"What is there to figure out?" Ilarion asked, bemused. "He has always been there. These last months have been the exception, not the rule."
Oleksei seemed inordinately concerned about Liadov's return, as if he expected him to have forgotten everything about Leningrad HQ, and he would stumble over chairs and misfile all their cases or something.
Taras didn't know Nika, of course, apart from a few tense and glancing interactions, so Ilarion could conceivably understand his skepticism.
"Really, Oleksei, it will be fine."
Lasha paused slightly, considering his glass.
"In the grand scheme of all these years, this has been a momentary lark."
Lasha was offhand, nonchalant, almost breezy when discussing it, but Oleksei's mention of the secretary brought him back to a brooding place.
"And then there is the matter of Anya. He was always protective of her in the past," Lasha ruminated, cocking an eyebrow. "But as I told him that day at mess, loyalty is nothing if not transient. Hers is no longer to him. Why should he continue to cosset and hover around her?"
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-17 09:49 pm (UTC)Oleksei seemed inordinately concerned about Liadov's return, as if he expected him to have forgotten everything about Leningrad HQ, and he would stumble over chairs and misfile all their cases or something.
Taras didn't know Nika, of course, apart from a few tense and glancing interactions, so Ilarion could conceivably understand his skepticism.
"Really, Oleksei, it will be fine."
Lasha paused slightly, considering his glass.
"In the grand scheme of all these years, this has been a momentary lark."
Lasha was offhand, nonchalant, almost breezy when discussing it, but Oleksei's mention of the secretary brought him back to a brooding place.
"And then there is the matter of Anya. He was always protective of her in the past," Lasha ruminated, cocking an eyebrow. "But as I told him that day at mess, loyalty is nothing if not transient. Hers is no longer to him. Why should he continue to cosset and hover around her?"