XVII

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Second week of April 1923

-well, first week's last night and second week's first morning-

The journey to Hesse was being too long and slow.

They've just crossed the borders between Bavaria and Hesse and the night was falling, so they stopped in the first Hessian town they found.

Alexei had mixed feelings about arriving to Darmstadt, his mother's hometown. On one hand, he was looking forward to see someone of his family. On the other hand, that could depress him.

Gabri looked at him, trying to figure out his thoughts. But she knew it'd be related with his past. So, she decided to start looking that photo album from her mother. She entered in the room in the hotel they were staying in and closed the door.

She opened it. It had in the beginning a little map. It showed the whole Europe. Some countries - like Russia - were crossed out. In a little message, her mother said that "maybe she could consider it" when the time came, thinking in the crossed out countries.

When she turned the pages and found the first photo page, she saw that just rank, country, sex and birth date (with the year highlighted, she'd ignore the other numbers) were written down. As one of the first said "High noble, Lower Saxony, male, 1900". The photo showed a four-year-old boy - Gabri had to think that she took childhood photos, not the currents from the time her mother collected them - that seemed cute (well, as a child mostly anyone is cute)

During the first pages, there were photos of future noblemen and noblewomen of the German Duchies. From all the twelve. Including the Grand Princess of Schleswig-Holstein her parents tried to engage her brother with.

She started turning some more pages. The country changed. But still there were too many. Really her mother had thought in all of these people to marry her brother or her? Why couldn't she just listen to her when she said she'd marry for love - well, she had to admit that she read too many fairytales that ended with people marrying for love -?

She turned seeing children from Poland, the Baltics, Greece or Italy. Until she saw Russia. High nobles mainly. In the last page of Russia - the next two pages were about the UK - there were five photos.

Four were girls. In all written "Royal, Russia, female, 1895/1897/1899/1901" Alexei's sisters? Her mother had thought in making her brother a Grand Duke of Russia? No, Russia was crossed out. She said she'd consider it.

The fifth photo, the middle one, seemed a little girl. But it wasn't. The undertitle said clearly "Royal, Russia, male, 1904" It was...? She burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" A male young voice said. Gabri recognised it as Alexei's.

"Nothing" Gabri said

"Sure" Alexei said, sarcastically and later, the sound of drinking something.

"Don't be sarcastic" Gabri said

"In that case, tell me" Alexei said, talking near her ear. When she heard the first syllable of his sentence, she closed the photo album. She blushed and turned to see the Russian brownish blonde looking at her with her greyish blue eyes.

"No" she said

"Please" he said

"No" she repeated

"Please" he repeated too, this time with that cute tone he could put and sounded convincing.

"Alright" she sighed "This is a photo album that my mother made with all the possible..." she said "Fiancees for my brother and me. At first I thought my father had made that idea up but it wasn't"

"Is Russia in?" he asked

"Yeah, but crossed out. Meaning that my mother would maybe consider it, which in her language always means never" she said

"Oh... Always?" he said with a wide grin.

"Always" she assured "And why was I laughing? Well, who's this boy in here?" And opened the album in the page she was in, pointing to the middle photo.

Alexei stared at the photo.

"That's me when I was little" He said, cheerfully and childishly.

"Cute girly boy" Gabri said smiling.

"You say it in serious?" Alexei asked. Gabri nodded. The Russian left something in the table - Gabri noticed a bit its sound - and hugged her "Thanks" he said "Gabri, am I cute now?" That innocent question made Gabri shiver. Why was Alexei asking that? And why he was acting so childish now? She turned to see an empty glass in the table that she was sure that Alexei had left it there.

"Alex, what was in that glass?" She asked

"Which glass?" He said

"The one in the table" She was looking at him with seriousness.

"Ah, that?" He said "Vodka, why?"

Now she understood everything "Alyosha, you're drunk!" she said

"I'm not" he said

"You're" she said

"I'm not" he insisted

"You're and you'll see it" She said, staring into his eyes.

"Nyet" he said

"Each time you talk, it smells to alcohol, so don't tell me you aren't drunk 'cause you're" she said

"I'm telling you I'm not" he said

"You're and you'll go to bed" she said and grabbed him by his arms.

"Nyet, nyet, I don't wanna!" he protested, seeming like a little child. She dragged him to his room while his protests were now incomprehensible, after all he was protesting in Russian, and threw him to his bed.

"Go to sleep" she said, angry, holding his wrists together, trying for him not to get up from the bed.

"Nyet" he protested again

She sighed. Getting angry with him wouldn't go to anywhere.

"Sleep, Aly" she said, softly

The boy stared into her eyes "First, answer me"

"Answer what?" she asked

"Am I cute now?" He said.

Gabri sighed and stared into him "Yes, you're cute. Now to sleep"

"Fine..." he said with a tiny smile and wrapped the blankets around him, ready to fall asleep.

When he had fallen asleep, Gabri came back to her room. She was tired and she needed a good rest.

The following morning, Gabri decided that she needed to show Alexei that he had been drunk.

"Good morning, Aly" she said loudly, while entering in his room

"Oh, shut up" he said, visibly disturbed.

"Oh, let me guess... You have a headache... Or to be more exact, a hangover" she smiled

"Not gonna drink another drop of vodka in my life" he said

"Let's see if you do it" she smiled

"How do you know about it? If you were in your room while I was drinking" he asked

"It just seems like it" She lied "Remember something?"

"I went to see you as I heard you laughing, but I don't remember if I did" he said

"You didn't. I leave you alone, you need to rest" she said and left. Yeah, she had lied but there was no need to tell Alexei all what had happened last night.

Nyet = No (Russian)

The picture isn't mine and wasn't coloured by me. I'd like to say the colouring belongs to a certain Deviantart user, and I'll research the username soon (as all colouring of the Romanovs in Deviantart are real masterpieces!, so I can't pinpoint which artist has coloured it... Maybe livadialiliacs but not sure...) However, I give credit to whoever did it, because it's marvelous!

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