"You know, you probably should have waited." Nikolai said. "Your father seemed pretty pissed."

"He'll get over it." Anna replied, waving to a passing a guard, and smiling falsely.

The guard opened the door out of the station.

"You don't like him much, why is that?"

"He sheltered me." Anna answered, stepping outside the door.

Nikolai followed her.

"I'd have given anything to have been sheltered." he said.

"It's boring, trust me."

"Maybe, but it's better than being hated."

"Oh, I'm hated, don't you think I'm not. Papa gives me anything I want, spoils me. How jealous do you think the other kids at school were? Sure, they never did anything, but I could feel their anger. I knew they despised me."

Nikolai looked back at the guard as he closed the door. Even from here, he could tell the guard was staring at Anna as she walked away, staring at her the same way Nikolai had when he first met her.

"That guard doesn't hate you." Nikolai said.

"That's because he wants to sleep with me. But if I weren't pretty? He'd hate my guts."

"You have an answer for everything, don't you? You won't accept that your life is pretty good." Nikolai said, scolding a bit.

She turned, and grabbed Nikolai by the neck, shoving him against the wall with an unexpected strength.

"Listen, Nikolai, I didn't allow you to tag along because I wanted a fucking life lesson, okay? I brought you along to help me find my boyfriend! If you're going to act like you're my father, you can go back to Polis and hang with him!" she growled.

"Nyet, I can't do that, I promised him I'd bring you back safely."

Anna rolled her eyes.

"Great."

She turned and started walking again, a little faster than before. Nikolai followed her.

"Why don't you just get lost and leave me alone?" she asked.

"Other than the promise to your father, I need you to pay me." he replied.

"I gave you your clean rounds up front."

"Nyet, you didn't. You gave me two half-dirty magazines and just put the clean ones in the window. Don't try to scam me, Anna." He said sternly.

She stopped and sighed.

"Fine, you can tag along."

The next few minutes were spent in silence as they walked.

"So, Nikolai, I told you about my daddy issues and my wonderful childhood, why don't you tell me about your sad, despicable childhood with your parents? Why are you so haunted?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well, my father was actually born in America, long before the war. He was the only generation of my family to be born there. He came back in 2012, right before the motherland closed her borders and before the new American president declared war on her. He met my mother, and they conceived me. Right after I was born, war was declared, and my father joined the infantry. But right before he was deployed, he had a change of heart and shot himself in the foot. Then the missiles flew. He found me under my mother's corpse in a pile of rubble and brought me to Riga. But, Riga had a lot of his old comrades... They never let him forget his cowardice."

Anna looked back sympathetically.

"I'm sorry." she said.

"They called me sukha's son. That was pretty much all they did, but it wears you down, year after year. Then I got into that fight. It was a roaming bandit who just wanted some food. When I refused to give him any, he came at me with a knife. That's where I got this." he continued, touching his scar.

"Dad called me a big, stupid mudoeb. He said I should have given the man some food. I don't know why I got so angry at that, but I did. So I said he was a kopcik, said he would have let the man slit his throat and walk all over him just to avoid having to fight. He never looked at me the same after that. So I left." He finished.

Anna came close to Nikolai, and patted him on the back.

"Well, I'm sure once we get to Riga you can make amends." she said, almost in a whisper.

"We're going to Riga?" Nikolai asked, shocked. "I can't go back to Riga, I grew up there!"