If I Can Learn To Do It (Open)

[Anastasia]

Things were going a lot better now. She had a job, in fact she had two, one of them working as a waitress in one of the café’s (thank goodness that after the kissing disaster the owner had allowed her to keep it) and one across town doing some cleaning in the offices of the Grayle Corp. Not exactly glamorous but it kept the money rolling in, and she needed it to keep her new apartment. She was making it really homey now, it was actually beginning to look kind of good, after kitting it out with everything that she needed. It looked a hell of a lot better than the one she had back in Paris that was for sure. There wasn’t much room and it was still on the top floor but it was pretty. Very pretty. And it was all she needed.

Apart from the fact it appeared to be so far away from everything such as the grocery store, the café and the Grayle Corp offices. There was a travel system in the area, with buses and trams, and horse and cart cabs, but they were all so expensive. So she had decided it was time to get one of those bike things. They had been quite popular back in Paris and imagined it wouldn’t be too hard to find one now. She had managed to get one half prince after a bit of banter with the shop owner who knocked off not only half the prince but gave her a basket free. It was amazing what you could convince people to do just by getting along with them.

The only problem was, now she had to attempt to ride it, and it was not going well.

“OW!” she said for the tenth time as she disentangled herself from the bike and got to her feet, brushing herself down.

She just wasn’t getting the hang of this.

[Dimitri]

It was the law of the universe, wasn’t it? Rule number one: under no circumstances was he allowed anything good in his life. Rule number two: rule number one was allowed to be rescinded for a short period of time, but only for the purpose of letting him think that the universe was finally going easy on him before shattering his world all around him again. Rule number three: everything about his life must suck, which was really just rule number one restated in a different way, but it certainly begged restating considering just how much it currently sucked.

Last year at this time he had completely forgotten the rules because his life had actually been good. Better than good, really. He was in love with a beautiful girl who loved him back. They were together, they were happy, and although they had their issues they had managed to work through them. His friendship with Mulan had been on the rocks, sure, but he’d had Allan there to make up for it, and had even struck up a sort of friendship with a royal and his idol. Everything had been going swimmingly... enter rule number two.

And one.

And now, a year later, number three.

So where was he now? He was working an honest job for a living, yet it still wasn’t enough to pay his bills now that he was short one roommate. His two best friends had gone back to the respective homes and abandoned him and, oh yes, the woman he loved was missing and had been replaced by an alternate version of her.

Did that about cover all the suckage? Oh, wait, one more thing: the portal would not let him back home.

The only silver lining in all of this was Door... well, somewhat. She was going to help him; she was going to use her magic, and get her magic friends on it, and they were going to help him get his Anya back. It would work, he knew it would.

It had to.

Because just seeing this one, the Anya that was currently locked in some sort of battle with a bicycle, and knowing she had no idea who he was... well, it still hurt like hell, but it also pissed him off. How dare she look just like her? And worse, how dare she do things that reminded him so much of her and the time they had spent together, things he had taught her to do?

“You’re doing it wrong,” Dimitri pointed out from the bench he had been sitting on, crunching absently on an apple as she crashed for the third time in just the short distance it should have taken to pass him.

And how dare she still make his heart skip at the very sight of her?

[Anastasia]

She turned around to face the direction of the voice and glared at the speaker, one hand on her hip as the other held the bike up. “Really? Well it’s just as well a smart guy like you is about to point that out to me, otherwise, I never would have figured that out,” she said swinging her leg over the bike still glaring at him, “thanks mister, now why don’t you just…”

From the moment she turned to look at him something had been nagging at her, that this guy reminded her of someone, that she recognised his face. Eventually it hit her and the glare disappeared for a second. It was the guy, the guy from the coffee shop, the one that had sang at her and kissed her and then ran away from her. She pointed at him and said, “You better not start singing again. Once was more than enough thank you very much, and can I just say, you’re very rude. What kind of person just runs away in the middle of a conversation?”

She kicked the peddle so it was round the other side, ready for her to try the cycling thing again, “now if you don’t mind. I’d rather not have an audience. Move along.”

[Dimitri]

As much as she looked like Anya, she certainly didn’t sound like her... at least not as he had most recently known her. No, this version sounded much more like the one he had first met, the one he had made the journey to Paris with, before she had ever gotten to know him. She had irritated him endlessly back then, but now he smiled at the memory.

Then she trailed off and he realised that she had once again forgotten him. His smile fell. Sure, he looked a little more scruffy now, but how many people caused such a scene like he had around her that it hadn’t been all that memorable?

“I suddenly remembered I had somewhere I had to be,” Dimitri said flatly, shrugging his shoulders. Taking another bite of his apple, he chewed loudly while she got all huffy and actually tried to dismiss him like the royalty she was. It only made him want to stay around more.

“I was sitting here before you even got here, and I tried to wait until you ‘moved along’, but I thought I just might die of old age before you made it more than a foot without crashing,” he said, slouching down further in his seat on the bench to make it clear he wasn’t moving anywhere.

[Anastasia]

“Well why don’t you remember to be somewhere else now, you know, when it’s useful,” she said giving him once last glare before looking back down at the bike, preparing to take off yet again.

She was about to move again when he decided to further dignify why he should not move along. Sighing she sat back on the seat and looked up, glaring at him as she listened. “This is a lot harder than it looks, okay. It apparently requires being able to keep your balance and move your legs like an idiot all in one go and I wasn’t the one that started talking, may I remind you. I was quite happy to continue when you interrupted me.”

She kicked the peddle again causing it swing round and hit her on the back of the calf. She tried not to wince. Great, this was brilliant. This was totally helping her not look like an idiot. Not that she really cared about what this guy thought, because she didn’t, she just hated people laughing at her. Especially him. “Which you know, goes for my job as well. I could have been quite happy working there if you hadn’t interrupted with your singing and your kissing.”

[Dimitri]

It took pretty much all of Dimitri’s will power not to stick out his tongue at Anya’s reply; of course it was helped by the fact that his mouth was currently full, but he preferred to think that he was just too mature for that. “And deprive myself of such high quality, free entertainment?” he said instead. Yup, real mature.

And now it was her time to get on the defensive and she was soon whining about how difficult it was to do two things at once, and before he knew it she was throwing this all right back on him by bringing up their previous meeting. He grimaced despite himself. He felt a stab of guilt that she sounded like she had lost her job because of him, and part of him wanted to ask, but that would make him sound a little too concerned, and that he cared about her personal life, which he didn’t, of course. This was not his Anya, and the less he knew about her, the less he got to know her, the better.

“You know what? I think you’re just put out that I haven’t tried to put the moves on you yet today,” Dimitri replied, keeping an easy going façade despite his inner turmoil. “You sound more upset that I left in the middle of our conversation than anything else.”

She had seemed to get over his little show in the café that day pretty quickly, and content to carry on a nice, normal conversation with him. Unfortunately, nothing with them could ever be normal. Even now he wanted to run, to get as far away from her as he could, but that was exactly what she wanted and he was just too stubborn to give in. Instead he finished his apple and tossed the core back over his shoulder. Getting to his feet, Dimitri wiped his hands on the knees of his trousers and sauntered over to where Anya sat, somehow managing to injure herself on the bike when when it wasn’t moving.

“It’s not that hard if you have any amount of coordination.” He wasn’t the best at horse riding or sword fighting, but cycling he could do.

[Anastasia]

“Ha! Honey, you may think you’ve got moves, but you should be so lucky to even look at this,” she said and motioned to her body, “and besides, if that’s your moves, then God help the rest of the girls out there. And leaving in the middle of a conversation is just rude! Especially when it just, got, interesting!”

She couldn’t quite remember why it had got so interesting, it had been nagging at her since they parted ways, the minute he had left she had to return to work and deal with that problem, and so she sort of forgot what it was they had been speaking about when he left. It was something important, something to make her really, really annoyed and yet…she couldn’t quite remember. Although she certainly wasn’t going to let him know that.

“I am very coordinated I’ll have you know, stupid face, that’s your new name by the way, so coordinated that you will be astounded by wonderful coordination, ok, ok?!” she said with one final nod, pressed down on the peddle, got two meters before crashing to the side.

“ARRGH!”

[Dimitri]

When Anya motioned to her body, Dimitri’s own stiffened slightly. Physically, from what he could tell, she looked the same as his Anya, if not a little thinner and more waif-like, more like the skinny orphan he had first met, so technically he had seen more of “this” than she would ever know. Maybe he hadn’t had enough time to learn all the unique marks or scars that she had been born with or accumulated considering the strain their relationship had been under near the end, but he knew her curves, the softness of her skin... he had been lucky at one time, if only for a short time.

“That was an act. Believe me, if I was really trying then you would know,” he said with a smug grin, hoping if he infuriated her enough she would forget about the conversation they had been having that day, particularly how it had ended. He really didn’t want to get into that with her right now, or ever. Soon enough it wouldn’t matter, he just had to keep reminding himself of that. Once he found a way to fix things then she could go back to her life in her world and he could have his own life back to normal. Or, well, as normal as his life ever got.

Well, at least the plan to infuriate her had worked. After some almost incomprehensible yelling that included her sad attempt at an insult (stupid face? Really? What were they, twelve?), she was back on the bicycle and riding angrily away... for about two meters. Dimitri winced.

“You’re right. I am astounded,” he deadpanned. It was tempting to just walk away, or resume his seat on the bench and let her struggle along, but while he was a little messed up lately, and wanted nothing to do with this bodysnatcher, he wasn’t completely cruel either. He could help her up without getting too friendly, right?

“Need a hand?” he offered, walking over to where she now lay and holding a hand down to her.

[Anastasia]

She glared at the hand in front of her and batted it away, getting to her feet by herself and pulling the bike up as well. “I’m not taking that, I don’t know where it’s been.”
 
Swinging her leg over the bike yet again she sat down and looked up at him. If she turned her head to the side and squinted her eyes a little he sort of reminded her of someone. She couldn’t quite think who but moments when he acted a certain way or said something it was…familiar. It wasn’t the first time she had feelings like that, for example when she looked at or listened to a music box, and sometimes he would catch herself humming a tune that she knew she should know the words too but couldn’t…
 
Realising she had been staring she quickly looked back down at the bike and despite the fact she had just sat down on the bike, she stood up and grinning, held it out to Dimitri, “Alright stupid face, let’s see if you can do any better.”

[Dimitri]

Holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture when Anya batted him away, Dimitri shrugged his shoulders and let her drag herself up off the ground... yet again. Her clothes were soon going to be so full of dust and dirt that nobody would be able to tell what colour they actually were.

Taking a step back as she mounted the bike again, he prepared himself to mock her more after what he was sure would be another inevitable crash. He had tried to be nice, tried to help her up, but she had refused. Not much else he could do there. But instead of trying again, she seemed to settle for just staring at him for much longer than was comfortable. It wasn’t just the length of the moment, but just how she was looking at him, like she was trying to figure him out, to see through him or inside of him or something of that nature. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he was about to come off with some sort of content that would probably just set her off again when she suddenly looked away and then jumped up and handed the bicycle over to him.

Now this he could handle.

“Better than you? It’s going to be tough but I think I might be able to manage it,” Dimitri quipped, taking the bike with a smug grin of his own. “Watch and learn.”

Throwing one leg over, he started off slow, just pedaling a bit ahead of her, but then he sped up and turned in a wide circle around her. Turning around again, he made a straight path back toward Anya, releasing the handle bars and hold his arms outstretched widely. “It’s not that hard!” he called as he approached. Grabbing the handlebars again, he applied the brakes and came to a smooth stop right where he had started.

He looked especially smug and accomplished now.

[Anastasia]

How completely unfair was that?!

She had expected him to fall off, to at least be a little shaky but no, of course not, the world wasn’t that fair and instead he was literally cycling rings around her. She had half a mind to stick her foot out and spoil his wonderful stop in front of her, but of course that might just hurt her foot more and decided against it. Instead she settled for folding her arms and looking exceptionally annoyed, verging on huffing. She moved towards him and pushing him said, “alright show off, get off, you’ve had your turn so just get lost.”

Looking up at him she said still annoyed, “or if you want to make yourself useful you could show me how you did that.”

[Dimitri]

He was unprepared for the push, though he really should have been expecting some show of violence from her, so Dimitri stumbled a step but somehow managed not to get tangled up in the bike and fall over. That would have ruined his whole little show, so he was very grateful to stay on his feet.

Swinging his leg over the bike, he passed it back to Anya. “As you wish, princess,” he said, the nickname rolling off his tongue without his notice. Luckily. Had he noticed another meltdown may have followed. Instead he turned his back and started to walk away, mentally counting down in his head.

Three... two... one...

“or if you want to make yourself useful you could show me how you did that.”

Mentally chalking that up to a win, he fixed a surprised expression on his face as he turned back around. “What was that? You want my help?” he asked, completely innocently. “You do know that I might have to touch you to keep you steadied on that thing, and as you don’t know where my hands have been...”

[Anastasia]

Princess?

Why did the name bother her so much? Sure it was an annoying nickname but she’d had a few in her time but this one bothered her in a different way. Like it meant something more, like it was supposed to be more than something just to annoy her. She decided it must just be that she really hated it and huffed all the more. Although he did turn around when she asked him to help, and boy did she wish she hadn’t.

Folding her arms she said, “Alright, I apologise for the hand comment, however completely true it probably is. But you can either buzz off and stop bugging me, or you can stick around and maybe do something productive for a change.”

[Dimitri]

Oh, she really could be a brat when she wanted to be, but of course Dimitri was no stranger to childish behaviour himself. This was actually a bit reminiscent of the conversation they had had on the train from Russia, but he was surprisingly not thinking about that right now. He was far too distracted by her defensive stance and how she tried to pick the perfect words to effectively ask him for help while making it sound like she didn’t really want it and it would be merely for his own benefit if he did offer it.

it was rather impressive, to be honest. Not good enough to be even a passable con artist, of course, but still not bad, though it was more her attitude that was impressive. The audacity she had.

“For a change?” he repeated. “Sweetheart, you don’t know a thing about me.”

Sure, there was a note of bitterness in his tone at the words, that she who was essentially someone he knew so well but not quite, but who didn’t know him at all, but he managed to keep it mostly hidden. “You know, if you want my help you only need to ask.”

He was not going to let her win this that easily.

[Anastasia]

This was painful.

The last thing she wanted to do right now was give in to this arrogant idiot and yet she knew she wouldn’t be able to get the hang of this without a little guidance. Maybe Eric could help, he was such a lovely and obliging boy if a little slow to pick up on the jokes. Of course he seemed like he had enough trouble with his pet and that mystery girl to come and help her with a bike, and since that was the full sum of the friends she had met here apart from bosses and co-workers… she was glaring at her only hope.

“I know your type, and that is all I need to know,” she said, not giving in just yet, “And all you need to know about me is that I am not to be messed with. Now…”

She looked down at the ground, “Will you help me…please.”