The little blond blue-eyed boy looked shyly at his mother, flanked by his diminutive red-haired sister; both hiding something behind their backs.
"Ye are up to something, ye have the look of mischief in yer eyes." Elliott Kuryakin said suspiciously to her children.
Their innocent demeanor remained intact until they pulled out their surprises with squeals and and giggles, proudly holding them out to their mother in anticipation of pleasing her.
Two hearts cut from red construction paper with "I love you Mama," written out in hot pink glitter scrawled across both of them. Demya's was somewhat neater, written in his newly acquired skill of cursive writing, though with a bottle of Elmer's Glue, it was a little more difficult to do.
Lourdes Mary's heart was not quite as readable, Elliott imagining that Demmy had helped guide his sister's hand, as she was only at the scribbling stage when it came to her Crayola crayons. Lalas somewhat willful nature probably had her pushing when her brother was pullling the bottle of glue. The pink glitter was no doubt her idea as that was her favorite color.
"Oh my goodness, for me?"
"Yes Mama, Happy Valentine's day! We made them just for you!" Demmy grinned.
"I made-ed it for you Mama. Happy Balentine's day!" Lala chimed in.
"Thank you so much my darlins', ye've made Mama very happy, such a nice surprise!"
Elliott thought about the let down she felt at Headquarters that day when she saw delivery after delivery of beautiful flowers and candy throughout the day. It was a strange day, women seemed to have an air of expectancy about them, a coyness and flirtatious one. And the men obliged them.
Illya wasn't adept at remembering this one, in fact he was not a fan of holidays in general and still maintaining they were bourgeois imbedded in him from his upbringing under the Soviet government. He tried though, she had to give him credit. He'd become an American citizen, but he was still had his Russian ways... She sighed deeply, reminding herself that one must take the goo with the bad. He was a wonderful husband, though like all human beings, he had his failings...remembering Valentine's Day just happened to be one of them.
She told herself it was only a silly day, she didn't need a special day for that to remind her that her Russian loved her deeply. He said those three words to her almost every day...I love you.
Still, just sometimes she felt a little left out on the fun of receiving a Valentine from him. Today was one of those sometimes days. Most of the time he managed, through no fault of his own, to be away on assignment around the date, with his mind on more dangerous matters. But today he was home, as it was his day off.
Demya had his other hand still hidden behind his back. Noticing it; his mother probed."Ye have something else in yer hand?"
Her son looked like the cat that ate the mouse. "Yes Mama," he whispered, holding out another heart, this time with black and silver glitter, with the same message." It's from Papa..."
Elliott feigned a smile, thanking Demmy for delivering his father's Valentine...that he'd obviously made for him. She sighed, knowing that Illya had dropped the ball again for Valentine's day and guessed that Demya realizing it as well, was trying to make her feel better by covering for his Papa."Ah ye are turning into a slick one Demya Kuryakin," she smiled to herself.
Her husband chose that exact moment to walk into the kitchen. "What is for supper tonight?"
"Thanks for the Valentine." She said sarcastically.
"You are welcome?" He smiled, but showed ignorance of his son's gesture by the tone of his voice, and scratching his head.
"Yeah, right. Forgot it again didn't ye Kuryakin?"
"Elliott, there are just too many obscure holidays to remember in this country...at least I no longer forget Mother's Day and I do remember birthdays and Christmas?"
"That's a lousy excuse Mister...eidetic memory," she huffed as she turned her back on him, not angry but just disappointed. Then she saw something strange, catching it out of the corner of her eye. Illya slipping a dollar bill out of his pocket, passing it off to his son, and winking at him.
"Alright ye two, what's going on?" She turned back staring at them, watching them roll their eyes innocently. Demya had picked up that habit very nicely from his father, looking exactly like him.
Illya walked from the kitchen without a word, turning up the stairs and disappearing from sight. The children covered their mouths, trying to hide their smiles and laughter.
"What's Papa up to Demmy?"
"I don't know."
"Right, I'll pay ye a dollar if ye tell me."
"Nyet."
"Ah now yer Russian stubbornness comes out, ye little..."she thought.
Elliott followed up the stairs, now curious as to what Illya up to. She walked into their bedroom, finding candles and bouquets of her favorite flowers, roses and lilies on the dressers and night stands, and the bed spread scattered with red rose petals...
"Illya?" She called, feeling guilty now.
The bathroom door opened, letting out wisps of steam as he stood there with a towel wrapped around his waist, smiling at her and holding two delicate glasses of champagne in his hands.
"Come into my parlour," he smiled with a flick of his eyebrows. He'd drawn a hot bath sprinkled with her Calgon...saying the jingle in Russian, "Pustʹ mashina sluzhit dolgo, Calgon," which really didn't translate well, coming out something like, "Let the machine be used for a long time," but that didn't really matter at the moment.
Elliott saw rose petals floating on the water as well..."Sigh."
"Your bath awaits my love." He smiled at her, "but first I think you should close our bedroom door and lock it please. And you might want to close your mouth as well?"
After the delightful and playful hot bath they took together, they made love.
Illya's bribe to his son was not for the Valentine card, or his silence but was for keeping his sister occupied downstairs while his parents remained upstairs.
The boy, though curious, had no idea what his father and mother were up to as he played with Lala, having a tea party in the living room. Alongside them was Mr. Bear, who had been a gift from Uncle Napoleon to Demya when he was born. He had seen better days and was sitting beside a pink bear, called Teidí also a gift from their Uncle to Lala when she had been hospitalized after being injured in a car accident.* Teidí was in need of a new nose, as Lala had chewed it off at one point, she always carried it by the same arm and that was now a little torn, in need of some stuffing and being re-stitched.
Demya watched as Lala served her pretend tea to the bears, then to him.
"Where's Mama and Papa?" She suddenly asked.
"They're taking a nap."
"But no one read them a story,"She said innocently.
"I think they make up their own. May I have some more tea please?" He said, cleverly diverting her from the subject.
.
Illya and Elliott lay snuggling together in bed before getting up and dressed. "Happy Valentine's day Mama," he whispered to her. "So did I do better this year?"
"Yes, thank you. Ye did much better, but ye'll have to outdo yerself next year now won't ye?" She teased.
"Oh oh...well I guess I need to improve on this one then, as I may be off on assignment this time next year, one never knows. Go put on that little black dress that I like, we are going out to dinner at the 21 Club."
Elliiott snickered, then sighed happily thinking, "Ye're doing good Kuryakin, very bourgeois."
.
* ref "Bozhe moi, spacibo "