Work Text:
Erik rarely felt the breeze on his face. But up on the hillside, there was no-one to see him except Christine and the daroga in the soft evening light.
They’d brought two picnic rugs so there’d be plenty of space, with plates of sandwiches and a bottle of white wine between them.
Given the warmth of the day, he’d left his jacket in the car, and had even gone so far as to roll up his sleeves, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to loosen his tie.
He’d never had much of an appetite, but he took a few bites of the sandwiches anyway, grazing.
They sat in an easy kind of companionable silence that Erik could enjoy. He could hear distant birdsong. There were daisies in the grass around them, even a few tiny purple orchids.
He spent so much time holed up in his apartment, hiding his face from the world, that sometimes he needed reminding there was a world out there worth seeing. That there were people he could sit beside in a green field.
Erik leaned back and stretched out his long legs, breathed in the fresh air, and for a moment, he felt completely ordinary.