Abigael was cleaning out her ruined bedroom from the mess left over from last night. Partly because she had no clothes to wear otherwise and partly because this was the only place in the house - other than the bathroom - where she wasn't in the direct line of sight of that strange Mischa guy.
She had decided that she had started helping him already so she may as well keep going now. After finding him an old hoodie that had always been too big for her, though admittedly was still a little small for him, she suggested a trip to the hospital but was met with a flat rejection. Despite her probing she couldn't get a reason other than he didn't want to go. She really wasn't sure what to do but felt that she couldn't in good conscience kick an injured guy out of her house so she just let him be.
The power had been restored at some point during the early hours of the morning so he used the phone downstairs to call his brother then sat down on her couch and spent the morning alternatively watching TV and staring absently at his rubber gloved hands. At a loss, she decided to ignore him. After all, as soon as this brother of his showed up he would be gone out of her life and she would be able to go about her business. She scowled at the thought of all the troubles she had to deal with now, a broken window and ruined bedroom, a broken phone, she couldn't even go to the shops to get the watch off her wrist as she couldn't leave a stranger in her house alone.
Sighing she swept the last of the broken glass from the dustpan into the bin before reaching for the bedding sheets to throw away as well. They were covered in tiny shards of glass and couldn't be used anymore after all. [I liked that duvet cover] she pouted, dumping the sheets into the bin along with some other ruined clothes and items that had broken during the night.
She stood and grabbed the now full bin to take out. Shuffling awkwardly down the hallway she managed to drag the heavy bin into the main room and near the doorway to take downstairs later. Wiping away the loose hair that had fallen in her face from the exertion she straightened up and shot a somewhat resentful look at the freeloader that was the cause of all of this mess. He didn't even offer to help her clean up, what a jerk!
A loud knock at the door sounded out suddenly, making her jump. She turned on reflex and was about to peer through the spyglass to see who it was when she was rudley, though not roughly, pulled out of the way by Mischa who hurriedly opened the door.
'Andrei!' A man about the same height as Mischa was enveloped in a bear hug. As Mischa stepped back and pulled the man into the apartment, without her permission it must be noted, Abigael could see the family resemblance immediately. The same straight black hair, same piercing blue eyes, though the man seemed to have a more stocky build than Mischa as well as a beard.
The man swept a pair of cold eyes over her briefly before ignoring her completely, closing the door behind him and following Mischa to her couch where they started talking together in furtive whispers. Abigael frowned in their direction. She had half a mind to go over there and demand they give her the attention she deserves as the one putting up with all this nonsense! But now that the brother is here they will be leaving soon anyway, she consoled herself and simply gave them an eye roll instead before moving removing her cleaning gloves and going to wash her hands.
Snatches of their conversation floated through the house, even though they were doing their best to keep their voices down, the apartment was small and she couldn't help eavesdropping if she wanted to. To be honest she kind of wanted to know what was going on with this mysterious brother pair. She was curious. Who wouldn't be?
'So he's at the station now?' Mishca asked.
'Yeah, but I don't know about the others, they could be anywhere by now.'
'You're pretty harsh Andrei, leaving your brother hanging like that…'
'I told you, this was more important! Look, you're fine, no problems.'
'No problems?' Mischa's voice carried a slight trace of anger for the first time, 'Look at me. I was struck by lightning Andrei, lightning!'
'You know nine out of ten people survive that right? Nothing special, you want to get checked?'
'No.' Mischa muttered quietly, looking away. Abigael could see the hurt and, was that fear in his eyes? He was silent after that, clenching and unclenching his gloved fists as he avoided looking at his brother.
Andrei sighed in frustration, 'I already said I was sorry okay? What did you want me to do in that kind of situation?' Mischa stayed silent.
Abigael has satisfied her curiosity, or rather was becoming impatient from the almost complete lack of helpful information being discussed. Drying her hands she turned and decided now was the perfect time to begin extorting...er, demanding compensation for her window.
'Look I hate to interrupt,' she began walking over, feeling just that little bit intimidated by the two men who had both looked over to her at the same time. 'But I have things to do today and-'
'We were just leaving anyway.' Andrei interrupted and abruptly stood up. Giving her a blank look devoid of any emotion at all he began walking towards the door.
Abigael was shocked, they were leaving? Just like that?!
'Hey!' she yelled, her fists clenching as Andrei turned and looked at her with that empty stare again. [What am I doing?] a part of her brain started asking [What if he gets angry? I'm no match for this guy.] She took a deep breath and resolutely ignored those fears. 'What about my window?'
'What about it?' Andrei retorted, deadpan.
'Hey, bro-' Mishca began
'You still need to compensate me for it! And what about today huh? I missed a whole day at work because I was caring for this guy!' She pointed at a shocked and rather guilty faced Mischa who was still sitting on the couch. 'How are you going to make up for my loss of income? My expenses?' A mildly nasty gleam shone in her eye, 'Or should I just call back those police from yesterday? I'm sure they'd help you see your wrongs.'
A sigh left Mischa's mouth as he stood up, grabbing a pen from the coffee table and began walking around the couch to face her. 'You seem to have the wrong idea about this.' He said, all traces of fear and shock gone.
'Don't worry, I'll pay for everything. You can call me later and send me the invoices, I'll refund you.'
Abigael was stunned, she couldn't do anything except for stare back into his piercing blue eyes and wonder if she had heard incorrectly. She felt something and looked down to see her hand in the bright pink rubber gloved hand of Mishca. He was writing something on her wrist. He smiled gently and placed the pen in her hand before turning and unbolting the front door. Abigael just watched in silence, her mind completely blank as the two brothers left without so much as a goodbye, closing the door behind them.
In a daze she looked down at her hand, which was still holding the pen Mischa had given her. On her wrist were ten digits.
'Oh my god, he gave me his number.'