Chapter Text
Artemy never knew how to feel about class. He didn’t hate it; his eyes didn’t glaze over the way that some of his classmates did when a teacher would lecture for a long time. But he wouldn’t listen with rapt attention either. He followed along, tried to absorb the information, and tried to implement it. Fitting, really, since he’d realized that while not a bad student, he wasn’t really a great student. Something about the way they learned in the capital just felt… off to him.
For the time being, it hardly mattered. He would be traveling to his hometown this very day. He would be gone for a while and had already explained the circumstances to his professors, who had graciously allowed him to complete the coursework over his expected absence in advance. And this very second, his last class of the day was wrapping up. He began packing his bag with all the other students.
“Remember to do the reading before the next class, we’re going to be taking an in-depth look at those pages,” Professor Sokolov said. Before leaving the front of the class, he locked eyes with Artemy. “Mr. Burakh, will you come speak to me before you leave today?” Being singled out in a classroom setting made Artemy feel small for some reason. It was an uncomfortable feeling he could never quite place. Still, as his classmates left the room, he grabbed his bag and made his way to the professor’s desk. The professor looked up as he came over “Artemy, thank you for staying a little late.”
“Is this about my grades, sir? I’ve been trying to keep up, it’s just–”
“No, Artemy, your grades are fine. I’ve seen a lot of improvement from you in the past few months. No, I wanted to ask you about your upcoming trip.”
“Oh. Is there a problem with that? I thought I left my make-up work in your mailbox–”
“Artemy,” the man interrupted with a kind smile. “Will you let me ask the question?” Artemy felt stupid for a second, but closed his mouth and nodded somewhat sheepishly. “You mentioned your hometown was deep in the steppe, I remember, but what was the name of it again?”
Artemy was perplexed by the question. “Uh. Town-on-Gorkhon. Why do you ask, sir?”
“I thought so,” he said, his expression becoming thoughtful. “See, a student of mine in the medicine track is actually heading out there this week, too. Apparently, he got in touch with a town elder that he wants to interview for a personal project he’s working on.” Artemy could see where this was going. “Now, I wouldn’t want to do anything to make you uncomfortable, but if you wouldn’t mind having another person tag along, he seems really anxious to meet this man and get back to his studies. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to split the driving time and the cost for gas. Plus, it might be nice to have some company on the long drive.”
Artemy didn’t think about it for too long. “Sure, send him my way if he’s able to leave today. I’ll wait for him outside my car until about 2:30, in the library’s south parking lot. He’ll more likely than not have to find another way home, though.”
“I’ll be sure to let him know that. Thanks, Burakh. You’re a very dependable man.”
Artemy shrugged. “Just trying to be decent.”
“And before I forget, I did get your make-up work.” Artemy cracked a smile at this. “From what I’ve seen, it’s stellar work. But don’t worry about it. Have fun on your trip home.” Artemy nodded, leaving the classroom with his head in the clouds as he thought about what he’d need to do before he left.
It took almost bowling over the child in the entryway for him to become grounded again.
“Sorry,” he said on instinct, looking at the girl. Artemy immediately noticed three things about her: 1. With the exception of her kitted red cap, most of her clothes looked well-worn, 2. Though her face seemed weary, there was an almost playful energy hiding underneath, and 3. She had been backed against the wall, as if trying to go by unobserved.
It was this last detail Artemy chose to focus on. “What are you hiding from?” he asked, curious. The girl’s eyes darted around, as if afraid somebody was watching, then she leaned in.
“My friends and I are playing hide and seek,” she whispered.
“Ah,” Artemy said, nodding. “Well a word of advice, you’re a sitting duck standing in a classroom entryway.” The girl puzzled over this. “I mean, sure, if your friends come to look for you from there,” he said, pointing to the hallway behind the girl, “you might get a few seconds of invisibility, but if they come from the other way—” he now pointed his thumb behind him “—you’ll get caught almost instantly.”
The girl smiled mischievously at him. “Then where would you suggest hiding?”
“Well, if you’re looking for a particular spot, there’s an area behind the stairwell on the first floor. It looks like it’s filled in, but there’s enough space to crawl behind there.” As the girl nodded, he returned the sly smile. “But if you’re looking for long-term strategies, people hardly ever notice things that are in plain sight.”
“Hiding in plain sight…” she nodded vigorously. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” With that, she looked around and ran off, presumably looking for the plainest sight she could find. And with that odd encounter out of the way, Artemy went back to thinking about what he needed to do before his trip.
As 2:30 approached, Artemy realized he possibly hadn't thought this through. For starters, Sokolov hadn't told him any pertinent details about the man he was to meet, his name or what he looked liked, and he hadn't thought to ask those things. Even the information he'd provided had been vague, just a parking lot and a time. He hadn't even thought to tell Sokolov the make and model of his car, or even just the color.
As a group of girls passed in front of him and the car, he checked his watch, anxious. 2:27. He was going to have to leave soon, one way or the other, but he didn't want to go back on his implicit promise. He supposed in the meantime, he could double check that he had gathered everything in the trunk. He walked around to the back of the car, popping over the trunk. Looking over it all, he realized he hadn't brought much. He supposed he wouldn't need that much, coming home. In any case, there would be plenty of room for his traveling companion’s things.
“You, with the popped trunk, are you the man Sokolov told me about?”
Artemy stood up, looking towards the source of the noise. “Yes, I am, my name is–” He stopped mid-sentence. Because he recognized the man standing in front of him, and knew the man recognized him.
“Burakh.”
Artemy glared. “So we're back to surnames again, are we?” He scoffed. “You truly haven't changed one bit, Dankovsky.”
“Neither have you, it would seem,” Dankovsky said with a scowl. “So you’re the one I’m to be trapped in a car with. Figures. Sokolov didn’t deign to even tell me your name.”
Artemy scoffed and shook his head. “This isn’t going to work. I can’t fucking deal with this.”
“Well isn’t that predictable? Typical Burakh, bailing when things get uncomfortable.”
Artemy glared at the man. “Funny,” he growled, marching over to him, “because as I recall, you—” he pointed at Dankovsky’s chest “—were the one who bailed on me. You don’t get to show up now and demand anything of me.”
“Then how am I to get to Gorkhon?”
Artemy shrugged. “Not my problem. Bus? Train? Boat? I don’t care. Feel free to not contact me at all while you’re there.”
“Burakh.”
“No, I’m serious. Not like you would’ve remembered where I’m from, to begin with, I mean, since you don’t take notice of those… What wording did you use? ‘Backwater towns?’ But since you do know now, well–”
“Burakh, listen.” Dankovsky’s voice was serious. Artemy was annoyed at the interruption, but stopped his tirade to let Dankovsky say his piece. “Think of this logically. If you let me come along with you, I can cover half of your expenses, you can spend less time behind the wheel, and you get a favor from me.”
“I have enough money to cover the trip, I’ve made the drive on my own before and I don’t mind it, and I certainly don’t want any favors from you,” Artemy responded coldly. The two men stared at each other for a moment as the tension grew. “So I still haven’t heard one good reason I should allow you to come with me.” Artemy turned around to go to his car, drive home, and forget this whole incident ever happened.
“My train there was canceled,” Dankovsky said. Artemy stopped in his tracks. “I don’t know when the next train is going to head out, and I don’t know the next chance I’ll get to take a break from my studies.” The man sighed. Compromise had never come easy to him. Same with apologies. “Look, I know in the past we’ve had our issues, but I really need your help.” Artemy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He still wasn’t sure. “Please. Artemy…” His eyes opened at the sound of his name. “Help me.”
He knew he was going to do it. He was going to let this asshole ride along with him. He wanted to find some words to tell the man off, to be just a little selfish for once. But he was never going to do that.
“Put your bag in the back.” Artemy didn’t turn around as he said this, but nevertheless, he knew Dankovsky heard him. He walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat, sighing as he did so. Alone on the road for days with Dankovsky. Great.
He was surprised when the back door on the passenger’s side opened. He turned around to see Dankovsky putting his back in the back seat.
“Was there not enough room in the trunk?” Artemy asked, confused.
“The trunk was closed,” the man replied. Odd. He hadn’t remembered closing it. “Does it matter where I put my things?”
“I suppose not. So long as we don’t have to stop by your apartment for anything.”
“We don’t.” With that, the man closed the back door and got in the passenger seat.
Artemy felt the man’s eyes on him as he started the car. He waited in the parking lot for a moment, taking in the crazy circumstances, trying to understand how he kept ending up in these situations, how this bachelor kept entering this life.
In truth, there was no understanding it. There had been choices, several of which he’d made himself. Now he had to deal with it and move on.
“Okay,” he murmured to himself, finally pulling out of the parking space. As he pulled out onto the main road, the man in the passenger seat turned away and quietly scoffed.
This was going to be a long drive.
They had left the imposing architecture of the capital hours ago. The radio stations were getting harder to find and contained more static than music. The townships were getting fewer and further between. The cars had thinned out until it felt like it was just them on the open expanse of road. And Artemy started to see the first inklings of the steppe. A gust of wind in the trees. A plant that looked just out of place. The slowly changing landscape along the road. It almost calmed down the part of his mind hyper-focused on the fact that Dankovsky was right next to him in the passenger seat.
Into this atmosphere Dankovsky spoke the first words since they had left the capital.
“Were you planning on staying silent for the entire trip?”
Of course, Artemy figured, the doctor would choose his words to be as annoying as possible. He frowned and kept driving. Dankovsky either did not pick up on the hint or (more likely) chose to keep pushing Artemy’s buttons.
“I mean, surely, you’re going to have to talk to me eventually. How else will we trade off? How else will I know to pay for gas?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re trading off or stopping for gas. Otherwise, we don’t have to talk.” Artemy gripped the steering wheel a little harder.
“So, it’s official. I am getting the patented Artemy Burakh Silent Treatment. Quite honestly, it’s kind of hard to differentiate from your normal demeanor. Quiet, moody, uncommunicative.”
“Oh, I’d think my silence would pretty clearly communicate why I’m being so ‘moody,’ Bachelor.”
“I’m just saying, maybe you wouldn’t have this tension reach a boiling point if you told people what was going on every once in a while.”
“Fine, I can tell you what’s going on.” Without warning, Artemy swerved off to the side of the road, getting a short shriek of surprise from Dankovsky. Time seemed to slow, and in that moment, Artemy smirked, having pulled one over on his traveling companion. Then, just as quickly, he stopped the car. When Dankovsky looked out, he saw Artemy had stopped right at a pump at an empty gas station along the road. “We’re getting gas.” Dankovsky glared at him, still breathing heavily from the surprising way in which they stopped. “Go in and get us ten gallons.”
“Wh– I’m–” He was still reeling from the shock of what just happened. “Why should I have to–?”
“Because if you stay in my car a second longer, I might stab you, and I really don’t want to have to clean out the blood.” The man stayed in the car a moment longer, but Artemy was having none of that. “Go!”
Dankovsky scoffed again, but left the car, giving Artemy just a few moments to be alone. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, grounding himself. This was not how he had expected this drive to go, and he was not enjoying what it had turned out to be.
He took another deep breath. He could get through this. All in all, it wasn’t too much driving, and he could probably deal with his unexpected companion pretty well.
Provided he stopped being a prick.
Artemy sighed and opened his eyes again, stepping out of the car to get the pump ready. He leaned against the car, waiting for Dankovsky to exit the shop. A few short minutes later, he strode over to the car again, and Artemy started filling up.
“I swear, that cashier was deaf. Couldn’t understand a word I said. Had to pantomime it in the end, but I managed the gas, this time. Plus a pack of cigarettes.” Artemy looked over his shoulders at this, confused why he was being told all of this. “You still like menthols, right, Burakh?” Artemy knew there was no way he could’ve forgotten this; he must have asked him to buy a pack for him dozens of times. Perhaps it was a peace offering, a trademarked Dankovsky way of apologizing without having to actually say the words. But Artemy knew the man himself also liked menthols, so it was tough to be certain.
“I’m not having one now if that’s what you’re asking.” It was as civil as Artemy could make it without receiving an actual apology. He finished filling up and put the pump back.
“So, what’s the plan for the drive, since you never told me?”
Artemy sighed. He supposed the man at least deserved that, given the uncomfortable circumstances. “Well, I was thinking–”
Artemy heard a noise come from behind him, inside the car. He stopped and looked back.
“Well? Don’t leave me in suspense.”
Artemy turned back to the man. “Did you hear that?” Dankovsky just looked confused until another sound came from the car, this time much louder. They both instinctively glanced at the trunk.
“Is something in there?” Dankovsky asked nervously.
“Only one way to find out,” Artemy said. He inserted the key in his trunk, looked over at Dankovsky, who still kept his distance, and opened it up.
Inside the trunk was a familiar-looking girl in a red knit cap, curled up so she could fit among Artemy’s belongings. She looked at Artemy, here wide blank eyes mirroring his own.
“...Hello,” he said, unsure what else to say.
The girl sat up, startling Dankovsky. Her face quickly shifted. “Oh please, sir,” she said, scrambling out of the car and past Artemy, “you have to save me from this man, he–!” She stopped before she reached the intimidating bachelor. She eyed him very quickly up and down, before looking around, mouth open as if she was about to say something, until she saw how barren the surroundings were. Then she looked back at the bachelor. Her panicked persona quickly faded. “Aw, damn it. You were there with him when he left.”
“Yes, I was,” Dankovsky said dryly, “and Burakh doesn’t strike me as the kind to hide young girls in his trunk, so who are you and why were you in his car?
Artemy’s brain was having a hard time keeping up with what had happened. “Wait, were you about to try and convince him that I kidnapped you?” The girl simply shrugged. “Why?”
“I figured it was the best way to avoid having you make any hard decisions.”
“Hard decisions?” Artemy asked, confused.
“Yes, like what do we do now that we’ve discovered a stowaway in the trunk of your car,” the bachelor clarified. “She must have come from the Capital, somehow…”
“Yes, she was at the university,” Artemy supplied. He thought about it for a few moments. Then he chuckled in realization. “She must have snuck in while we were talking, closed the door behind her. We never would’ve suspected anything. Hiding in plain sight worked well for you, I see, you were blending in with those university girls, weren’t you?”
“Only for a second,” she admitted.
“Burakh!” Dankovsky said sharply. “There are more pressing issues at hand, such as why she was hiding in your trunk!”
The girl ignored the bachelor but answered the question nonetheless. “I heard you talking to your professor about how you were going to Town-on-Gorkhon. As it so happens, I have some business there myself, and I really needed to get there as soon as possible, so I figured I might as well hitch a ride.”
“So you were eavesdropping this morning,” Artemy said, contemplative. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you that was rude?”
“They never got the chance. I’m an orphan.” Just like Dankovsky had done this afternoon, she was pulling at his heartstrings. And it was working.
But this morning, he didn’t have Dankovsky to protect him from Dankovsky.
“No, don’t let her sob story soften you,” he said, quickly moving to stand between Artemy and the girl. “She listened in on a private conversation, ascertained your destination, stowed away in the trunk of your car, and when you discovered her, she tried to make it seem like you had kidnapped her just for the benefit of any potential witnesses, which almost certainly would have landed you in jail had there been any.”
Artemy realized that with her various crimes laid out before him, he really shouldn’t have any reason to listen to what this girl had to say.
“So what do we do?” he asked Dankovsky. The two mulled it over for a bit.
“I think we have to take her back to the capital,” the bachelor finally replied. “Take her to the authorities and let them deal with her.”
“Please don’t do that,” the girl begged. “They’d just place me in the system, and I’d never get to Gorkhon.”
“Ignoring her pleas, we’d lose all the progress that we’ve made on the road today,” Artemy said. “Plus, she could still pull off that ‘kidnapped’ gambit, and it’s much more likely to work in the Capital.”
“So then what do you suggest?” Dankovsky asked, looking at Artemy for an answer.
“I mean…” Artemy could see no way around it. Dankovsky’s face fell.
“No, no, you cannot seriously be suggesting we just let this… wild girl remain with us on this trip!”
“I don’t think we have a choice.”
“We’ll be paying for her every step of the way.”
“If it helps,” the girl interrupted, “I have a little money with me right now, and if you do have to cover for me, I can ask my patron to cover the costs once we get to Gorkhon.” Dankovsky looked between Artemy in the girl, completely flabbergasted.
“If you have any other complaints, or, frankly, any better ideas, I’m happy to hear them out,” Artemy said, and he meant it. But as he stared at the Bachelor’s face, it was clear there wouldn’t be one.
“Fine! Fine. Let the crazy girl tag along. What do I care?” Clara smiled, like a gambler who just took a large sum from an opponent.
“And with that, we should probably do introductions, so he doesn’t keep calling you ‘crazy girl’ the entire trip.”
The girl nodded. “My name is Clara.”
“I am Artemy, and this is–”
“Daniel Dankovsky, bachelor of medicine,” the proud man interrupted, holding out his hand to the girl. She took it and cautiously shook it. As this happened, Artemy looked over at the man. Daniel? he mouthed, but the bachelor pointedly ignored it. Artemy shook his head.
“Well, now that we’re all acquainted, we should probably make some space for you to sit properly.” As he said this, Artemy took Dankovsky’s bag out of the back seat, moving it to the trunk, where it perfectly fit in the space Clara had just occupied. Upon locking the trunk up, he threw the keys to the other man. “Your shift, Daniel,” he said. The other man rolled his eyes as he walked around to take the wheel. Clara shuffled into the back seat and Artemy got into the passenger seat.
“It feels so good to stretch out my legs,” Clara said, doing just that. “It was so cramped back there.” Artemy chuckled a bit at that.
“I can only imagine,” he replied. Daniel got the car started.
“But mostly it was just really boring. I wasn’t doing anything for hours, just hoping that I’d have a plan for what happened when you had to get your things out of the trunk this evening. And you two were silent the whole time. Why is that?”
Once more, Artemy could feel the other man’s eyes on him. He ignored them again.
“We just don’t talk that much anymore. Isn’t that right, Daniel?”
The bachelor shook his head. “Let’s just get moving.” And with that, he pulled the car out on the road.
The road trip was almost certainly going to be the weirdest one any of them had ever had.