ticket to the moon

Mikhail was walking, with no aim or destination. It was a windy day, but he didn't care about it. It was time to get out of his uncle and aunt's house for a while.

As he strolled along the riverside, he stopped dead. The girl with her back turned to him looked utterly familiar. In fact, she looked like Annaelle. No, it couldn't be. The last time he'd heard from Annaelle, she was in Ukraine, and that was many years ago. She couldn't possibly be back. No, it wasn't her.

But some part of Mikhail made his legs move, heading right toward her. Faster and faster he walked.

"Excuse me?" the Hrabrost said.

Annaelle gazed at the riverside, chin on her hand and elbows propped on the railing, her expression blank as she thought about what the next step was. She couldn't fuck it all up, there had to be something she could do. She had two ways out of it, she just needed to figure out what was her best escape. At the sound of a familiar voice, though, all her thoughts slipped out of her mind. That voice. She hadn't heard that voice in forever. It had matured, but she was sure it was still the same.

The girl's indifferent expression turned into one of pure joy and excitement. She wanted to turn, but hesitated. What if it wasn't him? She'd be crushed, had she gotten her hopes up for nothing? Curiosity got the best of her, however. She knew that voice. It had to be him. "Mikhail?" she asked.

Mikhail frowned. Had he gotten the wrong person? It- he had his hopes up. She had to be the right one. He- he didn't know what to do if he was wrong. Not before now had he realized how much he needed her there.

Did she say something? Mikhail couldn't tell. "A-Annaelle?"

It was him. He'd said her name, it had to be him. Annaelle turned around and nearly tackled him to the ground in a bone-crushing hug. "Mikhail!" she exclaimed as she pulled away, her eyes watery from pure joy at seeing her best friend again, "I-I can't believe it. It's really you."

She felt like she was nine again. Running through the woods with him, playing together, both the freaks, the lonely kids. Best friends.

He bit his lip, but then she had turned. There was no doubt in his mind. This was Annaelle. Mikhail stumbled when she almost tacked him down, and then she was hugging him, very hard. "Uh, hey." He grinned at her. "Yeah, it's really me. I missed you. Are you back now?"

It may have sounded childish, but he'd never forgotten her. Chasing Annaelle as she zoomed through the trees, faster than a rocket.

Annaelle nodded enthusiastically, feeling happier than she had ever been in the past few months. "I'm back, hopefully for good," she told him, but her smile fell, just a bit, before beginning the other part, "My, uh, my sister... she-she died a few months ago. And my parents, they're taking it really hard, so they just wanted to start over. Now we're back."

"Oh God, I've missed you so much," she exclaimed before hugging him once again. She pulled away and messed up his hair, just something she used to do at times when they were younger, "But tell me, Mik, what've you been up to all these years, huh?"

"Good," Mikhail smiled, but his smile fell as well at her next words. He wasn't entirely sure what to think, as it had never seemed like Annaelle and Nataliya had been very close. Still, it was her sister and he felt like he needed to show some sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

He laughed and hugged her back, but cringed away when she messed up his hair. "Hey!" Mikhail chuckled softly. "Not very much interesting. I mean, there wasn't really very much to do here. Most of the time, I was just stuck in my room."

"What about you, Annaelle?" the Hrabrost asked. It felt good to say her name again, finally. When she moved, Mikhail thought he'd never have to say it again.

Annaelle shrugged and smiled softly, "It's alright. I was devastated at first, but moving on is the best thing to do. I mean, we all knew it was going to happen eventually, with the illness and all that." She bit her lip and looked down, "We weren't very close, you know that, but Nataliya was a good person."

"Oh, but now that I'm back you'll have lots to do. I'll keep you busy, do you even doubt it? You'll have to show me around again, a lot's changed since I was last here."

"Nothing much. Ukraine is awfully boring if you ask me," she stated with a chuckle.

Mikhail nodded. "Yeah, I guess so." He hadn't met Nataliya very many times, but she had definitely seemed very nice. He'd liked her. "Yeah, I know."

Briefly, the Hrabrost wondered what happened after death. His parents had both died in a lab accident when Mikhail was very young, so he liked to think that there was a place where they had not been in the building when it exploded. They were safe in that place, he thought.

"Yeah," he smiled. "I don't doubt that at all."

Mikhail laughed softly. "Probably."

"What about our old school, though?" Annaelle asked, changing the topic of their conversation, "Are you still studying there?"

She leaned both her elbows on the railing behind her and smirked, "Did you become friends with any of those idiots who used to make fun of us or call us freaks?" She would've loved to see them again, now. Now that she had matured, now that she had become a different person. A better person. Someone who was capable of doing things they didn't even imagine.

"Uh," Mikhail frowned. He didn't really want to tell her about Durmstrang. Annaelle probably didn't know anything about it. "No, I'm not."

He shook his head., "I think you know me too well to actually think that I did, hm? Nah, they sort of continued making fun of me and stuff, but it was better than before." He shrugged, happy that he hadn't seen any of them since he got taken out of school.

Annaelle's face fell a bit, for the shortest moment. It was where her parents were planning on putting her, but she could always convince them to change schools. She voiced that thought and added, "It'd be nice studying with you again, especially since I never got along well with anybody from that old place." She asked, "Where are you studying, then?"

She shook her head, "They were such idiots, amazing how these people were the same age as us and yet we were infinitely more mature."

"Yeah, well," Mikhail shrugged. When the dreaded question came, he knew that he didn't really have time to hesitate. "Oh, just some boarding school for kids with... Problems like mine." He gestured to his ears. "Y'know?" Mikhail didn't like lying to her, but there wasn't really much else to say.

"I know," he agreed.

Annaelle's face fell again, there was no way she could join that same boarding school. If she had paid more attention, she'd know he was lying, for whatever reason. But this was Mikhail, she didn't bother using any of it on him. Why would he lie to her, anyway?

"Oh," she said with a slightly nod, and shrugged, "It's okay, I guess it'll be nice to see our old classmates. . . Anyway, how do you like it there? Made many friends?"