If I Can Learn To Do It (Open)

[Dimitri]

She was a feisty one, that was for sure, maybe even more so than he remembered her being. Well, not her but... nevermind. He was not getting into that again.

Now it was tempting to pretend he didn’t hear her and make her ask for his help again, but she seemed more likely to flip out, hurl the bike at him and storm off if he even tried it, so probably not his best idea. Although it would get her away from him so he wouldn’t have to look at her yet think of her... but there was a small part of him buried somewhere that just wanted to be near her, even if it wasn’t her; a very small, unconscious part.

Or maybe if they bickered enough they would just end up hating each other and all would be well.

“Well... since you asked so nicely...” Dimitri replied, drawing the words out so it was clear he thought she did nothing of the sort. “I never have been one to be able to ignore the cries of help from a damsel in distress.”

Especially the beautiful ones... or at least the ones that looked like her.

[Anastasia]

She bit her lip for fear of opening her big mouth and blowing all the chances she had of getting this idiot to help her. Anya did not consider herself a damsel in distress, in fact, the very idea of it insulted her. All these years on her own, living in the orphanage, having no family had taught her to be tough and most importantly take care of herself. Now, at this point in time, her self preservation instincts were kicking in as much as her pride was wishing her to smack his smug face. No, it would be a lot easier if he taught her how to use this damned bike, then she could cycle off and leave him in her dust.

That brought the smile to her face that she needed to deal with the arrogant fool. Although her mouth betrayed her as she sarcastically said, “My Hero.”

It was then accompanied by a rapid disappearing of the smile and a rolling of the eyes. “Where did you learn to ride one of these things anyway?” she said, still a little huffily, “let me guess, did you have to learn it for a role?”

[Dimitri]

Dimitri just grinned back at her sarcastic reply, but his smile was as fake as her own was short lived. Maybe he should have taken his chances and made her beg for it. Ha, like she would.

For a moment he was confused as she asked about how he had learned to ride, but then he remembered the lie he had told her to excuse his behaviour in the café. Oh, right, the acting school thing. He was really losing his touch, forgetting a backstory like that; and to think he used to be a really good conman. Now he probably couldn’t con his way out of a wet paper bag.

“Nah, there’s not much call for cycling in live theatre,” Dimitri replied. It sounded logical, the stage didn’t exactly leave a lot of room to cycle unless you went in circles, and what benefit could that be for any role? “I learned as a kid. Sure beat walking everywhere.”

Of course he couldn’t tell her that he learned by secretly borrowing one of her older sister’s bicycle when nobody was around. It had been pretty risky back then, and he could only imagine the trouble he would have been in had anyone caught him. To be honest, that had been part of the thrill.

[Anastasia]

“Oh…right…” she said, a little thrown off by his reply.

She could see it now, this young boy with curly hair, learning how to ride his bike, all the other children watching and laughing…and his family. Yes, they would probably be there as well, his father following behind him, ready to catch him when he fell, his mother sitting at the side watching and worrying just a little, his brothers and sisters laughing and following him and trying to ride their own bikes…yeah…that must have been nice… but no…he was an only child…so why were there the other children. And even as she thought about it, she realised that this wasn’t so much a dream but almost…a memory? A memory from what though? Had she already seen this kind of family before.

Outwardly she shook her head, another one of her day dreams. The boss back in Paris used to have to hit her on the back of the head when she did it, she would stand there a tray full of hot drinks just staring into space. It was a little weird, she couldn’t quite get herself to stop it though. She glared at Dimitri, challenging him to say something about her ‘moment’ and continued with, “so how are you going to teach me Mr Dimitri.”

[Dimitri]

Well, that had sure taken the wind out of her sails; no snarky reply that time. Before he could feel all smug about the victory, though, Anya got this distant look on her face and seemed to be paying less than no attention to him any more. Huh, well that was an odd reaction.

Watching her unbidden for a moment, Dimitri’s brow furrowed. He had seen that look before, back in Paris when...

Suddenly she shook her head, physically shaking herself out of her daze, and was once again glaring at him. Dimitri blinked, taken aback by the whole thing, which was probably pretty lucky for him as it kept him from making a crack about it, which she didn’t seem to be in the mood for.

“Mr. Dimitri? Careful, that sounds almost respectful,” he quipped, recovering quick enough, though still wisely keeping with the subject at hand. Maybe later he could broach her little trip into dreamland... not that he cared, obviously. Soon enough she would be gone and he’d have his own Anya back, so what did it matter what was going on in her head?

“How about you just get on the bike and let me take it from there? Just follow my lead.”

[Anastasia]

Anya took the bike off him, pushing him lightly so that he got out of the way saying, “Fine, teacher, I’ll just follow your lead, in terms of riding the bike, not anything else, because quite frankly you…you…dress badly.”

It wasn’t the best insult but she had just been pulled out of her daydream and it was the best she could come up with under the circumstances. She swung her leg over the bike and sat down looking up at the other man. She didn’t know why she felt the need to insult him, perhaps he just had one of those faces, perhaps she was still holding a grudge against him for walking away after being the only other person she had really spoken too for a while here in Trenale. Yeah, she figured it must be the last one. Still a little sore about that.

“So what are you going to do then, stupid face?” she said grinning at him, “you going to walk in front of me miming that your on a bike? Or have you got your own tucked up there in that mop of hair?”

[Dimitri]

Taking a step back when Anya pushed him, Dimitri just raised his eyebrows at her next failed attempt at an insult.

“You’re almost as terrible with insults as you are at riding a bike,” he pointed out casually. “And only ‘almost’ because the bike riding is actually physically painful.”

Still, he would much prefer this than to the fights he used to get into with his Anya upon first coming to this school. Back then they had been out for blood, throwing out only the words that were most hurtful, carefully picking the insults that would cut the deepest. Every conversation back then had been so painful that he had even tried to avoid her, but then not seeing her yet knowing she was around had hurt almost as much.

He would take “stupid face” any day over that pain.

Even if it’s not her?

Trying to ignore those thoughts, Dimitri rolled his eyes and gripped the end of the left handlebar with his left hand. “Well, I was going to keep you from crashing again,” he said, grabbing the back of the seat with his other hand, “but if you’d rather I just show off some more while you wobble about before eating dirt again then I can go find a bike to use.”

[Anastasia]

How did he know exactly which buttons to press to get a reaction?

Most people, she figured, could annoy another person they didn’t know that well without much effort. She liked to think that at this moment and time she was doing pretty well doing exactly that with Mr look at me I’m an actor I can do anything I want. But this guy, he knew exactly what annoyed, he knew exactly what infuriated her and he just…hit all the buttons. Maybe it was all just lucky guesses, maybe she was a lot more irritable than she initially thought, but for whatever the reason, she felt fully justified in sticking her tongue out at him, although it was somewhat childish..

“The sooner you show me how to ride this thing, the sooner we can part ways, and then you don’t need to listen to my terrible insults,” she said, verging on the huffy.

She didn’t actually want to part company from him, he was the first person she had properly spoken too here in Trenale, Eric was the second but she hadn’t heard from him since. In actual fact, Dimitri was the only friend she had here in the town of Trenale and if she was being honest with herself…she couldn’t do without him.

Although at this point and time she most certainly wasn’t being honest with herself and was determined that she most certainly did not need the company of annoying actor who showed off and new exactly how to irk her.

She gripped the handlebars and put her foot up on to the peddle with a determined look… which somewhat faded when she glanced at Dimitri and said in, just a slightly less confident voice, “you’re not going to let go are you?”

[Dimitri]

Dimitri had other friends, and certainly didn’t count her among them, and yet he wasn’t quite ready to part ways either. What was wrong with him? Did he enjoy torturing himself? Was this some sort of sick way to feel close to the woman he loved and lost? Or was he simply just, somehow, enjoying himself? It was best not to think about it too hard.

“Oh, well, in that case we better get started,” he replied in spite of this, because just because he didn’t exactly want to walk away didn’t mean she had to know that. As far as she was concerned he was doing here a great favour here, and he would prefer she didn’t think he was actually enjoying himself. Then again, if his enjoyment came out of her humiliation and sacrifice of pride then that was okay, right?

Speaking of which, Dimitri was surprised when Anya suddenly dropped the tough girl act, if only for a moment, to show the slightest bit of vulnerability. Now he could have easily teased her for it, or make a joke that would only increase her fears, but something about the sincerity of the moment gave him pause.

“Not until you’re ready,” he assured her instead, his cocky smirk transforming into a small yet genuine smile. Well, she hadn’t called him stupid face so it deserved an honest answer.

[Anastasia]

“Not until I’m ready? But how are you going to know when I’m going to be ready?” she said the nervousness making her fall back on her old safe guard, anger, “I mean, ok, so you can ride a bike, but how are you going to know that I’m ready to ride a bike? What makes you the expert eh?”

She realised the minute she had finished that this was ridiculous and she should just get on with it. It wasn’t like she hadn’t already fallen to the ground thousands of times, if she did fall over then it would just be another time. Although this time it would be his fault because he had let go. Surely that made it better then, that it would be his fault and not hers, then she had someone to blame, so really…it was better.

“Ok…ok…let’s do this,” she said and placed pressure on the peddles and began to move forwards.

[Dimitri]

And just like that the moment passed. The smile falling, Dimitri rolled his eyes as Anya proceeded to berate him for what he had meant to be a reassuring comment. Either she was really quite nervous or she was just that plain annoyed by him. Either way he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice and let her off easy again.

“Well I was going to wait for you to tell me you’re ready, but if that’s too much for you then maybe you don’t need my expertise,” he shot back.

It was just then that she decided to just suck it up and try, so of course it was then that Dimitri decided to let go... just for a moment. He let her wobble back and forth a moment with the little forward momentum she had before grabbing the bike again to stop her from another crash. “Oh look, you weren’t ready. How foolish of me.”

[Anastasia]

Anya turned round to look at him slowly and said, “That. Wasn’t. Funny.”

She was an idiot, why was she trusting this man, of course he couldn’t be trusted, he was an idiot, worse than that he was a stupid face! Ugh! This was a terrible idea and she should just leave, right now she should just…go. Although that wasn’t going to happen was it, nope she wasn’t going anywhere because…well…because storming off whilst also pushing a bike just didn’t work did it? So she may as well stay and be taught…yes…that was why…

“Do that again, and I’ll smack your face so hard it’ll come out your other end,” she said and then smiled, “ok…take two.”

She put her foot down on the pedal and began to push down again.

[Dimitri]

Maybe it wasn’t funny to her, but Dimitri was certainly grinning after his little stunt. Wisely, though, he didn’t verbally argue, deciding rather to just let his smile speak for itself. She really needed to learn to lighten up a bit, she was wound up tighter than a pocket watch. Still quick with the insults and threats, though.

“I’d hold up my hands in surrender, but then I’d have to let you go, and clearly that wouldn’t go well,” he replied. The smile he did not expect, though, and it was quite disarming. This girl could go from pissed to pleasant in the blink of an eye. It had to be some sort of super power... or a disorder. Maybe both.

Distracted for a moment, Dimitri had to take a quick step when Anya started peddling. “Alright, just keep it slow for now until you get a feel for it.”

[Anastasia]

Anya did as she was told and kept the peddling slow for the moment, although every instinct was telling her to go faster. She couldn’t believe that it could stay upright if it was moving so slowly, but then Dimitri had a hold of her just now, and he wouldn’t let her go…he better not. She looked straight ahead not wanting to look at the ground below her. She had done that before and nearly ended up going over the handlebars. She glanced at Dimitri and smiled a little nervously.

“Ok…”she said, “this isn’t so bad…I can do this…”

Glancing at him again she asked, “faster?”

[Dimitri]

Okay, this was strange. How had they gone from bickering and throwing insults to... this? He was helping her learn something, she was actually allowing him and it was almost comfortable, almost normal.

“If you’re ready,” Dimitri said, picking up his own pace to match hers. “As you pick up speed you’ll find it’ll get easier, you’ll start to feel the bike almost balancing itself even without my help,” he continued, as if reading her mind. “Not that I’m letting go,” he made sure to tag on the end there, just in case.

He had to admit, it was tempting, but she was sort of offering him a bit of trust here and he found that he didn’t want to throw it back at her, or simply just lose it. Besides, just the few crashes he’d seen her take had looked painful enough. She was going to be bruised and hurting tomorrow, that was for sure.