When We Were Young

Seventy-one:

Seventy-one:

Aleksander did the moving. Alina tried to help, but when Sunday rolled around, he basically let her tell her what was coming and what she was donating, and it wasn't much. "You're going to decorate our place, and you're going to let me spoil you while doing it. There's no limit, Starkov. We're going to make this place look like us. And you're going to let me take care of you, because you're pregnant with our baby and its your job to sit there and be lazy."

Alina sighed. "Has anyone ever told you that you are impossible?"

"You, multiple times," he said. "But I choose to believe 'you are impossible' is really code for 'I love you'."

Alina sighed. At that moment, she was sitting on the couch with her legs propped up while Aleksander finished bringing in her stuff. She had told Genya, who had sobbed about it but for some unknown reason had decided to let Zoya move in with her since her space would be free. Genya had already taken to calling herself 'Aunt Genya' and was very pro whatever baby Starkovoza needed. Even though she had been a little wary about everything happening so soon, but she said simply, "That's Aleks. He gets what he wants. He wants you."

"Can't you give me something I want sometimes?" Alina said.

"I could, if I thought it was good for you. I give you orgasms, for instance. But most of the time, you don't even think about yourself, you always do things for other people." He glanced over her as he placed down one of the boxes that he'd carried up the stairs. "I think that's one of the reasons I became obsessed with you. You helped Genya, you help Mal, you don't do anything for yourself. I wanted to watch you do something for yourself for a change. Tell me something."

Alina smiled over at him. "Tell you what?"

"If I wasn't with you, what would you have done? About the prince, and your family?"

Alina sighed. "I mean, that's the fairytale, right? Little orphan girl finds out she's the princess and gets to marry the handsome prince? That story practically writes itself but honestly I..."

"What?" he walked over and sat down on the couch next to her. "What is it? You can be honest with me, Alina. I won't judge you. You didn't judge me with all of my bullshit."

Alina sat up and took his hand in hers. "I'm still angry. I know they didn't approve of my parents, and I know my parents didn't want to be part of their toxic world. For a long time, it was just the two of us. Then, I was alone, and I didn't know why. When I was at the orphanage, I remembered my family. And my cousins. And I always insisted I wasn't an orphan, that I had family, and the other kids said that I was lying. Eventually, when no one came for me, I..."

She'd gone quiet, and there was a distant look in her eyes.

"What is it?" Aleksander asked. "You what?"

"I believed them," she said, "and there is nothing quite like believing that you are completely alone in the world. That was why when I became friends with Mal, I was so attached to him, because he was constant. Even when he got adopted, he was always with me. He went out of his way to make me part of his life but..."

"You still felt alone," Aleksander said.

Alina nodded. "It's hard to get over that kind of ache."

"Do you feel like that?" Aleksander asked. "Now, that you're with me?"

Alina shook her head. "No, when I'm with you, I feel like home. You're warm, and comforting, and I love everything about you. The dorm was the first home that was my own, but even that didn't feel permanent. This feels permanent. You, and me, and baby Starkovoza. I feel like I've finally found my place for the first time in my life. Even with some of the uncertainty."

Aleksander furrowed his brows together. "Uncertainty?"

"Yeah," said Alina, "I mean, just about my career prospects, and about being a mom...about you having to travel next year for the team."

Aleksander leaned over and pressed his forehead against hers. "You're going to be brilliant. It's all going to be brilliant. I promise you, okay?"

Alina laughed. "You always say that."

"Well, that's how it works Starkov. I promise you something and you get it."

"Rich boy," she muttered affectionately.

Aleksander smirked, cupped her face, and kissed her. "You wouldn't have me any other way."

"No, I wouldn't," she said, "at least one of the parents should be optimistic so the kid doesn't become a complete and total fuck up."

"I've got optimism for the both of us," said Aleksander, "we've got a lot to worry about, but we've got a lot to be grateful for."

 "Yeah," she said, "we do."