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“Thank you”, he quietly says, when Price puts the mug of steaming tea beside him on the table.
Normally, he will not go for tea, he will go for vodka, especially after current events, but it wasn’t an occasion to drink vodka. They had a terrorist disgracing Russia to catch, and Nikolai was doing his best by waiting for Laswell to clear the data collected and give him further instructions.
She was the only American he tolerated giving him orders, thank you very much, not that she needed to know.
Price simply nods, before sitting opposite him at the table, a mug of steaming tea in his hand too. He took a slow sip of it before humming satisfied. Nikolai kind of chuckled from behind the tablet he was typing on.
Silence settles again. Price stared at nothing for a few seconds while Nikolai kept reading on his tablet. Outside of the hangar, he could hear the rain and the chatter and chaos from the rec room a few feet from them.
Gaz, Soap, Ghost, and you have found an old table of pool and were throwing bets and playing while they waited for Laswell. Nikolai almost smiled when he heard you shout in celebration after winning something, probably the game. Soap answered by asking something, another round, and then Gaz laughed mocking Soap.
He held the smile on time, though, especially since Price was suddenly looking at him.
“Children”, he said with a tone that, if Nikolai didn’t know him better, he would have sworn that was suggesting something else.
“Children”, he repeated with his thick accent.
There is a minute of silence. Soap insisted on another round, and you accepted while Gaz cheered both sides to cause chaos. Since he couldn’t hear Ghost, he guessed that he may be inside but watching said chaos unfold.
Nikolai left the tablet on the table for a moment, to take a sip of the tea. Before he could finish and compliment Price for his very English tea-making skills, the captain spoke first.
“Talking about children, I saw one of mine wearing your jacket”, at that, Nikolai choked on the tea, almost spilling it.
He coughed, put the mug back on the table, and used the sleeves of his overalls to clean the hot liquid from his mouth. When he recuperated himself, he looked at Price who looked everything except amused.
“I-I – What?”, he asked, trying to sound sure of his ignorance and whatever Price was implying.
Price puts the mug down and looks at Nikolai like a father would look at the boyfriend of one of his children. It was fairly confusing and uncomfortable considering they have known each other for a long time.
“Don’t go stupid on me now, Nik, I have eyes”, Nikolai looks away, trying to not look so unsure or caught up in a lie.
“Your point is?”
Price rolls his eyes.
“I saw one of my soldiers wearing your jacket, I think you know of what and who I’m talking about”.
There is a long moment of silence and Nikolai hasn’t felt like this in a long time. Like, the last time he felt like this was when he was in the army and was working as a double agent among the Ultranationalists. Back then he was a good liar and a good actor, but with time those skills were gone apparently because he was failing at looking neutral-faced in front of Price.
Or maybe it was the fact that Price and he have known each other for a long time and he has never been capable of lying to him to save his life.
He gulped and looked at the mug of tea on the table. He moved a little before looking back at Price.
He then sighed, like he was giving up.
“They were cold, what I was supposed to do?”
It takes Price thirteen seconds to laugh.
Nikolai doesn’t find it amusing; he keeps a deadpan face.
Price takes his time laughing until he eventually stops and leans on the table to look at Nikolai seriously.
“Do you believe that?”
“Is the truth”, Nikolai exclaims, and Price raises an eyebrow. Nikolai leans back on his chair, mumbling something in Russian. “Look, I didn’t do anything except be kind. Their jacket got heavily damaged on the mission, I didn’t have anything to cover them in the heli, and I have long sleeves thanks to the overall, so I simply offered by jacket, and they took it. That’s all”.
Price blinked at him.
“And that’s why they are parading with it around the base?”
“Well, is kind of chilly now that is raining, can you blame them?”
Price narrows his eyes and Nikolai sighs. He can’t believe he doesn’t believe him. To distract himself, he decides to grab his tea and take a sip of it.
“Are you aware that they have feelings for you?”, this time, Nikolai does spill the tea (no pun intended).
He coughs several times and then curses in Russian against the sleeves of his overalls.
When he calms down, he sighs so heavily that anyone will say Price was just bullying him.
Well, he was technically doing so.
“I hope that answers your question”, Nikolai says.
Price gives him a look.
Nikolai sighs tiredly. He is starting to regret getting involved in this mission and their shenanigans.
“It doesn’t actually”.
“What do you want from me, old man?”
“You say it like we aren’t the same age”.
“We aren’t”.
“That’s beside the point”.
He says something in Russian that sounds loud and harsh (like everything in Russian), but Price understands perfectly, and he finds it amusing.
Nikolai is not amused, though.
“I didn’t know they have feelings and even if I did, I was going to give them my jacket anyway, because I’m not an arse”.
Price simply stares before he chuckles and returns to lean on his chair and sip from his tea.
“Do you have feelings for them?”
Nikolai doesn’t answer, he limits himself to look at the mug of tea and the mess beside his tablet.
“I’m gonna look for some napkins”, and then he stood up and walked to the kitchen, which was in the hallway.
When he returned, Price was like he left him, but the group playing pool was finished apparently and they were now in the hangar talking among themselves.
Nikolai made a sudden stop when he saw you.
He gulped.
You were still wearing his jacket. It was too big for you, and it was obvious that it wasn’t yours because it had a Russian flag on it contrapossing your flag on your vest.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t felt some kind of thing. The thing he shouldn’t be feeling. Not at all.
Things that may start with lo and end with ve.
Before he could turn around and flee, Gaz noticed his presence and asked him something. All eyes were over him suddenly, so he had to smile and answer.
He did answer and everyone looked satisfied with said answer, so he simply went back to his seat to clean the table and the screen of his tablet, praying that Laswell appeared soon to get them all away.
That moment didn’t come soon, to his misery, and soon enough all of you were getting seats to join the conversation. He only talked when asked or when needed, since his nerves were all on fire because you were sitting next to him. Besides, he also knew that Price was watching him like a hawk, and he couldn’t expose his very obvious feelings for you at this moment.
He thought he was going to be capable of resisting sin until Soap made another bad joke and you laughed at it so hard that you somehow ended up laughing in his arm.
You were warm very warm and God this is how Eve felt with the stupid apple?
He acted cool, he laughed about the joke and told one of his own that made you laugh equally hard.
“Wait, I didn’t know you had a sense of humor”, you said, once the laughter had died down and Ghost was having an argument about football with Soap while Price and Gaz observed chaos unfold.
He gives you a look.
“Russians can make jokes, you know, serious, hardass Slavs is a stereotype”, he says, trying to fight the growing smirk on his face.
“Oh yeah, true, my mistake. I’m used to the American view of things”, you said sarcastically, before giving him a smirk. “Does that mean you are a teddy bear, though?”, you poke him in the middle. He chuckles like an idiot (why God won’t take him away?) “I mean, you already have the bear thing going on, you are too tall, and you are Russian, that alone makes you a teddy bear right?”
He rolls his eyes, trying to hold himself when your hand somehow ends in his thigh.
(Mary Mother of God, he was so close to losing the little self-control he had left).
He looked you in the eyes and knew for sure that you were doing everything just to get a reaction out of him. You have always been like this, playful, annoying, but like the idiot he is, he has always found a certain charm to it.
He is about to answer you when Laswell decides to grace the hangar with her presence, ending Ghost and Soap’s argument about football with a few words.
She starts speaking, informing them about what she found and how they were going to proceed. Everyone grew quiet and serious, and, in a moment, they were all standing up to get to action once more.
He had his orders; he was going to fulfill them.
When he stopped at the hangar’s door, looking at the rain for a moment, he felt your warm presence beside him.
He didn’t dare look at you until he heard you getting his jacket off.
“Thanks for this, medvezhonok”, he is speechless for a moment, and he can’t tell if is because of your smile or the Russian word you just used.
You offer him his jacket back and he stretches a hand to take it.
You then fist bump his arm before turning around. Price is looking from the end of the hangar with a smirk.
He just looks at the jacket. When he puts it back on, it smells of you.