[Rybinsk] She's poison but tasty (Aglaya)

Open days at the artistic flying school were always something Nastya looked forward to. It was nice to have a more chill event after the stress of Nationals and Europeans. It was also great to capture the attention of those interested in the sport and encourage young athletes to join the school. Nastya loved seeing new students, and the school grow.

Nastya was on the second ‘shift’ of demonstrations in the main practice arena itself, having taken over from Liza almost an hour ago. Since then, she’d been flying constantly as various groups of people came in to watch and leave ten minutes later, whilst Andrey sat on his own broom instructing and guiding her. However, Nastya found training not realistic at all. Andrey didn’t yell at her during open days. He had no reason to, Nastya was technically flawless as usual and confident while she had so many eyes on her. She enjoyed hearing the gasps of awe coming from the stands as the visitors watched her.

“Split sequence, Nastya, jump higher!” Her coach called from his higher position, as Nastya flew to the top of the pattern she’d been performing. Slightly nodding, she nimbly hopped onto the first platform and remained backwards as she maneuvered the broom slightly higher. Jumping half a turn in an over-split position, Nastya landed on her left leg on the other platform, with a leg hold turn back to forwards before repeating the same on her other leg three times in a row. She smiled as she finished, split jumps were her favourite.

“Nastya, enough.” She heard, and let her broom go a metre from the ground before flipping off to land on the ground and catch the broom in her hand. Nastya put her hand on her heart and bowed her head to the crowd of people clapping with a bright smile, pleased they liked her finishing touch. Andrey helped her put her jacket on and gave Nastya her drinks bottle, before shooing her away. She pulled on her trainers over her favourite lilac catsuit before waving to the people still watching.

As the group dispersed, Nastya ran on over to her older sister with a smile. “Aglayka!” She greeted her cheerfully. “How did it go? See any good potentials?” Nastya asked, as she took another sip of her drink, her breathing still slightly laboured from her hour of training. “It’s your turn to fly now, you have fifteen minutes before then, I think.” She told her, with a hesitant smile.

Open days at the flying school were scary. Aglaya didn't mind interacting with fans per se and, of course, she found it flattering to meet cute little kids that came running to her to tell her how they wanted to be like her when they grew up, how they admired her skills and how pretty they thought she was. It could get a little too much but an open day was literally just a single day and she could deal with the intense flattering quite well. She'd just put on a professional little smile, thank the kids, tell them that they were sweet, ruffled through their hair or patted their back… it was an easy task. What was more scary was the other part of the term open day - the school was really open to anyone then and, having a stalker who wrote her more and more disturbing letters with fantasies of her getting injured, disfigured, even killed, was not really making her feel at ease.

Aglaya had already been nervous the day before the open day and when she arrived at the school an hour before the official beginning, she was anxiously looking around for a guy that could possibly be her stalker. She wasn't sure if she had ever properly seen him. She had occasionally spotted a man with a camera following her around and assumed that that might be him but as he had always held the camera in front of his face she had never been able to properly identify him. Anyone could be him, after all.

Having arrived early at the flying school meant that she had the chance for a little chat with Aleksandra Viktorovna. The athlete was debating getting back to having a coach and had been testing the waters with her former coach and great aunt. While it was bound to be difficult for several reasons she was tempted to give it another try. She had also spoken to Veronika the day before but apparently the slightly older witch still held a grudge against her for having dethroned her all these years ago. Aglaya hadn't really been aware of her still being so upset after so much time had passed. Veronika had also indicated that she thought that Nastya's consistency was admirable and should be valued more. Although she had not outright refused to work with Aglaya she had dropped enough hints to give Aglaya an impression of what the other woman thought about her and she figured it would probably not have the desired effect if she worked with her.

Relieved that Aleksandra wasn't entirely opposed to working with her, Aglaya hurried into the changing room, getting into her teal catsuit, which was her second favourite behind the golden one. She slipped into golden sneakers and put a black hoodie over her catsuit. She had already applied some make up earlier and her red curls were falling down her back. She wondered briefly if she should tie her hair up but she preferred wearing it down and there would still be a chance to make a bun or ponytail before she'd have to start her demonstration on the broom.

Her first task at the open day was to show a group of kids around and guide them to the gym where they could climb onto a balance beam that was particularly designed for artistic flyers. She showed the kids some simple moves and assisted them when they tried to repeat them. She laughed softly when one boy told her to give her a proper broom already. “I'll show you a move and if you can repeat that without falling off the beam I'll get you a broom, okay?” she told him and demonstrated an easy sequence of little jumps. Naturally the inexperienced kid did not manage it and Aglaya approached him again, telling him that if he convinced his mother to sign him up for the flying class she'd assist him personally when it came to selecting the right broom. After she had dealt with the group, she gave autographs and posed for photos with the kids. A little girl had just pulled on her sleeve and asked her to bend down to her to whisper in her ear that she wanted to be exactly like Aglaya in the future and said that she had a huge poster of Aglaya's backflip in her room. Although she had heard things like that countless times it was still heart warming to hear such a thing, particularly because Aglaya often felt that nobody really cared about her. That this innocent little girl looked up to her felt reassuring.

When the group was just moving on to the next area of the school, Nastya approached Aglaya. The older Tikhomirova waved at the little girl again, offering her a little smile before turning to her sister. “Hey Nastya,” Aglaya responded, “well, I can't really tell after the brief time I saw them but there are some kids in this group who at least have the desire to get into the sport.” She shrugged. “That girl there is absolutely adorable but I'm afraid she's not exactly champion material. However, I'm pretty certain she'll convince her parents to start here.” She did not want to sound judgemental but it was a fact that the girl had barely managed to walk on the beam and while practice clearly made perfect, she doubted that she would get to the point where she could perform jumps on a broom that moved through the air.

Aglaya frowned slightly when she heard her sister announce when it would be her turn. “Did they change the schedule again?” she asked, sounding slightly irritated. “Last time I checked I had half an hour after the group would move on to prepare for my demonstration in the main practice area. They don't really want to give me enough time for a proper warm up, do they?” She was quite displeased but tried to sound as casual as possible while keeping a neutral expression. She had already done a little warm up before showing the kids moves on the beam but she usually did a lot more in preparation for a proper performance on her broom.

"How did your demonstration go?" It wasn't often that Aglaya asked her sister such a thing but even though she wanted to have a proper warm up before showing her free program to the crowd in the main arena, she also needed to talk to her sister about the coaching situation. Since they rarely got a chance for a proper conversation she felt she could fit it in now after a minimum of small talk. After all, there wasn't a lot to discuss. If Aleksandra was willing to take her again and she as the current world and European champion wanted it then her sister had no say in this anyway. Nonetheless it felt only fair to inform her in advance.

"Well, that's great!" Nastya replied with a smile, "It'll be good to see the school grow again." She looked for the little girl Aglaya was describing and soon found her animatedly talking with her parents with exaggerated gestures and a big beam on her face. Her parents seemed to be lapping up whatever narrative she was telling them, so she was convinced that Aglaya was right that the girl's parents would be easily swayed. Though she started addressing her sister again, Anastasiya couldn't help but keep her eyes on the cute girl with an amused smile on her face. "Ah, you never know, her talent might surface later on." She began, looking at her elder sister again. "It's been known to happen. As long as she's a hard worker, then I think she'll fit in fine." She shrugged, trying to not show that she had taken a shine to the bubbly little witch. "I hope we'll see her around, she looks sweet."

Nastya stepped back from Aglaya, frowning in surprise at her sister's sudden irritation. She didn't really think open days had ever quite stuck to the original plan, and the artistic flyer definitely didn't think their grandparents really did it on purpose. After all, Nastya had only been given twenty minutes herself to warm up, and that wasn't much of a difference. "I... could be wrong?" Anastasiya hesitated, unsure how to reassure Aglaya. "But I know they shortened quite a few breaks throughout the day, early this morning as I arrived. My own included in that..." She shrugged again. "I wouldn't take it personally."

Blinking in shock, Nastya stammered. She was surprised Aglaya even cared how her demonstration went enough to actually ask her. Most of the time, their conversations were usually quite frosty. "Quite well, I think," she replied, after a few moments. "The crowd was certainly decent, at the very least. And if Andrey Viktorovich was angry at me for anything, he didn't show it." She paused, smiling to herself. "Though I guess he never does on open days... I'm sure I'll hear about any errors tomorrow."

“I agree,” Aglaya said, “the numbers of new registrations should go up every year and with an open day we can achieve that.” She definitely found open days to be a good way to get new sign ups for the school even if she personally despised this event. It was good for the school and, therefore, the multiple-time champion was willing to give her best to make it a success.

“Oh yes, she's an adorable kid. Quite a fan already,” she smiled, not expanding on whether the girl was a fan of artistic flying or of her personally. Probably it was both anyway. However, she didn't want to irritate her sister before she got a chance to tell her about the coaching situation.

“You're probably not wrong at all,” Aglaya stated, trying to sound relaxed when she was still feeling a slight irritation. “It can't be changed now but they always tell us how important a proper warm up is and then that...” she sighed and then smiled. “It's not really important now. I'll handle it.”

Aglaya wondered how she could tell her sister that they might soon be sharing their coach as she only half listened to her sister's response regarding how her demonstration went. “I'm glad it went well. That's always the best advertisement,” she said, hoping to sound genuine.

“Before I warm up now, I've got one thing I'd like to talk to you about,” she began, looking straight into her sister's eyes. “You know that I've competed without a coach this season… Even successfully...” she went on, thinking that she needed some sort of introductory phrase before getting straight to the point. “However, I don't think that will work out long term and, therefore, I've been talking to Aleksandra Viktorovna. She said that she is willing to work with me and I want her to coach me again. However, I wanted to inform you before we make it official. It just didn't feel fair not to give you the information in advance.”

"Yes, exactly," Nastya nodded, "If the numbers keep the same throughout the day from what I've seen so far, I think we'll definitely have the most registrations to date!" She smiled, optimistic that this was the case and also happy she and Aglaya seemed to be on the same page.

"Good..." Nastya's smile grew tense. She assumed her sister meant that the young girl was a fan of the flying school, but with Aglaya she could never really tell. She thought her elder sister was vain enough to forthrightly claim the girl was a fan of hers (whether she really was or not).

A sigh of relief escaped Anastasiya's lips as it was clear that Aglaya didn't blame her for the lack of warm-up time. The younger of the two sisters laughed bitterly. "Ugh, tell me about it." She rolled her eyes slightly. "I didn't even have time to do my warm-up patterns when I got on the broom before he was like 'oh, Nastya do the scorpion spin, there are people watching!'" She made a mocking tone, clearly attempting to imitate Andrey and smiling at her own impression. Her back actually hurt a little from the sudden strain on her flexibility, and she thought she might see her mother at the end of the day to get her to help soothe it.

"Oh, thank you... that's very sweet of you. I hope yours goes well for you too." Nastya replied, not expecting such a nice sentiment to come from her older sister.

Aglaya's tone changed, and the sudden and intense eye contact made Nastya extremely uncomfortable, worrying where her sister was going to go with her train of thought. "Uh-huh," she urged Aglaya to go on, mid-way through. As soon as she did though, Nastya wished she'd made her stop. "Oh..." Her elder sister wanted to be coached by Aleksandra again. Of course she did, Nastya thought. Nothing ever went her way for very long, and it was usually Aglaya who caused it. She was going to be coached by Aleksandra (and Andrey, but that point was moot). Why did her sister always have to come in and steal her thunder, every single time? Why did the family always make it about Aglaya? Nastya was personally offended that the arrangement had occurred behind her back. If Aleksandra was so willing to coach Aglaya again, did that mean that she was so inferior to her? So terrible?

The drinks bottle in her hand suddenly seemed like an ideal projectile to launch at her sister's annoying, stupid face. But, Anastasiya was sensible enough to realise that she had to be careful. People were still around, and they would be able to see and hear an altercation if it occurred, and throwing a bottle at her sister's face probably wouldn't look too good to the media. Nastya puffed out some air, throwing a bottle was not advisable. While Nastya considered the implications, she didn't really have to say anything to Aglaya about how she felt, as the colour completely draining from her face did all the talking for her.

"And you... you didn't think that it would have been, just maybe, fairer to ask if I was okay with it first?" Her voice was quiet and low, but shaking with rage. She huffed again, her hand gripping her metal drinks bottle in a vice grip and shaking. "I mean, what am I supposed to do now? Huh?" Nastya shrugged her shoulders aggressively. "Father won't be happy about us sharing a coach, that I can promise you." She shook her head, turning away from her sister, not thinking she got contain herself any longer if she looked Aglaya in the eye. "And, it'll be me that has to change. Because I always have to make way to you." Her eyes stung, feeling like a stray cat just tossed by the riverbank. Anastasiya sighed, trying to bottle up her emotions just like she had been doing for over a decade. She managed to vaguely suppress them as she puffed air again and turned to face her sister with a shadow of a smile. "Whatta time to tell me too..."

“Yes, I agree. It seems to be a successful day for the school,” Aglaya said, smiling slightly. At least it was good for the school even if it felt like torture to her for most of the time.

She could tell that her sister did not like the idea of the little girl being a fan. Did she immediately interpret it that way that the girl was Aglaya's fan? And did that really matter to her sister? Did she keep a list of who had how many fans? Aglaya felt that she might have the bigger number of fans but that most of hers didn't really know her while her sister's fans had probably talked to Nastya at some point and considered her a lovely person. Not for the first time Aglaya was afraid to lose fans to her sister if they actually knew them both. She just wasn't as good with people as the younger Tikhomirova.

“That's just not good at all,” Aglaya said, frowning slightly. “They should let us make the schedule.” Usually the family was playing it safe, not wanting to risk injury or anything, really. At open days, though, they seemed to forget about their own standards, rushing their top athletes through their performances without a proper warm up.

“Thank you,” Aglaya said, smiling at her little sister. “I'm sure it'll be great. I'm looking forward to performing my Carmina Burana free program again in front of an audience. It gives me goosebumps. I really love that program. Actually I'm sad that the season is over and I will have to create a new program...” Her voice trailed off and a dreamy smile spread across her face. “I guess the audience will appreciate seeing it again,” she added, aware that especially the reference to the audience might annoy Nastya.

It didn't take a lot of sensitivity to realise that her sister did not like the idea of Aglaya getting back to working with Aleksandra. The older Tikhomirova wondered why that was the case. She was not taking her coach away. While she would prefer it if Aleksandra was working only with her, she could share the coach with her sister. It was not ideal, of course, but it could work.

For a moment Aglaya was worried that her sister might lose it and throw something at her or at least yell. However, it seemed like Nastya was determined to stay professional. Aglaya turned her face down now, not wanting to look at her sister who was quite obviously more than just a little upset. What should she do though? She had spoken to Veronika first, their only real alternative, but the former champion had made it quite clear that she was not going to help her. Should she stay without a coach just to spare her sister's feelings?

“Nastya,” Aglaya said, feeling tense and uncomfortable. “You cannot demand that Aleksandra Viktorovna only coaches you. I can compete without a coach but it's really difficult to be alone with all the organisational things. If you must know,” she took a deep breath trying to calm down. She wanted her voice to sound relaxed and normal but she could tell she did not fully manage that. “I've asked Veronika first. She… Well, never mind. It's not the time to talk this through, you're right. I'm sorry I brought this up now but Aleksandra wanted to include it in the next school newsletter and I wanted to talk to you first… I do not do this to spite you. I don't care if you believe me or not but it's the truth.”

At this the redhead turned around. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second before walking away. There were barely five minutes left for her warm up and she intended to perform the competition version of her free program. She needed to quickly do some stretching and clear her mind so this would work out well.

When it was time for her performance, Andrey announced her like he had used to do in the past and it was comforting to hear praise from her grandfather again. He told the audience about her titles, her back flip, told them how her free program was a highlight in the artistic flying history and Aglaya immediately felt ready.

She put all her pent up feelings into her routine now. With a lot of energy and expression she started the free program that, only weeks ago, had brought her another European title. She had to force herself not to overdo it. The emotions that she could keep in check so well off her broom broke free now. She could tell by the reaction of her audience that she was really reaching them with her performance. The fact that the difficult sequence of two back flips in combination with some easier jumps and steps worked perfectly fine just made her even more confident. Towards the end of her program she removed her hair tie and let her red curls fall down her back. She loved it when her hair was wild during an expressive performance like this but she couldn't do anything like that in competition. Here, however, it had the desired effect.

As she ended her program she received standing ovations from the crowd and, with a rather satisfied smile, she bowed, landing right next to Andrey who announced that she'd be back for another demonstration later.

Aglaya bowed yet again, first to Andrey, then to the crowd and shouldered her broom to get into the office. She wanted to check what was next on her schedule. She had a feeling that she was supposed to stay in the office and organise the sign ups for a while to give other athletes of the school a chance to shine.

Nastya nodded her head in agreement, she agreed that the athletes themselves should definitely have a say in the timetable so they could set their limitations. "I'm sure they'll just lap your program up, as usual." Her voice was acidic and Nastya's eyebrows furrowed so deeply they almost touched. She knew Aglaya probably did it on purpose, but she couldn't help being wound up by it, her sister was very good at pushing all the wrong buttons.

Anastasiya started pacing up and down as Aglaya tried to reason with her and Nastya was annoyed because her elder sister actually made some good points, and she, therefore, had to agree with Aglaya to a degree. "I know, but..." She whined, but was drowned out by her elder again. Veronika? Nastya's eyebrows shot up and she turned to face Aglaya. "Veronika?" She muttered, mainly to herself. If she'd ended up going back to Aleksandra, then Veronika must have turned Aglaya down. Interesting... Nastya thought, wondering why this was the case. Her eyes light up as she suddenly came up with an idea that could solve the messy situation... or make it worse, but she was optimistic it would be the former.

If she went to Veronika after the end of the open day, and explained her side of the story and of the situation in general, maybe she would take her on as a student? Nastya figured, if Aleksandra was willing to not even tell her that her biggest rival was soon to be coached by her again, then Nastya decided she didn't really want Aleksandra coaching her in the first place. She clearly didn't have her best interests at heart. Her intense anger was suddenly all forgotten as her sister had inadvertently provided an excellent opportunity. Especially, since she really did believe that her sister wasn't intending to be mean. Aglaya was the type of woman who, in Nastya's eyes, would be explicit and outright if she had a problem with her.

By the time Nastya had formulated enough of a plan, her sister had already turned around and started walking away. "Wait, Aglayka! Thank you... for telling me first." Anastasiya didn't stick around, heading down to the main entrance as Aglaya left for her demonstration. She met a group of young children with their parents with a bright, warm and friendly smile, though her heart wasn't really in it after the news she'd received. However, Nastya remained ever professional and didn't let this show as she lead the group on a tour through the main facilities and gently encouraged the parents to register their excited children. She couldn't however, stop thinking about going to Veronika and officially asking her to coach her. She wasn't sure whether her mother and father (or Andrey himself) would approve, but Anastasiya realised she was a grown-up now and could make her own decisions and thought this was a risk worth taking. She needed a new perspective to help her beat Aglaya, the ever-reigning champion of everything ever, and if Veronika refused to coach her sister, Nastya figured that she would be willing to be part of her defeat.

The tour was over as soon as it started when she was in her own head, and as parents started milling about with registration forms a sudden tap on her shoulder and the call of her name made Nastya jump. "Yes?" She urged the gentlemen in question who had now side-stepped around her and faced her in person. It was difficult to give him the attention he deserved however, as a few eager young children and parents waved forms in her face. A box of pralines were presented to her as he smiled. Nastya tried to tune out the people as she smiled back in return, his voice was super friendly in tone and at first appearances it seemed as though the pralines were for her. She was initially flattered, despite the fact she didn't actually like pralines all that much. Then he said he was a 'superfan' of her elder sister and that the pralines were, in fact, for her and he wondered if she'd be so kind as to give them to her. Nastya wanted to crush the box and set him ablaze, but instead she took the pralines with a grateful nod. "Of course, I am sure she'll love them. Thank you." Nastya said cordially.

She placed the box under her arm and collected the few forms that needed to be collected, then Nastya thanked the crowd and wished them a good day before briskly walking over to the office. She had hoped to destroy the box on the way, but the corridors always had at least one witness so she couldn't. Pushing open the office door, Nastya placed the forms down on the desk with a loud slap as she noticed her elder sister. "Here, Aglayka, these are apparently for you. Enjoy them," Nastya bitterly and sarcastically smiled at her as she shoved the box into her sister's chest.

Before Aglaya could really have a chance to antagonise her bad temper further, Nastya left the office and stormed up to the main arena. She had an hour for a lunch break and she knew little Zina was doing her demonstration with Aleksandra and Nastya wanted to show her support. The former champion hoped that her relative would fly well and calm her down. However, she barely got to even sit down in the arena before a timid older witch came up to her hesitantly to beg her pardon and ask for a registration form.

Having completed her performance, Aglaya finally found the time to think about her conversation with her sister. Now that she had the time to interpret it a little, she thought that Anastasiya had taken the news comparably well. She could tell that Nastya was not pleased and that was only fair. Nobody wanted to share their coach with their biggest rival. It was bound to be problematic for the athletes and the coach.

Aglaya noticed though that the mention of Veronika had helped her case. She assumed that her sister was now intrigued by the idea of asking Veronika herself. It would probably feel a little like a victory to Nastya – if she couldn't win major competitions against her, she could at least get a coach that had refused to work with her. Well, Aglaya didn't really care. She thought that her sister's problem was nothing that either Andrey, Aleksandra or Veronika could actually solve. In fact she had a feeling that she might be able to help Nastya improve but as long as they were competing against each other that was nothing she'd want to find out.

Nastya's thanks meant that she had been right to address the topic with her sister. It was not like Aglaya to keep such a thing a secret and let her rival find it out in the newsletter. It wasn't fair and she didn't need to be sneaky. She could simply inform her and it was not her business what Nastya made of it in the end. She did not intend to become Aleksandra Viktorovna's Siamese twin if she was coached by her again. She was mainly aiming for support at competitions as it felt very challenging to deal with everything there alone. In every day's practice she only needed someone to occasionally watch her to check if she was not slacking. There was always the risk of tiny little mistake growing into a real problem if nobody spotted it in time.

She did not, however, need anyone to create her a choreography and tell her how to interpret a program. That was something that came naturally to Aglaya. She did not even want input on her music selections. It was her career with her programs… She needed no influence there. Besides she did not need extra motivation to work hard either. She rather did too much than too little anyway.

As she was just going through a pile of signed forms, the door of the office swung open and her sister stepped in. Briefly Aglaya wondered, if they'd continue their earlier conversation and if Nastya felt better or worse now that she had had a moment to let the news sink in. By the look of her face and the sound of her voice, the older Tikhomirova could tell that something was not to Nastya's liking. Apparently someone had approached her to play the messenger for a fan. Aglaya could understand how that did not go down well with her sister. However, she felt that she was not to blame for the thoughtlessness of some random fan.

She just wanted to respond to her sister and comment on her attitude when Nastya already stormed out again. She shook her head as the door fell shut again and looked at the box of pralines. While the young woman was not too fond of sweets per se, these looked like particularly fine ones. Thinking that one single praline would not be a big problem and would certainly not ruin her figure, she opened the box. There was a distinctive smell of dark chocolate coming from the box and the redhead picked a praline right from the middle between her thumb and forefinger. She put it into her mouth and felt how the chocolate melted on her tongue. The taste was intense but not quite what she had expected. She swallowed and was just contemplating to try a heart shaped praline when she realised that something was not quite right.

All of a sudden she felt sick and dizzy. She choked, got to her feet, thinking that maybe the praline had just been too sweet on a more or less empty stomach and wanted to get herself a glass of water. However, as she made a few steps forward, her vision faded out and it became difficult to breathe. Something clearly was wrong. The pralines her sister had given her… They had to be the reason for this sudden sickness. She tried to make it to the door to get help but only made it halfway there before she collapsed in the middle of the room.

She lay on the floor, unable to move. Her head felt as though it was exploding any second. She was bathed in cold sweat. There was more saliva than usual in her mouth. Aglaya was shivering, her skin white as a sheet. As seizures started, the young witch who usually was in perfect control of her body panicked. She wanted to scream but the mere attempt made her feel like she was suffocating.

Initially annoyed by the interruption, Nastya just wanted one moment of peace and quiet before anymore drama happened that open day. However, the older lady looked nervous to be approaching her and extraordinarily sweet and so Anastasiya couldn't help but smile at her kindly. "It is no trouble at all, I will personally fetch a form from our office." She told her, nodding her head as she took her leave. "I'll be back in a few minutes or so."

Reluctantly, and keeping her eye on Zinaida for as long as she could, Nastya left the main practice arena. Since she still wanted a decent lunch break, it meant she had to be pretty quick, so once she reached the corridor the younger Tikhomirova sibling broke into a run. Stopping abruptly outside the office, she bent down with her hands on her knees to catch her breath for a few seconds before she would enter. She hoped that Aglaya would have either left the office by now, or would just ignore her presence so that she could get in and out with the form within a matter of seconds. As her breathing slowed and quietened though, Nastya heard an odd shuffling and a kind of... gurgle?

Her brow furrowed, and she called out "Aglayka?" as she hesitantly opened the door. Looking down, Anastasiya did not expect the sight she saw. Her older sister, on the ground, seizing. Suddenly her vision changed and Nastya was back at the World Championships three years prior when a similar scene lay before her. She staggered back and lent against the door, causing it to close loudly. "Oh no... No..." She whispered, shaking her head frantically. History felt like it was repeating herself, the same sight and the same sick feeling in her stomach, the same fear.

But this time, there was no Andrey Viktorovich to hold her back, and Nastya flung herself to her knees by her sister, trying to frantically grab her sister's moving hands and terrified by what was happened. "Aglaechka!" She cried, the first time she'd used the childhood name for more than a decade. "What's wrong? Can you hear me? Say something, please!" Her voice cracked, and Nastya realised how utterly useless she was being. She had to keep it together, for Aglaya's sake. The adrenaline rush calmed her enough to immobilise her sister's head and cushion the convulsions using her lap as a pillow and her hands clamping her head down. Aglaya had a concussion one time before, and Nastya was damned if she was going to let another happen on her watch. "Hey, hey, stay calm for me, okay?" She gently encouraged Aglaya, determined that even if Aglaya could not hear her that she was going to try anyway.

Unsure what to do next, Anastasiya suddenly remembered their mother was a healer and that there was nothing more she could do now. "Mother!" She cried out, wondering where the hell she was. "MOTHER!" She tried again, louder. "ALYONA!" She screamed, fighting her panic and worry against the need to be calm to help her sister. "I got you," she murmured low to Aglaya, "breathe." At that point she didn't know if she was addressing her sister or herself. She could feel her heart beating like crazy waiting for their mother, whose footsteps she could hear rapidly approaching, and she tried to take deep breathes.

Her eyes drifted over to the desk where Aglaya last was when she left her, and she spotted the opened praline box, a single praline missing. Her heart skipped a beat. The pralines, the pralines she had given her from that superfan... they had to be the cause of this. If only she had destroyed the box like she had wanted to in the first place, her reputation be damned. "Oh, crap." She whispered. Screw calm, this was serious stuff. She had accidentally helped poison her own sister.

The door opened and Nastya didn't even look to see if it was actually her mother who had entered before she let the tears start streaming down her face. "Mama, help her... please, I don't know what to do!" She sobbed, barely intelligible and unable to stay strong now that her mother was there. She was a healer and she would heal Aglaya and everything would be fine. It just had to be. "I think she was poisoned..." Her sobs made it mainly unintelligible, but she hoped that her free hand pointing to the forsaken praline box would help. If she could help heal her, maybe she'd get rid of the guilt that was now eating her alive.

Aglaya barely noticed that someone had come into the office. If Nastya felt herself reminded of the world championships in Sweden three years ago, it was a completely different feeling for Aglaya. During the world championships she had been knocked out immediately, and had been unconscious for two days. Admittedly she had felt awful when she had woken up but after a few days things had got slowly better again. Now, however, nothing felt right. She was in pain, had no control over her body, and she felt quite certain that she was actually dying. Everything hurt, her muscles cramped, she had seizures, there was stinging pain in her head and her clothes were now soaked with sweat, some of her red curls stuck to her damp face. She couldn't breathe, her heartbeat was quick but faint.

As Nastya sank down next to her she was unaware of her presence until her younger sister called for their mother. Until then her voice had been drowned by the noise in her head. She had not even realised that her sister was holding her. Her vision was so blurred now that she could only see the rough silhouette of Nastya. She was unable to understand any of what happened around her, didn't comprehend that her sister was trying to help. All that she wanted was for this to end. Breathing felt too hard now and the pain was too intense to cope with. She felt heat rush through her body one moment and the next she was cold and shivering again.

Another person entered the room now. Aglaya only noticed her mother when she grabbed her arm to check her pulse. She wanted to listen to what her mother and sister said but while she could hear them speaking she was unable to understand even a single word of what they were saying. The noise in her head, the pain, all that made it impossible to follow the conversation. The harder she tried to remain conscious the worse the seizures got, the more pain she experienced.

Alyona tried to address her, slapped her gently, trying to get her attention. It seemed like she was far away when she called her name several times. Aglaya wanted to respond but she wasn't capable of doing so. The more she fought it the worse everything seemed to get. As another seizure started, her fingers closed tightly around her sister's wrist. Holding on for dear life.

She did not hear when her mother addressed her sister, saying that she had to get her to the hospital in Moscow immediately, asking Nastya to help her get her to the fireplace so they could take the floo network there. Before they could actually move her though, her fingers that had clenched Nastya's arm relaxed and her hand dropped onto the floor.

As she lay unconscious, her head still resting on Nastya's lap, Aglaya did not hear the words her mother told her sister. 'You will stay here. Pretend that everything is okay. Continue with your tasks. Just tell Andrey that Aglaya won't perform again. Don't tell anyone about this. Not Andrey, no one. Do you understand? Now help me move her to the fireplace.'


[out]

After what seemed like an age, her mother joined her on the floor beside Aglaya and the healer grabbed her sister's wrist to check for the pulse. Her mother frowned at her and told her to pull herself together before asking what had happened. Nastya sniffed and made a strangled noise, breathing deeply as she tried to tell Alyona the sequence of events. "She ate a... praline from the box I gave her," she sniffed again, eager to continue her sentence, not wanting her mother to believe she'd done this on purpose for even a millisecond. "But, but a fan came up to me with it to give it to her, and, then... then I came back and she was like this." She blubbered, sniffing rapidly to contain the stream of tears mixing with her runny snot.

Her mother gently slapped Aglaya and called her to no avail, Nastya wailed again and went to wipe her face for the hot heavy stream of wet stuff but Aglaya's fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist, preventing from her from doing so. The grip was strong and Nastya yelped, worried she was about to rip her wrist off which only added to the panic overwhelming her. "He poisoned her, didn't he? And... I helped." She cried, not knowing how she was ever going to come to terms with this. "I am so stupid! I helped!" Her whole body shook from her sobs, before Alyona grabbed Nastya's chin forcefully to make her look at her mother and not her ailing sister. 'Nastya, stop it! She should have known better. Athletes don't eat pralines, of all things.' Nastya was shocked into silence. Did her mother really say that? Whether it was Alyona's intention or not, Nastya immediately stopped crying and stared at her mother with her mouth agape.

Alyona told her that Aglaya must go to the hospital in Moscow and that they'd need to take the floo network there. "Of course, I'll go with you," Anastasiya said, as she felt her sister's hand slipping and thudding onto the floor. Brows furrowed, Nastya looked down to see her sister was clearly unconscious. "Uh... Mama? Mama!" She cried urgently. Was her sister going to... to die?

'You stay here.' Her mother said. "No!" 'Pretend everything is okay.' "No, I'm coming with you!" Nastya pleaded. 'Continue with your tasks.' "I'm not leaving her, please!" She begged, gripping Aglaya's hand as tightly as her sister had done only moments prior. 'Just tell Andrey that Aglaya won't perform again.' "But what if he asks?" Nastya threw her free hand up in frustration. 'Don't tell anyone about this. Not Andrey, no one.' "But... please..." Nastya implored her one last time, losing the will to fight. 'Do you understand?' Argument was fruitless now. Nastya took a shaky, laboured breath and was infinitely calmer. Her mother didn't care about her feelings, this was not news to her. She had learnt this many years ago before she'd even turned eight years old. Emotions were useless, no one cared unless she was Anastasiya; the dependent, reliable and consistent robot. "Yes, mother." She replied in an even voice, her hands no longer shaking.

Nastya cradled Aglaya's head as she slipped her legs out from underneath and laid it gently on the floor. "Let me," she told her mother, as she carefully positioned herself and wriggled one arm underneath her torso and the other under Aglaya's knees and lifted her sister off of the ground. It was not too tricky for Nastya, her strength training served her well. "Mind her head," she instructed Alyona, as she walked over to the fireplace, her heart internally breaking with every step.

"You got her?" Nastya asked, as she slowly transferred her sister into her mother's outstretched arms. She knew her mother wasn't as strong as she was, so Nastya nimbly stepped back to grab some floo powder for her mother. "Here," she deposited the powder quickly into Alyona's free hand.

[out]