Igor had absolutely no idea what to expect for Felicity Valley. Danny and Mae had described it...strangely, to put it lightly. I mean, it was the place they'd spent the overwhelming majority of their childhood, running around, making friends, becoming angsty teens, skateboarding, winning gymnastics awards and not being spies who may or may not have had blood on their hands, we don't know, you can't prove anything.
But then again, the people they described there were strange. There was Brendon, a raging misogynist who Danny punched on at least two occasions. There was Clover, who was a drug addict. There was Samantha, who was just all around weird, they had literally found her and her brother sleeping in a church for fuck's sake, but apparently she took down a cult so that was cool. Then there was Jason, Samantha's brother, who had been found by his sister in their shared apartment with two bullets in his body; one to the head, one to the heart.
Danny had been the one to bring it up to him. The sisters had always talked about going back to Felicity Valley someday, but he couldn't tell if they were joking or not. Then, one day, about two months ago, Danny showed up to Igor's house. He let her in, they chatted for a bit, ate some food together, she stepped outside to call Mae and then came back in and sat him down in his living room.
"Me and Mae are leaving," Is what they said. "We're going back to Felicity Valley here within the next few months. I know you won't tell anyone, regardless of your answer to this next question, I know you're not that kind of guy. But, as much as you are a pain in my ass, you're one of my closest friends and I wouldn't trade that for the world. So, would you be willing to come with us?"
He didn't answer at first.
He knew she was right about him telling no one, that much was true.
But going with them?
Leaving Russia?
He'd grown up here his entire life. Hell, his dad had more or less conditioned him from the moment he could talk to someday work for the military or government. He was a spy, for fuck's sake, it's what he did.
This goofy lil' white boy had blood on his hands.
He'd been in America before a few non-espionage times, when visiting his uncle and cousins. His dad would only hit him in private when they were visiting them. But he hadn't seen them since he was, what, twelve?
In all honesty, maybe Igor had never really wanted to work for the government, he just felt that that was what was expected of him. That's exactly how Danny and Mae felt too.
And yeah, these girls were some of his closest friends, they were like sisters to him, he would do anything for them. Sure, Danny was constantly getting pissed of at him (and Mae), and for good reason, he was pretty stupid, but at the end of the day, they were all friends and that was great.
Maybe he saw himself in them.
Maybe they saw themselves in him.
Whose to say, really?
But, regardless, he didn't want to lose them. He knew if they went back, that was that. They'd never speak again, he wouldn't ever hear from them again. It'd be too dangerous, as if going back there wasn't dangerous enough on it's own.
These girls didn't seem to care if it was dangerous. These girls didn't seem to care that there was a pretty good chance they were to be hunted down by the Russian government and, for lack of a better word, subsequently Jason'ed.
If he went, the same thing could probably happen to him.
"I'll think about it," Was the response Igor gave at the time.
-
Three whole days of careful consideration later, Igor knocked on the door to the sisters' shared apartment. They shared an apartment because the two were all they had still. They'd had some pretty major abandonment issues, still, despite it being ten years since leaving their childhood home. They found it hard making new friends. Everyone else at work, minus Igor, was just a fellow associate. Half of them, they didn't even know their first names.
Mae opened the door, smiled and let Igor in.
He sat down on their couch and Danny sat next to him, meanwhile Mae sat crisscross applesauce on the floor in front of them.
"I'll go with you," Igor said.
