy store. He could already feel the crisp Russian air entering his veins, strengthening him.
They had been cooped up in the plane for hours on end. Logan and Ororo had decided to escort them to Russia, before going back to Muir Island to help Moira MacTaggert for a little while. They had left around nine in the morning. Even for the superior speed of the Blackbird, it was still an eight hour flight, so Kitty spent most of the time sleeping. Piotr, too excited, was sketching. He filled the pages were filled with his family, his home, the institute, and his sleeping Ekaterina.
Ororo walked back towards them after the plane had touched down near the Rasputin farm. Ororo and Logan walked back towards them. Kitty stood and stretched, working out the kinks from the long flight. Piotr grabbed their bags from underneath the seats. "I hope you two have fun," Ororo said, giving Kitty a quick hug. Logan uttered a gruff, somewhat unintelligible farewell, lighting up his cigar.
Kitty finished waving towards the sky, and turned towards her boyfriend. His eyes were closed and he was taking in deep and analyzing breaths. Piotr had a glow in his skin, one that seemed to radiate his happiness. She grabbed his hand. "Glad to be back?"
He smiled widely. "So glad." They started walking towards the farmhouse. It was a small, two-story house with white shutters, and wild flowers all around it. It looked like something out of a story book. The sun was hanging low in the crisp spring sky. Piotr was busy pointing out different places and memories to Kitty. "That's where I broke my arm for the first time... Ah! That's where my brother and I used to play spaceman..." Piotr's head danced around playfully from spot to spot, his eyes drinking in every color. He was home.
"Piotr!" A small girl exploded out of the front door of the Rasputin home. Smiling widely, Piotr knelt down, allowing the blonde to jump in his arms. He placed a kiss on the top of her head. She hugged him tightly, her little arms nearly squeezing the air out of him.
"Katya," Piotr turned towards his brunette, "This is my little snowflake, Illyana."
His little sister smiled brightly, "Hi Katya! Piotr talks about you in all his letters," she giggled.
Kitty looked up at Piotr. "All of them? Really?"
Piotr pulled at his collar. "Ah... Da..."
Kitty mischievously smiled and looked at Illyana. "What does he say?"
"Piotr says you're the most beautiful girl he has ever met. He said..."
"Okay, little snowflake," Piotr interjected, not wanting to go forward with the conversation. These were things he wanted to tell Kitty alone, and with much kissing. He would have to teach Illyana later not to divulge things from his letters.
"Aw Peter... no fun!" Kitty pretended to pout, but she was thrilled at Illyana's words. They started walking back towards the house. Illyana was telling her big brother about the new dog. Kitty had to almost skip to keep up with Piotr's much longer strides.
Juggling Illyana and his duffle bag, Piotr managed to open the door. "Mama? Papa?" Kitty shut the door behind her. The house was very warm, and so... welcoming. It was filled with a smell she didn't recognize, but made her almost salivate.
"Piotr?" A short, plump woman walked out of the kitchen, wringing her hands in her apron. Her hair was hidden under a colorful printed handkerchief. She had a warm and motherly face. Kitty could tell she had been quite beautiful in her younger years.
Piotr stooped and brought her into a warm hug. She kissed his fore head. "My boy... you're home!" Tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. She dabbed them away with the corner of her apron. Piotr took his mothers hands in his own much larger ones.
"Come... meet Katya."
"It's great to finally meet you Mrs. Rasputin." Kitty smiled and hugged her boyfriend's mother.
Alexandra Rasputin grinned widely at her son. "She's lovely, Piotr!" Kitty blushed. "But she's as skinny as a broom. Both of you," She added, looking at Piotr. "Do they not have enough food at this Institute of yours?" She bustled back over to the kitchen. "Come and you'll get some good, warm food in your bellies." Piotr and Kitty complied, leaving their bags at the door.
There was a large pot bubbling over a wood fire. A smell of bread rose from an antique oven. Wood carvings decorated the walls, and dried vegetables and herbs hung from the ceiling. Piotr swooped Illyana into her chair, rousing laughter from the child. "Where's Papa?"
"He's out by the barn, working on the tractor. Would you go get him for supper?" She tested the soup. It was good.
"Let me help you, Mrs. Rasputin." Kitty walked over to the stove, and held the large bowl so Alexandra could dish out the soup.
"Thank you, dear." was the last thing Piotr heard before he walked out the kitchen door.
It was still very light out, even though the sun had already set. "Papa!" Piotr called out, seeing his father by the tractor.
'Piotr!" the man smiled and clapped his son on the back once he came over. "Its great to have you home! How was your trip over here?"
"Very... uneventful." Piotr looked at the tractor. It was the same one that the family had used since he was a boy. "What's wrong with it?"
"Ah... Its becoming a bit more rickety than usual. Could you loosen up this bolt for me? I've been trying to get it for the past twenty minutes or so."
Piotr quickly assumed his armored form, and easily twisted the bolt loose. He dropped it in his father's hand. "We're supposed to go to supper now. Mama made Grybnoy soup."
"That sounds great. I've been working up quite an appetite." He stopped at the pump and splashed water on his face, washing the effects of the day's work away.
Inside Kitty was helping set the table with Illyana, who was having a little trouble reaching the table to put the bowls on it. Kitty lifted her up so she could reach it properly. "So tell me Kitty, have you ever had Grybnoy soup before?" Alexandra started dishing it into individual bowls.
"No. There aren't too many Russian restaurants in our part of New York, and Peter..." She searched for the most polite way of phrasing what she wanted to say.
"He has no idea how to cook." The older woman offered, knowing exactly what Kitty was talking about.
"Exactly. I think he's a little afraid to try. Like he's going to poison me, or something."
Mrs. Rasputin laughed, "Yes. I tried to teach him some simple recipes when he was younger, but he was always interested in drawing little pictures or playing in the woods with his brother Mikhail." She paused and looked at a photograph by the sink, of two little boys smiling widely. She sighed. "But now I'm teaching little Illyana to cook."
Hearing her name, Illyana perked up. "I can make pirozhky. It is so yummy!"
"Yes, she wanted to learn how to make desserts first. I'm afraid our little girl has quite a sweet tooth."
"Oh! That reminds me!" Kitty ran out to her bag and came back carrying a small bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. "If its ok..." she asked, not wanting to give the small child something that the mother did not approve of. At her nod, Kitty gave the cookies to Illyana, who took them with a vehement 'thank you.' "There you go, blondie. They were my favorite when I was your age."
"Not until after dinner, Illyana." Alexandra warned, shaking the spoon in her hand slightly. Illyana set them on the shelf. As she did so, Piotr and his father walked in, laughing over something. His father was nearly a foot shorter than his son, and he had a moustache. But the father and son looked extremely similar. Except for the eyes. Piotr's eyes belonged to his mother.
Nikolai immediately went over and kissed his wife on the cheek, before turning to Kitty. "Ah ha! This is the infamous Katherine Pryde our Piotr has been writing about so much!" He kissed her hand very lightly. "I agree Piotr." He left it at that, and sat down at the table. Kitty gave a questioning glance to Piotr, but he waved it off with a gesture.
After a quick blessing, the family sat down to their meal. It was, in Kitty's own words, a delicious smorgasbord. The setting too was so... normal. It almost threw the brunette off. They weren't fighting, they weren't bickering, and they were actually talking. 'So this is how real families are supposed to act,' she thought, thinking of her own defunct family. She loved them, but she wished they could sit down to a nice Sunday dinner, without bringing their problems with them.
"Mama, tell Katya the story about Piotr on Women's day." Illyana chirped. It was one of her favorite stories, and she loved watching her brother while it was being told.
"Oh yes, Alexandra. Kitty will love it." Nikolai put his spoon down, wanting to devote his full attention to the story. His eyes were sparkling with laughter.
"Mama no!" Piotr's eyes were wide. He was beginning to feel the embarrassment by this story that he had long thought buried.
"Oh Piotr, I'll love it!" Kitty mischievously grinned. She had always wanted to hear embarrassing stories from her boyfriend's childhood.
Alexandra chuckled. "Piotr was younger than Illyana is now. About four, I think. My mother was coming to visit us, so Nikolai and I had gone into town to fetch her. Mikhail was supposed to be watching Piotr, but he fell asleep because he had been up the previous night reading." She paused, not wanting to get ahead of herself. She had already started laughing. "Well, we come home with Grandmama, and open the door. There's Piotr, as naked as the day he was born, riding on the back of the dog with a wreath of flowers in his hair. My mother nearly fainted at the sight."
The entire table erupted in laughter. Indignant at first, even Piotr's mouth began to twitch up into the beginnings of a chuckle.
"Wake up Katya!" Illyana bounced on the brunette's bed. Kitty slowly and groggily opened her eyes.
"Huh? Do we have to go on another early morning mission, Professor?" Sleep, apparently, still had its clutches on her. The little girl giggled. Awareness spread back into Kitty's eyes. She looked at her watch. It was nine in the morning. She had slept in. The past two days had really worn her out. Illyana had more energy than a ship full of six year olds.
"No silly," she said excitedly, "you and Piotr said you would take me to the lake today!"
Kitty remembered. It was their last day and Russia, and she and Piotr had promised a picnic. "Ok Blondie, let me go get dressed."
The lake was a little while from the house, and Piotr and Kitty walked with Illyana between them, swinging her occasionally. In Piotr's other hand, he carried a large basket, packed full with food that his mother had lovingly prepared for them. Illyana was talking animatedly about the last time she went to town. She wanted to be a dancer, just like Kitty.
The lake was beautiful. It was crystal clear water, surrounded by fairy-tale green grass dotted with brightly colored wild flowers. They reached the shore, and Illyana immediately ran after a flock of yellow goslings. Walking over to a thick log, she patted a spot next to her. With a watchful eye still on his little snowflake, Piotr occupied that space, allowing Kitty to lay her head on his shoulder.
"I love your family, Peter." She sighed the words out blissfully.
"I'm glad. That really means a lot to me to hear you say that." He took her hand in his own, caressing her pinky with his thumb.
They sat in silence, enjoying the warm Russian sun. Piotr took a deep breath. The timing was perfect. "Katya?"
"Mm?" her eyes were closed in complete relaxation.
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you since we got to Russia."
Pulling away from his shoulder, Kitty looked at Piotr, curious. "What is it?"
He took another deep breath and looked into her eyes. "Katya, I love you. You're the only one I have ever loved. It doesn't matter where I am: Russian or American. As long as I'm with you, I'm home." he pulled a black box out of his pocket, "Will you marry me?" The box opened to reveal a sparkling ring.
Kitty's eyes sparkled more, and she gasped. "Oh Peter." She threw her arms around his neck in a deep embrace. "Of course I will."
They parted for an instant, long enough for Piotr to slip the ring on his fiance's finger, before they moved back together, this time in a kiss.
Alexandra and Nikolai had a small celebration waiting for them when the returned. They would have another when they arrived back at the Institute.
Author's Notes: Well... as you can see, I haven't abandoned Kiotr for Kete.
I gave this story a more... comic view of Piotr's family. Mikhail is dead. The rest of them aren't. I just imagined Piotr's parents as being so... vibrant. I'm sorry if I didn't get that across.
This was supposed to be a bit longer... I wanted to make a story telling of how Alexandra and Nikolai met... but it didn't really fit anywhere. Maybe I'll make a separate story for that, and make it much more elaborate than what I had planned. I was also thinking of adding the stuff that happened in the other days they were there... but I felt that would be monotonous. This is still one of the longest things I've ever written... yet its so much shorter than all of those wonderful Kiotr fics that I love.
While typing this, I was listening to loads of Bob Dylan and Lisa Loeb, and Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden." So that kindof helped me set the mood.
I really hope you guys like this. I did lots of research. About Russian food and all. And I decided not to give them accents. I mean... they're talking in Russian, so why would they have Russian accents. Its like in all those movies set in France... where we're watching, like, a translated version... and they have French accents. It really bugs me.