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The S.T.E.A.M. Team
Chapter 9
Natalya shivered through her thin laboratory coat as she stood at the pier by the ocean. The wind whipped around her hair which seemingly defied all laws of gravity, and she shrunk into her spine and further shoved her hands into her pockets. She was honestly suprised that they weren't ripping at the seems by the amount of force that she was exterting on them. She regretted coming out here only in her lab coat, but this excusion wasn't exactly planned and she was only alterted to the meet-up through a text that she recieved thirty minutes ago.
Someone walked up behind Natalya and placed their hand on her shoulder. Teeth chattering, she turned around to face her brother.
"Hello, Ivan."
"Privet, Natalya."
There was a silence, a pause, before Ivan spoke again with the faintest of smiles. "No longer as used to the cold as you were at home, sestra?"
Natalya socked him in the shoulder. "Not all of us are pure, invincible, cold-hearted icicles, Ivan. Besides, I'm literally just wearing this thin lab coat and under it a short-sleeved t-shirt and ratty old work jeans. I was not prepared to bring a jacket today, and I wasn't given enough notice of this little gathering ahead of time to go to my dorm and get one, asshole. Speaking of which, why did you text me to meet you here today? Is it about Katyusha?"
Ivan shook his head. "Nyet. Katya is fine, and so is everyone else at our lab." Annoyingly to Natalya, his Russian-laced speech still had a soothing element to it that reminded her of their childhood. She made a mental note to herself to attempt to eradicate that mental association later.
"Then why did you text me?" Natalya's voice was upset, frustrated. "I swear to God, Ivan, if you called me out here in the cold just to say something that you could've said over text, bloody murder will happen. Her hair flipped in her face as the ocean spray splattered her lab coat.
A storm was brewing.
How fitting.
Ivan sighed, running his left hand through his hair. "Sestra, am I not allowed to desire to speak in person to my younger sister? Am I not allowed that liberty?" Natalya fixed him with a freezing glare, infuriated.
"You lost that privilege years ago," Natalya spat angrily. "Try again. And don't you dare waste my time. I left the laboratory you run alongside Yao to work for Amelia and Matthew for a goddamned good reason, big brother, don't give me a new one to punch you in the face, dipshit. Her brother sent her a disappointed look and sighed yet again.
"Two years and you still haven't forgiven me," he replied sadly, clearly upset. Natalya refused to respond, looking out toward the ocean. Changing the conversation, Ivan went in a different direction.
"Formalities aside, I'm here to talk to you about the collaboration between the both of our laboratories." Natalya raised an eyebrow. Ivan took that as a sign to continue. "I've been texting Amelia about it but she hasn't been responding." His sister groaned loudly, resting her face in her hands. "So I came to you," he concluded.
Natalya shook her head. "Of course she didn't respond. First of all, she's blocked you. The only way you'd be able to text her is if Lien hacked her phone, something that you've had her do far too frequently for any of our likings. Second of all, she's been busy. She hasn't had the time to waste on replying to your stupid fucking texts. And third of all, she's your fucking ex. Of-fucking-course she didn't fucking respond. And speaking of which, why the fuck did you text her of all people? You and I both know that she's the least likely to respond to your texts out of everyone at our lab. Why the fuck haven't you been texting Matthew or Diana or Francis or Lovino or Antonio or Gilbert or even fucking me for Christ's sakes." Natalya waved her hands around, gesturing wildly, frustrated.
"Maybe because I don't have-"
Natalya cut her brother off, a disgusted look on her face. "Ugh! Don't give me the, 'Oh, I don't have their phone numbers' bullshit, because you and I both know damn well that you have to have them, considering how much you've communicated with them in the past. Even if you didn't have their numbers, Yao definitely does because he's kept close contact with many of them, let alone the fact that many of the people working at your laboratory are friends or are at least work acquaintances wiith the people working at ours. Seriously, she's your fucking ex, you asshat. I don't know what cloud your head is dancing on, whether it be cloud nine or cloud douchebag, but she's done with you. Your relationship is over. Get that through your thick-ass head." Glaring up at her older brother, arms folded across her heaving chest, she stared her older brother down. Ivan was silent for a minute before his chest started heaving himself and he pitched forward laughing.
After laughing for a few minutes while his sister stared down at him, dumbfounded and silent, he stood up straight and wiped tears from his eyes.
"Well stated, sestra. Well said." Letting out one last chuckle, his posture completely straightened, he stared his sister down, meeting her gaze. Almost feeling threatened, Natalya shrunk her posture and clutched at her arms, but never lost her gaze. She spun around to face her car in the parking lot and started walking towards it.
"Sestra! Where are you going?"
She spun around again to face her brother, still walking, just backwards.
"To my car! I have to get back to work!"
"But what about the collaboration?"
She raised her hand to flip him off.
"I have work, you dipshit. Besides, I hardly have enough rank to discuss this with you. Text Matthew if you're serious about getting this fucking project off the ground, not me."
As she spun around to face her car, her keys jingling in hand, Ivan stared at her back and smiled before heading back to his own car. Softly, he spoke.
"Goodbye, sestra."
A/N: And we see another point of view! I typed this up at a friend's house when I was kind of in a rush, so I apologize for any grammar errors that I might have missed.
Please check out the poll on my profile regarding the issue of romantic/platonic USUK in this story, and please remember to review!
