Chapter Text
Odette has learned many things from her time with the Korolevskiy Troupe. One of them being that if Vodyanitsa invites Odette to chat with her, she is in for a small issue which will be highly dramatized. As soon as she opened the doors to Vodyanitsa’s backstage room, the Prima Soprano grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her back and forth.
“ODETTE!!! I NEED YOUR HELP!!!” The Snowland Fae exclaimed, loud enough for everyone in Snezhnograd to hear.
“Calm down!” Odette ushered for the girl to sit next to her on the sofa in her quarters. “Is this what you called me for?”
“Everything’s a disaster! WHY AM I SO EMBARASSING?!” Vodyanitsa cried, flopping down onto the couch.
“I could tell.”
“YOU’RE NOT HELPING!”
“I can’t help if you don’t stop bawling your eyes out and never telling me why you called me here.” Odette sighed, giving the girl a tissue to blow her nose. “What happened this time?”
“It’s Mitya!”
“The scientist who always comes to see our shows? What did he do now?”
“I–”
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
“Who is it?” Odette asked, calmly. Whatever Mitya did to Vodyanitsa would have to wait.
“Uh, hi, Odette!” A familiar voice said behind the door. “It’s Mitya! The theater staff told me to come here? I wanted to visit you and Vodyanitsa!”
“Ee!” Vodyanitsa let out a squeak, trying to hide herself behind the curtains.
“...What was that?” Odette could hear the confusion in his tone.
“Nothing!” Vodyanitsa yelped, before covering her mouth and flushing bright red. “Ah!”
“Oh, Vodyanitsa, is that you?” Mitya asked, completely unaware of what was going on inside the room. “I came to give something!”
Vodyanitsa’s eyes lit up at the idea of a gift, and she instantly opened the door. “Ooh, what is it?”
Mitya beamed as he gave her what he was holding behind his back. “Just some flowers I bought on the way. I thought I’d give them after today’s performance! Do you like them?”
Vodyanitsa was speechless. Completely speechless. Sure, she’d accepted flowers many, many times before, but Mitya giving her flowers?! That was something else entirely.
“Uh…” Mitya’s scarf waved its hand… thing in front of the singer, expecting a reaction. “Earth to Vodyanitsa?”
“She likes them.” Odette decided to answer for her friend. “A lot. Probably.”
“Great! I got some for you too!” Mitya handed the flowers over to the ballerina, oblivious to the anger building up inside Vodyanitsa. “I’m glad you both liked them.”
Vodyanitsa looked at Mitya, then Odette, then the flowers in both their hands. “Odette! Do you want me to put these in some water for you– You know, you work so hard, I’ll just do it!” She practically snatched the flowers from Odette’s hands and huffed over to the room next door.
“Is she okay?” Mitya’s scarf pointed at the door while he scratched his head. “You’re sure the flowers didn’t insult her?”
“I think not.” Odette rolled her eyes at the door. So this is what was wrong. “I suppose she might be coming down with a cold, that’s all.”
“Oh, okay!” Mitya started to look around the room, before his eyes locked onto a book on Vodyanitsa’s dresser. “What’s this?”
A blank look crossed over Odette’s face. “I don’t know, actually. Must just be a novel Vodyanitsa’s reading, if I had to guess.”
“Do you think she’ll mind if I take a look?” The curiosity on the scientist’s face grew. Odette simply nodded, and Mitya did a little fist pump before picking up the page and scanning through the words. “Hey, this isn’t a novel. It must be her notebook or something… Wait a minute.” Mitya flipped back five pages. “Is that my name?”
Suddenly, his scarf, which was hovering over his head, instinctively covered up the page.
“Come on!” Mitya glared at the scarf. “Just let me read that sentence?”
The scarf shook its index finger no.
“You’re no fun.” Mitya tried to force the scarf off the page with one hand while holding the book with the other. “H-huh?! Wait, what?!” In his moment of panic, the scarf closed the book shut and placed it back on the dresser. “I was this close!”
Odette tilted her head. “Well? What did you see?”
“Thanks to this nuisance of a scarf,” Mitya frowned at the scarf while it held a thumbs up. “I wasn’t able to finish, but I was able to read part of one sentence. It said, ‘Whenever Mitya comes to see my performances, I can’t help but–’”
“But what?”
“Exactly!” Mitya raised his hands (and the scarf hand) into the air as he paced around the room. “Can’t help but get distracted? Wonder if he’s listening to my performances?” He turned back to Odette, with a look of desperation filling his eyes. “You’re her best friend, right? You gotta know!”
“...We could ask?”
“Great idea!” Mitya nodded. The scarf slouched down, wondering what it did to deserve such an oblivious partner. Right then, Vodyanitsa reemerged from the room, having composed herself from the flower incident. “Hey, Vodyanitsa! Could you answer a question for me?”
“Uh, sure?” Vodyanitsa looked confused and delighted at the same time. “Is it about today’s performance? I hope you were listening this time.”
“Yep!” Mitya’s eyes shone in the same way they did whenever he was about to say too much. “Whenever I come to see your performances, you can’t help but–” The scarf threw itself over Mitya’s mouth. “MPHM!”
“Uh… Mitya? Here, let me help you.” Vodyanitsa tried to pry the scarf off his face. For some reason, the scarf seemed to oblige when the singer tried, and it came off instantly. “There you go! What were you saying?”
Mitya’s cheeks started to turn a little pink. “Nothing! I, uh… forgot?”
“Really?” Vodyanitsa considered the possibility for two seconds, then nodded. “That makes sense! You really are an airhead.”
“Uh huh… That’s me.” Mitya awkwardly scratched the back of his neck while his scarf looked like it was cackling. “Although, I prefer to say that my mind just happens to wander!”
“Hehe~” Vodyanitsa giggled, putting a hand over her mouth. “You know, you’re pretty funny, Mitya.”
“I-huh?” Mitya seemed taken aback by the comment, the scarf slightly hiding his face. “Uh, thanks! I think… Anyways, if I stay any longer, then I bet Major Valeriy’s gonna send his whole squad down to find me.”
“You can’t stay just a moment longer?”
“Well, I, uh–”
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
“Come in.” Odette answered, and just as the scientist had predicted, there the Fatui soldier was, arms crossed with a stern expression on his face.
“Oh, hello, Major Valeriy!” Mitya’s hand and the scarf waved enthusiastically at the soldier. “I assume you’re here to escort me back to the Armory Palace?”
“Your assumption would be correct.” Valeriy’s eyes narrowed in on the flowers in a vase, Vodyanitsa’s red face, Odette’s blank expression, and Mitya’s pink cheeks. “...Am I interrupting something?”
“No.” The three of them said, but in their own ways. Odette sounded far too calm, Vodyanitsa sounded like she was trying to hide something, and Mitya… sounded like Mitya.
Valeriy was not impressed. “...Right. Well then, Mitya, I believe you are very much due to be leaving.”
“Already?” Mitya groaned, even his scarf looked sad. “Major Valeriy, why don’t you join us? You know, take a break from work and all that!”
“Mitya.”
“Fine, fine.” Mitya walked over with the Major, before turning back to Vodyanitsa. “Too bad our talk got over so quickly. Wanna meet up at the Podvorye Restaurant tomorrow for dinner to make up for it?”
Vodyanitsa stared at him.
“...Vodyanitsa?”
The Prima Soprano’s brain finally caught up with her. Dinner. With Mitya. Tomorrow. “J-Just us?”
“Well, I guess?” Mitya was slightly confused as to why that was what she wanted confirmed. “Unless you want to invite someone else!”
Odette tried to hide the growing smile on her face. This idiot… Does he know what he’s doing?!
“No! Just us is–” Vodyanitsa tried to calm herself down. “Fine! Completely fine! I’d love to!”
Mitya blinked, before he flashed a peace sign while the scarf gave her a thumbs up. “Oh! Great! See you then!” He turned around and followed a now very, very suspicious Major Valeriy, his scarf high-fiving him.
Once the door closed, Vodyanitsa went back into overdrive. “WAS THAT A DATE?!”
“Was it?” Odette made herself a cup of tea.
“I don’t know!” Vodyanitsa put her hands on her cheeks. “He’s so freaking dense, but he’s so adorable too! AUGH! I CAN NEVER TELL WITH HIM!”
“Technically, he invited you to dinner. Alone.”
“THAT’S A DATE!”
“Possibly.”
“Odette! You’re not helping!” Vodyanitsa flopped down on the couch, laying on her back. “Wait a minute…”
“What now?”
“I have to get ready!”
“Yes.”
“For tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“WITH MITYA!”
“Yes.”
“I’M GOING TO DIE!” Vodyanitsa punched her shoulder. “Ouch! I’m not dreaming either! WHY?!”
“What did you do this time?” Valeriy sighed, exasperated. He couldn’t believe out of all the people he was forced to monitor, it had to be this airhead.
“What did I do?” Mitya repeated, completely confused, the scarf pointing at him. “Nothing! I just wanted to talk to Vodyanitsa and Odette!”
“You invited Vodyanitsa to dinner.”
“Yeah, because I didn’t get the chance to talk much with her!”
“Do you understand what you just did?”
“What?” Mitya put his hand to his chin and turned to the Major. “You think I should have invited Odette too?”
“No!” Valeriy pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you think she thinks you invited her for?”
“...Dinner?”
“Yes. Dinner. You two. Alone.” Valeriy restated, the obliviousness of one of the supposedly smartest people in Snezhnaya getting to him. “Do you know what people call that?”
“An evening meal?”
“Forget it.” Valeriy decided at this point, it was just better to give up.
“Alright.” Mitya shrugged, before his eyes suddenly lit up. “Hey, I have a question.”
“Of course you do.”
“How would you finish this sentence?” Mitya cleared his throat while his scarf raised its index finger up. “‘Whenever Mitya comes to see my performances, I can’t help but–’?”
Valeriy almost choked on air. “Might I ask where you heard that sentence?”
“It was in her notebook.”
“You read her notebook?!” Valeriy raised his hands, unable to hide the sheer shock on his face. “Do you know how much of a privacy violation that is?!”
“I didn’t know it was her notebook at first!” Mitya waved his hands in front of himself in defense. “I saw my name in it, so I got curious, and then this stupid scarf didn’t let me read it!”
“The scarf had good reason!”
“That’s not the point!” Mitya was starting to look increasingly frustrated. “I’ve been trying to figure it out since I read it, and I still have no idea.”
“She wrote about you in her notebook.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“We’re friends!”
“Mitya, listen to me.” Valeriy had finally snapped. There was no way that the scientist was figuring this one out himself. “She wanted to be alone with you and wrote about you in her diary, and you just asked her to dinner.”
“Yeah, what’s so–” Mitya froze, heat rushing to his cheeks as the scarf covered his mouth for him. “Oh no.”
“There we go, finally.”
“Did I ask her on a date?!”
“What do you think?”
“Maybe?!” Mitya started vibrating with fear, the scarf holding his notebook for him while he had a pen in his left and right hands and started frantically scribbling away. “What do you even do on a date?!”
“You’re asking me?”
“YES!”
“Have you ever been on a date?”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK?!”
“I haven’t either.”
“YOU’RE USELESS!” Mitya practically buried his face into his notebook for the next two minutes, writing down who knows what.
“Are you constructing a flowchart? For a date?”
Mitya looked at Valeriy with a crazed look in his eyes. “Yes Major Valeriy, yes I am.”
“What does it say?”
“First, after watching her performance tomorrow, I will pick her up and take her to Podvorye Restaurant.” Mitya explained, still writing down even more notes in the margins. “Then, after that, there are multiple possibilities. Since I will be the one talking to her, it makes sense that she will therefore respond. She could–Option A, ask about my research.” Mitya tapped his pen against the paper. “So that she doesn’t think I’m rambling, I will try to limit the discussion of my research to three minutes or less.”
“At least you’re self-aware…” Valeriy muttered to himself, before grabbing one of Mitya’s pens from his hand. “Whatever you do, do not reveal–”
“Confidential information, I know.” Mitya took his pen back and pointed at the next node in the flow chart. “Another possibility is that she won’t speak until I say something about her performance, which, of course I will, except, in order to maintain a good impression, I probably shouldn’t be focusing on my actual science notes and focus on the performance. That way, if she asks me a pointed question about it, I will be adequately able to respond. Hopefully.”
“Are you actually going to attempt to find every possible outcome?”
“More or less.”
“And do I have to listen to you talking aloud?”
“Yeah, unless, of course, I don’t have to go back to the Armory Palace and–”
“No! No more escaping!”
“Dang it.”
Vodyanitsa did not have it much better.
In fact, her only saving grace was the fact that she was more emotionally aware than the scientist who had just left her room.
As she started to go through every single outfit in her wardrobe, Odette lightly tapped her shoulder. “Vodyanitsa?”
“Odette! You’re back!” Vodyanitsa held up two outfits. “Which one?!”
“Hm…” Odette looked at the two choices. “This one.”
“Okay!” Vodyanitsa seemed thrilled to have someone to choose for her. “Wait.”
“What?”
“Has he seen me wear this one before?!”
“...Why would I know?”
“You’re my best friend!”
“I don’t monitor your outfit choices.” Odette looked through the wardrobe. “Besides, I don’t think he’ll even notice.”
“But I will!” Vodyanitsa threw the dresses on the ground and sighed. “Hey, Odette?”
“Yes?”
“What were you and Mitya talking about earlier?” Vodyanitsa fidgeted with her fingers. “Wait, he doesn’t like–”
“He invited you and not me, what do you think?” Odette was this close to bringing the scientist back here just to force them both to confess.
“He was trying to be nice?”
Odette wanted to facepalm herself, before she remembered she still had an ace up her sleeve. “He read your notebook.”
“HE WHAT?!” Vodyanitsa grabbed Odette’s shoulders and started to shake her. “WHY DID YOU LET HIM?! WHAT DID HE SEE?!”
“We thought it was a novel. He was curious.” Odette was completely unfazed. “And I thought you knew. Don’t you remember he tried to ask you something earlier?”
“Wait, wait, wait...” Vodyanitsa finally let go of Odette and ran for her notebook and frantically looked through it, before her eyes landed on the page. ‘Whenever Mitya comes to see my performances, I can’t help but–’ “AHHHHHH!!!”
“He didn’t finish reading the sentence. His scarf saved you.” Odette looked in her mirror as she adjusted her hair. “You should thank it.”
“Really?! Phew…” Vodyanitsa let out a sigh of relief. “Wait, NO! HE DEFINITELY KNOWS I LIKE HIM NOW! Did he ask you what the ending was?!”
“Yes.”
“DID YOU TELL HIM?”
“If I did, don’t you think he wouldn’t have bothered to ask you?”
“Good point. But…” Vodyanitsa started pacing around the room. “Knowing Mitya, he probably tried to guess the ending, didn’t he?!”
“You know him quite well.” Odette smiled. “He did. His guesses were that you got distracted or were curious whether he was listening.”
“Huh?” Vodyanitsa looked confused. “That’s all he thought of?”
“Yes.”
Vodyanitsa suddenly burst into a fit of giggles. “Hehehehe, he’s cute~”
“You’re hopeless.”
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
“AHH!” Vodyanitsa went back to hiding behind the curtain. “HOW’S MITYA BACK ALREADY?!”
“Mitya? This is Alyosha.” The voice from outside said. “I heard a lot of screaming though, is something wrong?”
“Oh!” Vodyanitsa ran to the door. “Hi Alyosha!”
Alyosha raised an eyebrow at all the clothes laying on the floor. “I don’t have to clean that up, do I?”
“No! It’s for, uh…” Vodyanitsa’s eyes lit up. “Hey, Alyosha, you’re a boy, right?”
“...Yes? Wait a minute.” Alyosha looked absolutely done, like he’s just dealt with this. “Is this why Mitya asked me what people are supposed to wear, eat, say, and do on a date?”
“...He knows.” Vodyanitsa grabbed Alyosha’s shoulders this time. “HE KNOWS!”
“Yeah, well, what’d you expect?” Alyosha tried to distance himself from the jumping girl, looking at Odette. “Please help.”
“I should be asking you for help.” Odette pried Vodyanitsa’s hands off Alyosha, finally giving him some breathing room. “I take it you’ve been wrapped up in this mess too?”
“Unfortunately.” Alyosha took one of the biscuits at the table. “With the way he was acting, you’d think he was planning a military operation. Then again, Major Valeriy is the one helping him out… So, what exactly happened?”
“If I had to guess…” Odette tried to piece the puzzle together. “Mitya invited Vodyanitsa out for dinner, not thinking much of it, until it finally hit him in the head that he had asked her on a date. Then, as expected, he started spiraling.”
“And what are you two doing?” Alyosha looked at the dresses on the floor. “You know he won’t care about what you’re wearing, right?”
“I CARE.” Vodyanitsa took Odette’s outfit choice from earlier and ran into the dressing room. “I’m gonna try this on! When I’m out, both of you tell me about my dress like Mitya would!” The door slammed shut.
“She’s taking this too seriously.” Alyosha muttered and shook his head before facing the ballerina. “The worst thing that could happen is if he gets a new idea and activates the Curse of Death again.”
“Don’t tell her that.” Odette glanced at the dressing room door. “She’s only going to worry more.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“We need a backup plan.”
“Agreed.” Alyosha nodded, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I’ll come work at the theater tomorrow. When Mitya comes to pick up Vodyanitsa, signal me. Then, we’ll both go to the restaurant and observe the situation.”
“Sounds simple enough.” Odette put a hand up to her chin. “And we have an inside person on our side.”
“We do?” Alyosha tilted his head. “You mean Major Valeriy?”
“No, he’d make it worse.” Odette raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. “We have his scarf on our side.”
“His scarf? You mean the weird hand thing?”
“Yes, the weird hand thing.” Odette’s eyes sparkled, already excited for the plan to unfold. “Now, we’re going to–”
“Okay!” Vodyanitsa stepped out of the room, spinning around once. “How do I look?”
Odette just smiled. “Beautiful.”
“Yeah.” Alyosha smirked, imagining the scientist’s reaction. “Mitya’s gonna forget how words work.”
“HUH?!” Vodyanitsa’s face turned bright red, again.
“What? You told me to answer like him.” Alyosha shrugged, before reaching into his pocket. “Oh, right, he also gave me this before he left. Wanted me to double-check it for him.”
“He wanted you to double-check something for him?” Odette furrowed her eyebrows. “I thought he was the smart one. What is it?”
“I don’t know, didn’t bother looking at it yet.” Alyosha held out the folded sheet of paper to Odette. “You can look at it if you’d like. I’m sure there’s no harm.”
“Ooh, what is it?” Vodyanitsa snatched the paper and sniffed it, earning a disgusted reaction from Alyosha. “Mm! Smells like lavender! Let’s open it!” She opened the paper, then instantly dropped it. “AHHHHH–”
“I think that gives me an idea on what this is about.” Odette picked up the dropped sheet of paper, before lifting a hand to cover her mouth, trying to stifle her laughs. “...It’s a flowchart. About what to do on a date.”
“Seriously?” Alyosha looked over Odette’s shoulder. “You’re kidding. Read it to her.”
“DON’T!” Vodyanitsa covered her ears. “Don’t spoil his plan! He must have worked hard on it!”
Somewhere in the Armory Palace, Mitya let out a sneeze Vodyanitsa surely would have called cute while he was rewriting the flowchart, again.
Valeriy just wondered how he was going to report this to the Jester.