Brother Issues (Nikolay)

[lucdulac]

"Excuse me," Luc waved the salesperson over after about thirty seconds of staring blankly into the gift shop. It wasn't that he was completely useless at shopping (well, it was a tiny bit that he was completely useless at shopping), but he just didn't know where to start on this particular errand.

"Can I help you?" The bored sales assistant asked with fake enthusiasm, hoping for some commission.

"Yea, I need to buy a present for my little brother-" Before he could even finish, the sales assistant was rushing into her spiel.

"Well we've got a brilliant range of new Nerf guns in, including several designed to fit in for any time period so they can be taken home after school and won't be noticed as anachronistic, every little boy loves them."

Politely, Luc allowed her to finish before shaking his head.
"No, he wouldn't like anything like that, he's not that kind of kid. I need to get him something really good so he doesn't miss me too much. Do you have anything with bees on it?"

That question certainly earned a blank stare as she tried to work out exactly what relevence bees had to the conversation.

"He likes bees." Luc added helpfully.

"I'll...go ask my manager if we have anything suitable..." she said unsurely, immediately disappearing amongst the rows of merchandise, no doubt to go and regale her coworkers with tales of the weirdo who wanted stuff with bees on it.
Shaking his head despairingly, Luc turned to peruse the stock while he waited, catching the glance of one of the other shoppers and offering a friendly smile.

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Nikolay would have smiled back, but given that the other guy had smiled quite cheerily he didn’t want to unsettle him with his ridiculously bad smile. Instead he just inclined his head towards him, hoping that the other guy would get the point that he was being friendly. Thinking about it however he realised that it was pretty standoffish and that he should probably make a little more effort. He was currently staring at a stand of soft toys attempting to select one to send home to Natalya and there, in front of him was a small cuddly bee toy. Well, that should just about do it.
 
He had come in with the intention of getting her a doll, before realising that the dolls here were somewhat different from the ones back home and was unsure whether she would like that. Thus he decided that he couldn’t go wrong with a soft toy, but there had been so many he didn’t know which one to choose. She liked cats…and foxes…and puppies…but…and this was the difficult part…she preferred the strays to the actual fluffy cute ones. She was a strange child. Overhearing the conversation with the other guy however he decided that the bee would probably be better off with the strange demands of his younger sibling rather than his own.
 
Heading over to the other guy he held out the toy and said deadpan, “How about this? I think it’s supposed to be a bee…not actual size of course, but unlikely to cause any damage to younger siblings.”

[lucdulac]

Luc was just the sort of person who smiled at others - which would be very surprising to a lot of people that thought he was a sullen, leather-jacket-wearing 'bad boy' who hated everybody in general and authority figures in particular. While those traits were not entirely inaccurate, he was a walking advertisement for the idea that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. With that in mind, he tried not to judge most people he met until he had enough information, so he didn't immediately assume the worst when Nikolay didn't respond to his smile in kind.

He was also slightly more pre-disposed to think well of people (except the aforementioned authority figures), so despite the flat tone the boy used when he offered the soft toy to Luc, he chose to accept the kindness displayed in actually pointing it out to him, and gave him another smile.

"He's not actually that young, so small parts and stuff isn't a problem," He explained "But he'll probably love that. Thanks."

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“No problem,” said Nikolay and turned his attention back to the toys, “I know how hard it is to pick something out, especially if they’ve got very…particular tastes. Bee’s are good though. They’re small and can be kind of cute looking. If you see particularly mangy looking animal would you give me a shout.”

The other guy seemed genuine enough and actually quite happy at Nikolay’s find so he clearly wasn’t too bothered about the lack of smiling. There hadn’t been much time to get to know the other people in the same sort of corridor as him, what with school, his job and his…other job. And no one in any three of those places were the kind of people he really wanted to be friends with. In school he wanted to study and let nothing distract him, in his first job he simply wanted to get on with it, get his pay check and get out of there and the last one…well…friendships were definitely not encouraged.

“I think there‘s games that are all about Bee‘s over there, if that helps,” he said turning to look at the other guy again.

[lucdulac]

"They can be kind of cute," Luc agreed, looking at the stuffed bee in his hand "Though I don't think Haddy cares either way, he just likes bees. Mangy animals, huh? Got a picky younger sibling of your own, have you?"
There was something about the knowing way Nikolay looked, and how understanding he was about the necessity for bees, that suggested he had similar experiences with a brother or sister. He had to admit, obscure as bees were, he probably had it easier. nobody wanted an animal that didn't look cute it seemed, so finding anything that looked threadbare or 'mangy' was probably going to be difficult.

"Thanks," He grinned, looking over towards the games as Nikolay suggested "Why don't you try a second hand shop or something? They might need a good wash, but you're much more likely to find something a bit ratty, if that's what they're in to?"

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Nikolay ran a hand through his hair and said, “that was the first place I tried, would you believe they didn’t actually have anything that looked even remotely second hand. And they were all still so fluffy and far too cute looking. Picky doesn’t even begin to describe Natty, I love her, but she can be a real pain sometimes.”

There was no barb or real annoyance in what he was saying, in fact the happy look in his eye as he spoke about her was really all the proof the other guy needed to see to know that he cared about his little sister. He picked up a hand puppet of some kind of strange looking creature, but that too had a certain cuteness about it that Natty wouldn’t like. She would never turn down a toy, she wasn’t like that and appreciated everything she got, but it wouldn’t be played with as much until she could get it properly ugly looking. Maybe that was half the fun in it, making the toy look ugly, maybe he should look into getting her something like that.

“Besides, I wanted to, you know…get her something good with my first paycheck,” he said, hoping the other guy would catch his meaning, “Haddy is an interesting name? Short for something?”

[lucdulac]

"That's what siblings are for, right?" He grinned. Not that Haddy was ever a problem, as far as he was concerned, he completely doted on the younger boy. He was well aware of the drive-me-insane-but-I-love-them feeling that most people had for their siblings, though.

"Yea I know what you mean.... maybe you could buy something and then rough it up yourself?" He suggested. He wasn't sure whether Nikolay was pleased to have a paycheque with which to spoil his sister, or simply sending her something so she didn't feel bad that he was here and she wasn't, he didn't need to know the exact reasons to understand Nikolay's desire to get just the right thing. "It's short for Galahad, he's named after our uncle."

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“That could work,” said Nikolay thinking about it, “I suppose I could always give it to my brother to rough it up, all I need to do is tell him it’s for Natty and he’ll tear it to shreds.”

The good humour that was about him only seconds ago disappeared as he spoke about his brother. If it was obvious how much he cared for his younger sister, then it was even more obvious how much disdain he had for his elder brother. He regretted it the minute he said it, as the other boy clearly had a lot of time for his younger brother. Family was important, but he felt that if the other guy had Arkady for a brother, then he would completely understand his feelings.

“Galahad…I think my mama and papa knew Galahad when they were here…I think,” he said trying to divert the conversation from siblings, “Mama knew a lot of people here, papa annoyed a lot of people here.”

[lucdulac]

Luc winced slightly at the obvious shift in tone. He could understand, even if he couldn't empathise, after all he got on very well even with his older siblings, but then they were all united against a common enemy, as it were, and he knew there were other siblings that weren't nearly so close.

"I take it you don't get along then?" He asked lightly, before allowing the subject change.

"If your parents knew Uncle Galahad they probably knew my dad as well, Lancelot?" Now it was his turn for that note of disdain to creep into his voice. Luc's relationship with his mother was the worst, but his relationship with his father wasn't the greatest either.

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“That’s putting it nicely,” said Nikolay with a small smile, “I cant actually remember a time where we ever got along. We’re just…very different people. I mean don’t get me wrong, when it comes down to it I’ll always have his back, and I’ll never let anyone else hurt him…I can’t say he would do the same for me but…that’s the way I feel…”

The note of disdain when Luc mentioned his father didn’t go unnoticed by him. Clearly there was another young man with issues with daddy. Nikolay got along fine with his father, he didn’t always agree with the choices he made and in a small way, recently he resented him for the biggest choice he had made, but he would never fully understand why Arkady could never respect their father. For all his faults he was still their dad, he was still a great man…

“Mama mentions a Lancelot sometimes,” said Nikolay, “and since I just found out not so long ago that she was telling the truth about Arthur and Merlin I assume that she was telling the truth about him too. So he’s your dad?”

Due to noting the tone of disdain earlier he tried to keep his spazzing out to a minimum this time. Just.

[lucdulac]

"I know what you mean," Luc agreed "It's not often that I don't get along with my siblings, but no matter how much I was fighting with them, if anybody else started... well, that wouldn't last long," he finished ominously. Luc was particularly protective of his siblings.

He wished he hadn't mentioned his dad, it would have been so easy to just leave it at the mention of his uncle and move on, find a different topic of conversation, but he had to go and bring up his dad and of course, much as Nikolay managed to hide it (which he was grateful for), he was still obviously pretty thrilled about the possibility.

"Yes, he's my dad, and he's an idiot." he sighed.

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“That is amazing, because just the other day I met someone who’s father is Arthur Pendragon and-wait, you probably already know them,” said Nikolay getting excited again, “Meredith, Princess Meredith, yeah I met her, but you’re dad is Lancelot that is so…um…must…be…interesting.”

He had remembered all too late the tone of voice that Luc had been using and stopped himself from sounding so excited. Nikolay couldn’t help it, he was fascinated, he really was genuinely excited to meet the sons and daughters of these people. Although he knew how it felt when someone was happy and respectful of someone you really didn’t like. After all, most of the girls who hadn’t been on their one date with Arkady usually only had wonderful things to say about him. Come to think about it, even some of the ones after the one date only had nice things to say about Arkady. The world was unfair.

“I uh, I was saying to her the other day,” he said trying to back track, “it’s amazing how much the legends get wrong. I mean, you’re saying he’s an idiot and well…uh…that’s not really, what the legends say…it’s interesting.”

[lucdulac]

Luc did his best to hold his tongue, because really it wasn't Nikolay's fault that he had such a problem with his father, and from an objective point of view he could understand why people would find it exciting to meet the son of Lancelot. Not trusting himself just yet, he managed a non-committal "Yea I know Meredith." before falling silent again.

Once he had finally bottled his emotions, Nikolay seemed to have calmed his enthusiasm a little as well, so it was all much easier to bear, and he was a lot more relaxed when he responded properly.
"I know, they are really different. My father is... probably somewhat like the legends, he does have a ridiculous hero complex. They don't really go in for the intimate details of personality so often, so it's easy to miss his bad points."

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“Yeah…I suppose it is,” he said trying to empathise with the other boy but still thinking it was extremely cool that he was speaking to the son of Lancelot.
 
He turned back to the toys and continued, “So. Bumblebees huh? This store is certainly big enough I’m sure between the two of us we could cover quite a lot of ground, and it should churn out a couple of things.”
 
Smiling he picked a pathetic looking teddy that looked like it was lacking in some stuffing and said, “And more of this…worse if possible.”

[lucdulac]

Luc was very glad when Nikolay changed the subject - he was a very easy-going, cheerful sort of guy, but that rapidly disintegrated with pretty much any mention of his parents, and he struggled to keep his cool in those situations.

"Right, working together sounds like a plan, no pathetic teddy or bumblebee will escape our collective scouring."
Now that he knew the conversation had turned very firmly away from Lancelot, he was once again completely relaxed and ready to focus on his little brother. It was usually thoughts of his siblings that calmed him down when he was feeling particularly irritable, and Galahad most of all.

"Split up or work together?"