"Morning, all!" Anya waved cheerfully at the new cast, and gestured to her left. "This is my ex-boyfriend, Dimitri."
"Please stop calling me that." Dimitri turned back to the cast. "I'm her fiance."
"Regardless!" Anya said without missing a beat. "We're so happy to have you all cast, and we'll get going on the show. We like to do a pretty quick turnaround here, as many of you are aware, so we're hoping to get the first show going in about two weeks."
The crowd murmured, but some of them knew the ropes already and were used to the turn around. Others were used to the challenge.
"And don't worry - I'll be feeling your pain too." Anya said. "I will be making my debut as Ana for this play!"
A few people clapped, which she didn't expect, but she smiled nevertheless.
"Who is playing Daniel, again?" Anya asked, scanning the small group.
"That's I, madame." A dark-haired man smiled at her.
"Yes, Victor, of course!" Anya said excitedly. "So nice to meet you, since you're the love of my life and all."
Dimitri snorted. "Okay, here are your scripts." he began passing them out. "We're going to do a cold read, from the top. That means Anya, Victor - you're up!"
Anya and Victor moved to the center of the stage while everyone else fanned back to watch and begin skimming their own scripts.
"Okay Anya - no, I'm gonna start calling you all by characters now. Ana-"
"Big difference!" One of the women called out, and everyone laughed.
"Yeah it's a wonder where my fiance gets this much creativity from." Dimitri smirked. He even liked just saying the word. Fiance. "Ana, Daniel. Let's start from the top."
"Alright I'm out by a river." Anya nodded. "A big rushing river. And I'm debating if I'm going to throw myself into it."
Victor positioned himself behind Anya. "You shouldn't be here."
"I know." Ana said.
Daniel placed a hand on her lower back. She jumped, not expecting this touch. "I know what you're thinking."
"How could you possibly know what I'm thinking?"
"I see it in your eyes. I know you better than anyone, Ana. Always have."
Ana laughed without humor. "But that doesn't matter, does it? If I let you take me back then I'll be carried upstairs and dressed and primped, and led out to the altar. I'll be married."
Daniel paused, so much he wanted to say. He reached out his hand and cupped her cheek. "That's the way it has to be. He's a good man."
"He's not who I want."
"But he's who was arranged. Sometimes, we don't always get what we want." He extended an arm to Ana. "Come. Let's go home. You don't have to sort everything out now."
Ana took his arm, and looked up into his eyes. She paused, and bit her lip. "Regardless," she said, softly but firmly. "I think I already have."
"Good! Good. Good start." Dimitri nodded. "Okay then Victor you'll walk her offstage, and we'll open with the scene with the parents - Boris! Come up front!"
…
Gleb arrived in Paris first, and even the sight of it overwhelmed him. People looked so different, walked so differently, it was like he had been transplanted in a whole new world. Perhaps he had been. He only ever felt comfortable in Russia; he could only ever be himself in Russia. Paris was light where Russia was stone - and he could have no tangible hold on light.
Besides, he had only been to Paris once before. He should've just killed Anastasia then, he knew that. The thought had danced around in his head not days after he had returned from France. In the moment though he was just so sure he was doing what was right. He was so sure he didn't have to be the monster his life had tried to shape him to be.
But he got back to Russia, feeling light. He retreated to his safe home and his steady job, and woke early to take a walk the next morning. And there it was. The depression of the revolution - hungry children out in the streets, bleak faces of mothers who could not feed their families, depressed workers clocking in and out of factories, knowing they should feel grateful for having something, but holding too much resentment and tragedy to possibly get close to that emotion.
Dissenters were eliminated at one point, but if that policy were to continue to country would be barren from all life. Gleb knew he was lucky for what he had, but his advantages were never starker than when looking into the eyes of the people on the streets.
This revolution could still work. Gleb believed that more than anything else. But for it to work, they needed assurance, and they needed a cause. The people had been depressed, disillusioned, but at one point they had believed. And if he had completed his mission, maybe they still would.
If he had hauled Anastasia back to Leningrad, placed her up on the scaffold and showed the people the weakness and fallibility of the royals they almost missed, maybe they would understand. Maybe they would believe again. If he wasn't such a coward, then everything could've worked itself through.
He couldn't go back in time, he couldn't change his decision. But he could remedy it now. Anastasia was almost definitely still in France - it would behoove her to keep a low profile and her only family in the world was ostentatiously still in Paris. After all that she went through to find her only remaining family, and after all she'd lost, she wouldn't go too far. Whether she was still in Paris was up in the air.
But he had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was the home of the Dowager Countess.
…
"If all is well, my lady, I will see myself downstairs." Daniel nodded.
"No! Wait!" Ana bit her lip and spun around.
"Yes?"
"Run away with me."
"W-wha- you can't be serious."
"I am. But that's not what's important. All that matters is if you want me to be serious." Ana stepped very close and surveyed him from bottom to top, looking in his eyes. "Do you want to do this?"
"We'll never even make it off the property-"
"Do you want to?"
"Your fiance is already waiting at the church-"
"Do you want to?"
"I-"
They stared into each other's eyes, each afraid, each knowing that the next sentence would decide their fates with each other.
"I want you." Daniel said, taking her hand. "Let's run."
"Great!" Dimitri waved his hands to cut. "This is exactly what I was picturing." he put his hands on his hips and smiled. "Take ten, everyone."
Everyone dispersed and Dimitri walked up to Anya. "Look at you go!" he said proudly, putting his hands on her waist.
"Is it good?" Anya asked, bouncing a little.
"It's great. You're really great. Dramatic. As usual."
Anya laughed. "It's easy, hardly acting." she kissed his cheek. "I just pretend it's you."
"No that is acting." Dimitri insisted. "If there was going to be any believability that that was me, I would've said yes the first time you asked."
…
"What brings you to town?" A cheerful waitress asked, pouring Gleb a coffee. He sat in a cafe, facing the street. He almost didn't hear her at all.
"Oh! Uh-" he thought quickly. "I've heard that the Princess Anastasia is here. My father, he was born in Russia, and he told me that she survived. I've been fascinated by the story since, though I've never seen her."
"Oh, do you not live in Russia anymore?"
"No. I live in Romania." Gleb said. He figured she wouldn't be able to tell. He was right.
"Oh, good! I've heard things are terrible over there." the waitress said, picking up the pot. "She is alive! As I'm sure you've heard, if you're interested enough in the story to come all this way. She was presented to the public very briefly, but she ended up not staying with her grandmother." the waitress bit her lip. "I'm not really sure where she went. Somewhere in France, I know that."
Gleb nodded, the gears in his head still turning. He had to make his way to her home. Surely the servants would know where Anya was, if a simple waitress knew so much?
...
Anya burst into the theater, holding a box of costumes in her arms.
"Here, allow me." Victor said, taking the box from her arms.
"Oh!" Anya exclaimed. "Victor, I didn't expect to see you - anyone, really - here this early. But, oh, uh, thank you!"
"Where would you like it, Anya?"
"Just on the stage, please." Anya paused. "Why are you here so early, though? Rehearsal doesn't start for two hours."
"It's true that group rehearsal does not. But this is my first play, and I'd like some time to soak it all up by myself." Victor smiled brilliantly at her.
"That's fair. I'll just be setting up." Anya nodded.
"Oh, must you right away?" Victor asked. "I will help you set up, of course, and two sets of hands should cut the work in half, yes? Please, let's take some time to talk. I'd love to get to know my Ana."
Anya smiled and sat down on the edge of the stage, motioning for him to join her.
"When did you arrive in Roussillon?" he asked, sliding up next to her. "I don't think I've seen you before all this" he motioned his hand around at the stage.
"A couple years ago." Anya said.
"Incredible. This is not a big enough town for me to have not seen you." he laughed.
"Maybe you have and you just didn't remember." Anya said, leaning back.
"Oh, I would've remembered you." Victor assured her.
"When did you move here?"
"I didn't." Victor laughed. "I was born here. I'll likely go to Paris for university soon, but I wasn't in any rush to get there."
Anya nodded.
"Tell me," Victor breathed.
"Anya!"
Victor tensed up suddenly, as Dimitri opened the door, holding a box as well. Victor watched him lug it over to the stage and drop it next to Anya.
"Oh, Victor!" Dimitri said, wiping his hands on his pants. "What are you doing here?"
Victor smiled a little. "Just trying to get in early."
...
"Do we want to call it a day?" Dimitri said, closing his script. Most of the cast was already home, and it was getting late. Only Anya and Victor and the person who played the role of Mother were still working.
The Mother closed her script and nodded. "Yes, I'm needing to get back to my family."
"Alright, see you next rehearsal!" Anya waved, closing her script and hugging it to her stomach.
"I have to do some work on our books so-" Dimitri began.
"Well I'd really like to work through one of the scenes." Victor said smoothly. "If Anya would be so inclined, I'd love to take another hour or so to do that."
"Sure," Dimitri said, already thinking of how exhausting it would be to do the books an hour later and wake up for the next rehearsal.
"But I'd hate to keep you from your books." Victor said. "It's already late and an hour in the night feels much longer."
Dimitri laughed at this.
"Perhaps you could go tend to your books, and we could run the scene?" Victor gestured to himself and Anya.
Dimitri looked over at Anya.
"That's fine with me!" she smiled.
"Great, okay." Dimitri said, putting on his hat. "Anya I'll have dinner ready when you get home."
"Please not stew."
"It's stew! Your favorite." He held his arms out as he walked backwards towards the door. "Sacrifices of theater season, love. You know I'll cook you nicer things soon."
Victor laughed as Dimitri shut the door behind himself. "A woman like you deserves far finer food." he tucked a lock of Anya's hair behind her ear. "Something that feeds your soul too." he looked at her up and down and cleared his throat. "But let's rehearse."
"Yes, okay. Which scene?" Anya asked.
"Page 35." Victor said, pulling her back up onto the stage. "We're in the meadow. We've been on the run from your fiance and your family for nearly three days now. I've tried time and time again to create the perfect moment to tell you everything that I feel. You know I love you, you know I want you, but you don't know how much."
"Yes, yes." Anya said, flipping to the page. "I'm starting to doubt you. I thought I knew how you felt, but days have passed and you have yet to say anything concrete, or make plans for the future, or even kiss me."
"But now, now we change that." Victor smiled, and cleared his throat. "Let's begin."