bewitch me (amid the bombs, amid the war)

A/N: hey people! let's ignore the fact that neither them nor their names are russian for this to work, lol. hope you like it!

--//--

The day is June 22nd of 1941. For most of the soviet people, a historical changing point, the birth of a war. For Lauren, a personal changing point, the birth of a purpose.

When you're nineteen years old and you work at a factory in Leningrad, without expecting ever doing anything else, purpose becomes something hard to find. Even harder, once found, is to hold onto it, to not let it escape, to not let it run away like water flows through the hands of those who try to hold it.

On that day, Lauren promised herself that she wouldn't let her purpose escape.

--//--

When Lauren tried to volunteer for the Soviet Union's Air Force for the first time, it was a sunny day.

Ironic, if the aura of desolation and fury of the people was taken into consideration.

Hundreds of teenagers and young adults were waiting, just like her, in the huge local recruitment line, trying to join the Air Force to make up for the damage caused by Germany. And as the hours passed by and her turn approached her, Lauren couldn't help the way she fell into the deep waters of her thoughts.

The whole thing had started innocently. Lauren's younger brother, Chris, had always idolized aviators and, having spent a big part of her childhood and teenage years looking after him and her baby sister, Taylor, she had eventually come to love aviation as well.

When Lauren heard of Marina Raskova for the first time, in 1935, both her and Chris had been so shocked and in awe of her that Lauren had decided to ask her parents to be part of Osoaviakhim, the Union of Societies of Assistance to Defense and Aviation-Chemical Construction of the USSR, a prestigious paramilitary organization, where she would learn everything about aviation. But she was only fourteen at the time and, even though it was allowed to join that early, her request had been quickly denied and it would continue to be so until her seventeenth birthday, when her parents finally said "yes" and let her become a member of the organization.

Chris had seemed to be torn between euphoria for seeing his sister so happy and despair for not being able to participate himself. He had even cried a little and Lauren had only hoped it was out of happiness, though she couldn't have known the feeling behind it.

Now, with a war breaking out and the Soviet Union in extreme need of pilots, Lauren proudly carried her membership medal, holding in firm hands the bag with all the paperwork that showed just how great she was. She knew she would qualify, that she was better than many of those who were there, better than most of them, probably.

Lauren also knew that her decision of volunteering was the reason why her mother, Clara, had cried compulsively for almost an hour, while her father, Mike, had almost had a stroke. They had all argued for an entire day until her parents realized that Lauren wouldn't give up on fighting for her country. The fighting had only gotten worse when Taylor insisted on going as well, but Lauren had to side with her parents then. She was a few days short of turning twenty, while her sister was only fifteen and had no experience in flying. It certainly wasn't her time to go to war.

As for Chris... He had been quiet, exceptionally quiet, when Lauren revealed what she wanted to do. Having always been very close to her brother, his reaction worried her, but she hadn't questioned him. One look had been strong enough for Lauren to know that he understood her. Later that day, Chris had cried again in her presence when they were alone, and that time, she had cried as well.