Chapter Text
She ran fast and far, it was surprising even to her how fast she was going. She could hear his sprinting behind her, gaining on her. She weaved through the trees, looking back. Foolishly, she took a misstep, landing her right foot underneath a tree root. It caught, and she went flying to the ground, topping off her fumble with a poorly executed ‘oof’.
He towered behind her in the shadows, panting.
“it’s over,” he told her in a raspy, serious voice. He stepped forward as she scrambled to get to her feet, but to no avail.
He reached down to her, and pat her hard on the shoulder.
“Tag, you're it,” he told her, laughing.
“Goddammit, Stenka,” she told him, getting to her feet.
He giggled and helped her up, “hey, mama won’t want you saying that,” he chided.
“Who cares, they swear all the time,” she countered.
“Olga, mama will ground you,” he said as he stepped over a large boulder and helped her over.
“Mama will, but mom will unground me and give me condolence ice cream,” she said as she jumped down from the boulder.
Stenka looked off into the distance, thinking about what his sister had just said, and realizing the overwhelming accuracy of her statement. It was funny for him to hear such a young girl say such big words. She sounded like a character in the kindof books he would have to write book reports about.
“That is true,” he concluded.
Olga flipped her long black hair in agreement with her brothers’ complement.
The two reached their house shortly after. Their mama, Anya, had made dinner as their mom, Siobhan, was at the store buying junk food. It was an ongoing battle between salads and chips.
The two often fought each other on many things, but never anything important enough to cause real conflict.
Their mothers got married seventeen years before, the year after they graduated high school. Two years after which, Anya had their first child, Stenka. Two more years later, they had their second and youngest child, Olga. They lived at the edge of the city, their backyard melting into woods.
“Mama, could you get me a water?” Olga asked politely, swinging her legs off her chair.
“Just a second, Саншайн,” Anya said, drying her hands on a floral towel.
Just then, their mom walked through the door, grocery bags in hand, “What’s up, losers?” She asked.
“Siobhan, not appropriate talk for dinner time,” Anya laughed.
“Come on, babe, they’re thirteen and fifteen, they can handle some light bullying from their mom and mama,” Siobhan said, sashaying over to her wife and planting a kiss on Anya’s lips.
The kids cringed and covered their eyes at that. Anya observed the two and told her wife, “if they can’t handle their mothers kissing, they can’t handle bullying.”
“Ew, warn us first, why don’t you?!” Stenka begged, still recovering.
Siobhan dropped her grocery bags and held her wife by the waist, kissing her again to the dissonant whines of her children. The wives broke up laughing as Olga fell off her chair, wiping her eyes.
Anya laughed and put down her spatula, “One day this will be exactly what you kids will want,” She told them.
“Yeah, right!” Stenka said sarcastically
“Yeah, right!” Olga mimed.
Siobhan planted another simple kiss on her wife’s face then helped her kids set the table for dinner.