dreams only last for a night [timofei]

Vladimir Dostoyevsky, although he would never admit it out loud, was proper drunk. But, in his mind, he was completely and utterly sober. He was the most sober he'd been in a long time. He could not only pass a sobriety test right now, he could probably do with another drink. Or a few more drinks. Or quite a few more drinks. Maybe he'd just take a whole bottle for himself. Now, that sounded like a great idea. His new mission was to find an unopened bottle of vodka, and he was going to get one, even if he had to go to his parents room to get it. He could always find someone to get him a new bottle to replace it for when they got back.

The 16 year old boy stumbled into his kitchen, almost falling over before he made it to the counter and held himself up. Maybe he was a little less sober than he thought, but that didn't mean that he couldn't have another bottle to himself. He spotted a bottle of rum that looked as if it was almost full and reached over the counter to grab it with a grin plastered on his face. While trying to stretch and reach the bottle of awesomeness that was in front of him, Vladimir knocked over a cup that was full of some wet, dark pink colored liquid. Said liquid spread all over the white granite countertops before dripping down onto Vladimir’s shorts. “Oh, no.” The boy said, dragging out the ‘o’ sound and looking down at his now wet shorts.

Sucks that there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Vladimir stretched a little more, his fingertips just grazing the bottle and bringing it just close enough that he could grasp it in his hand. Victory! He pulled the bottle into his chest, looking around to make sure that no one else was in the kitchen to see that he had the rum in his arms. Once he was sure that no one did, he opened it and tossed the lid aside. Now it was time to find someone to talk to. It wouldn’t be hard, Vladimir thought, because he knew a lot of people had come to what he guessed could be considered a party. His party. His semi-late birthday party. Perfect.

Vladimir made his way through his house, keeping an eye out for people that he actually knew. There weren’t many people that he recognized, and a lot of the people that he passed were asleep cuddled up next to another someone, or a group of another someones. It was probably closer to being morning than it was to being night. Now that he thought about it, he was a bit tired, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to find someone to talk to. He was still definitely going to do that, and he wasn’t going to go to sleep until he did.

It wasn’t until a long stroll through his house and a few minutes later that Vladimir ended up outside on his back porch. Sitting there was Timofei Sidorov, an attractive Drakonya Krov boy in his year. “Tima!” Vladimir shouted out, trying his best to stay upright as he walked towards his good friend. “It’s been too long, mate. Where have you been?! I haven’t seen you all night.” He continued on, taking a seat in the chair next to the boy. He took another swig of the rum that he held in his hands. “Everyone’s asleep.” He told him, handing the bottle over to the other boy and patting his pockets to see where he’d put his cigarettes and matchbook. “You don’t mind, right?” He asked when he found them, pulling them out and showing them to Timofei. “Don’t want to be rude or anything if you don’t like them or whatever.”

After about six or seven shots was when Timofei began to lose track of time. He hadn't really even been paying attention to what time he had arrived in Omsk, so figuring that out was now a lost cause. Six or seven shots in was also when the sixteen year old had stopped keeping up with how much alcohol he had consumed for the night. When he had received word that one of his friends from Durmstrang was going to be having a party, he kind of knew that the night would more than likely entail him getting trashed. It may have been deemed by some as immature, but it was something he enjoyed, so he made sure that he made it back to Russia in time for it; he had been at Inverness for the past couple of days, but decided this would be a nice break.

That being said, Tima had also spent most of the night avoiding their host. He was aware that the gathering was a sort of belated part for Vladimir's birthday; instead of bringing a present, Timofei just brought a bottle of vodka, his drink of choice. While he had expected a smaller group of people, he was pleased and honestly not surprised that he showed up to a house filled with mostly people he didn't know. He had been to a few parties thrown by the Klyk Vampira boy before, and he knew how they usually turned out. Part of him knew that coming may have been a bad idea, but another part of him just wanted to see what happened.

The two boys had met through mutual friends while at school, and hit it off almost immediately. Amongst the numerous other things Timofei had to deal with internally, his feelings involving the same sex had started becoming more confusing for him, especially this past year. Honestly, he had never really given much thought to the matter and assumed he was straight. With so many other things happening in his life, these thoughts had been put on the back burner. Once the two had begun hanging out, he knew that Vlad had picked up on his attractions. It really threw Tima off, and he chose to just ignore anything in that realm between the two last term, and he hadn't seen the boy since.

Everyone had started passing out; he wasn't really tired, but he still figured he should be nice and not wake them up. He stumbled into the kitchen and topped off his drink after he decided that he needed some fresh air. He spun on his heels to exit the kitchen, but had to step out to catch himself from falling. "Shit," escaped his mouth as a few drops bounced out of the cup and onto the floor. He knelt down to wipe it on his pant leg before continuing his trek to the porch.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, or at least what he thought was a few minutes, before he heard someone joining him. He remained lounged in the seat, head on the back of the chair. "Oh you know, I've been around. Not avoiding you or anything." Anyone sober may have notice his words slurring together, but he heard them perfectly normal. He took the bottle that was passed off to him and examined the label momentarily before taking a swig. His gaze returned to Vladimir, not really sure what to say. This was the moment he had both been dreading all night, yet was also the reason he had come. "No, no, go ahead man. It's your birthday! Well it was, it's not anymore, but we're celebrating it so you should smoke whatever you want right?" The words weren't being processed by his brain quickly enough for him to stop them, and it felt like all of his thoughts were forming into words and he couldn't control it. "I really thought it would be a bad idea to come tonight, but nothing's happened so far so I think it will be alright."

“I’m glad you haven’t been avoiding me.” Vladimir said to Timofei, nodding and taking a cigarette out of the pack. “That would be mean,” He continued to nod, raising his eyebrows this time, putting the cigarette in his mouth. “You haven’t got any reason to ignore me because I’m nice to you, right? Not mean or anything, I’m super nice.” He blabbered on, ripping a match from the matchbook and lighting it. “Suuuuuper nice.” He lifted the match to the tip of his cigarette. A part of him knew that he should probably stop talking, but his mouth wouldn’t stop moving. “Especially to good looking boys,” He took the cigarette from his lips, holding it out away from him as far as he could. “Yep.”

He leaned his head back in his chair, letting his arm fall to the arm rest. There was no denying he was attracted to the Drakonya Krov. Even if he was afraid to admit it to himself, he was really attracted to the somewhat older and probably taller boy. He especially liked that Tima didn’t seem interested, or he didn’t seem like he seemed interested. It was always a fun thing, flirting with him. He always chose to ignore Vladimir’s advances, which would probably put the Klyk boy off, was he not convinced that Timofei didn’t play for his team. If he didn’t, he would have told him that he didn’t. But he never did, and that was the sole reason Vova was completely convinced that Tima didn’t like girls.

“I think my parents should get me a cat for my birthday,” he told the boy, looking over at him and smiling slightly. “They didn’t really give me anything, because I didn’t ask, but now I want a cat. A really soft one. A baby kitty. Imagine having a really soft cat right now.” He went on, keeping his eyes on Tima’s face. “Cats are nice.” For few more seconds, he kept his eyes on Tima, admiring his facial structure. After he decided he’d been looking at him for a little too long, Vladimir looked back out at the darkness that was his backyard, letting out a long sigh. “Can I have that bottle again?” He asked not too long after, looking over at Tima momentarily until his friend passed him the bottle of rum that had originally been in Vladimir’s hands. He thanked the boy, and took another long swig.

“Why would you think it would be a bad idea?” Vova inquired. “You don’t have to go home, and my parents aren’t coming home, and I have some nice warm blankets all over so you won’t get cold when you sleep,” He made a large circle motion with his hands, only remembering then that he’d had a cigarette. He let a string of profanities slip out of his mouth before dropping the cigarette on the ground and stomping it out. “You can sleep in my parent’s bed if you want, or Sofiya’s bed, or Lev’s bed, or Ekaterina’s bed, or my bed, or the guest bed. Unless there’s someone in it, we can kick them out and then you can sleep in it.” He nodded once more.

“But, uh, but,” He struggled to get his next words out. He wanted to say a million things at once, like ask Tima if he’d done anything wrong, or if he was mad at him for any reason. However, what came out of his mouth was, “Mine’s the most comfortable.” He stared at the ground for a little bit, furrowing his brow. “That’s not what I meant to say.” He laughed, shifting his eyes over to his friend once again. He opened his mouth to ask if he’d done anything wrong, but the moment he started to speak, the thought slipped from his mind. “I forgot.” He said, taking another drink from the bottle in his hand. “Want some?” He offered the bottle to Tima, forgetting that he even wanted to ask the other boy a question.

Even though it was not him smoking the cigarette, the familiar smell of tobacco had a sort of calming effect over Tima. While he had only ever had one or two, it just wasn't something that he found enjoyable. He did have many friends, however, who smoked, especially when they would drink, so it was still something he was accustomed to. He became immediately interested in watching the smoke exhaled from the other boy's mouth rise and eventually disappear into the night air. "It's so dark out here." It wasn't something he really planned on saying, or expected a reply to. Just a blatantly obvious observation, really.

While Vladimir spoke, an exaggerated frown formed across his face. Now he felt bad; his words had not been intended to make him feel better. After all, he was a good friend, and he was right - he had never done anything mean to Timofei. Other than confuse the hell out of him, but he didn't really know he was doing that, did he? As the sixteen year old contemplated this, the comment about good looking boys had almost gone unnoticed, but his mind froze when he realized what he had said. His eyes quickly glanced toward Vlad, but darted immediately straight ahead, staring into the sky. He wasn't even sure if he was supposed to respond to that, but decided it might be strange if he didn't. "Erm, thanks I think." Even with all of the alcohol in his system, Timofei knew that was not a proper reply, but he just let it go.

At the mention of cats, Timofei began to mentally drift away from the conversation again. His thoughts switched to everyone else, wondering what they were doing inside. He could have sworn he saw Yelena earlier. Maybe she was still awake. No, no he was going to stay out here. He had just told himself that he had no legitimate reason to avoid Vova, and he was not going to. He craned his neck to face him, only to realize that the gaze was being returned. The Drakonya Krov froze, unsure of what to do. The two boys had now found themselves in a period of eye contact much too long to claim it was accidental. Tima caved first, diverting his eyes and holding the bottle out without a word at the other boy's request. It was times like those that made him feel as though the other boy were capable of reading his thoughts, not that he was doing a great job at hiding them.

When his reasons for considering not coming were brought into question, a deep sigh escaped from his mouth before he had even realized. What a loaded question that was. Tima could have spend several minutes explaining the answer, but what if it was all in his head? It would just cause him too look incredibly conceited.

Thankfully, neither of them stayed on the topic for long. In fact, watching Vladimir drop the cigarette was enough of a distraction to make him completely forget what they had been doing. When the discussion of beds started, it even sounded familiar enough that Timofei figured that's what they had been talking about. "Well I definitely am not going to sleep in your parents bed, that would kind of creep me out a little. Children have been conceived on that bed maybe. I don't know, and it would be weird if you knew. And my mother's name is Ekaterina, so I can't sleep in her bed either!" With great effort, he shifted in his chair, trying to get a view of the house through the window, but with no luck. "It was pretty empty in there a few minutes ago so I bet all of the beds are probably full. I can't sleep with a stranger. I don't know them!"

His eyes found the boy again as he began stuttering along another sentence. This was enough time for Timofei to have moved on from thinking about sleeping arrangements, so when he brought up how comfortable his bed was, it took tim a minute to figure out what context it was in. "Oh, but you'll be sleeping in your bed, and you're the guest of honor. Well, you're not really a guest. Can you be a host of honor?" He had an idea of where Vladimir had been intending to go with the conversation, but like always, Timofei found naivety the best approach to dealing with him. The boy also decided to ignore the fact that the invitation to sleep on said bed sounded very inviting. He would, however, accept the bottle once more.

"Yes, yes. I definitely need another drink."

After taking a few more drinks of the rum, Vladimir couldn’t even keep track of his thoughts. Everything seemed to be going a hundred miles an hour but less than one at the same time. The Klyk Vampira boy couldn’t even remember how he’d came to be talking to Tima. He was happy that whatever had prompted him to come outside, did.

It was only when he made a comment about Vladimir’s parent’s bed when the boy realized that Tima was very, very right. Children had been conceived in his parents bed. The boy rolled his head around so it was resting back on the chair, thinking about the countless time’s he’d drunkenly stumbled into his parent’s bed when someone else was in his room. He stared ahead at the darkness that was his backyard, letting out a long sigh. “Ekaterina is such a weird name.” He said, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve never thought about it, but it’s just weird. Is your mom weird? My sister’s weird. Maybe all Ekaterina’s are weird.” The sixteen year old boy blabbered on. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he should probably stop the conversation and let Tima go on and do whatever, but he didn’t want the other boy to go.

Vova’s mind drifted to the other people that were inside his house. He’d wondered if Desislava showed up. He didn’t notify his best friend of the party that was happening, but then again, he didn’t really notify anyone that had showed up, save a few people.  Things spread quickly. If news of the party didn’t reach Desislava, then that was her fault. She wasn’t going to get to drink with Vladimir or Timofei or anyone else that was here, and she was going to be missing out on the fun and spending time with her best friend. Even though the party was basically over, he was going to have as much fun as he could without her. He didn’t need her. He didn’t need her for anything. He didn’t even like her anymore. His new best friend was Tima.

He handed his friend the bottle that was in his hand, once again looking over at the other teenager and giving him a smile. “I guess I’m the host of honor.” Vova told him, looking out at the darkness again. He sighed, repeating the three words over and over under his breath. “Honory host of honor.” He said, looking over at the bottle that his friend held and keeping his eyes there. His eyes moved with it wherever it went, until Vladimir spoke up again. “Doesn’t the host of honor get a birthday kiss or something?” Vladimir asked, closing his eyes and tilting his head back.

“Cause I haven’t gotten one and I’d like to file a complaint.” He joked, letting out a soft chuckle. “It’s my date of birth.” He went on, trying to keep his line of thought in check. He’d momentarily forgotten what he was talking about, before remembering and laughing again for a short period of time. “I was born and we’re celebrating, and now I haven’t even got someone to cuddle with.” He opened one eye and looked over at Tima, smiling ever so slightly at the boy before closing his eye once more. He didn’t intend to hurt the boy’s feelings, and after he’d said his comment, he’d hoped that his friend didn’t take the words harshly.

The more drinks that made their way into the sixteen year old's system, the less stressful his current conversation became. Tima felt bad that part of him was wishing his schoolmate would go away; Vlad really had not done anything but be nice to him. While he wanted to say too nice, that wasn't really true. He was just nice in the way that he knew how to be, and one that Timofei had grown to appreciate since it had begun.

"Yeah!" he agreed, at a much louder decibel than the boys had been talking. "Ekaterina is kind of a weird name! I mean, what is that anyways? Ekaterina, Etakerinka, Eterkinnka." Timofei was completely unaware that he had apparently lost all ability to pronounce his mother's name. "But my mom isn't weird! Just kind of annoying sometimes. But my sister, Kseinya, she's weird! And she came from an Etakerinka, so maybe that's why." The bottle rose to his lips, but his thoughts caught up to him before taking a sip. "No wait! I'm from an Ekataekina too, and I'm not weird!" His head fell more than he voluntarily turned it, but either way he was now facing his friend again. "Am I weird?"

Timofei didn't really wait for an answer, as he quickly, too quickly, pushed himself out of the chair, rising to his feet. He immediately stumbled forward, learning his equilibrium had vanished since sitting down. "Oh shit!" Somehow, he had managed to save the bottle, holding it like a torch high above his head. "Success!" He slowly stood up, still wobbly as he stood on the porch. "Here ye, here ye, fair people of Rzhev!" As he called out, much too loudly, his proclamation into the empty air, he slapped his forehead with his empty hand. Covering his mouth with a flat hand, as though there actually were a crowd of people in the yard, he whispered back to Vladimir, "I messed, up. I live in Rzhev, we're in Omsk, aren't we." He turned back to his "audience", and cleared his throat to speak. Hiccup. "Fair people of Omsk, I present your Honorary Host of Honor, of Admittedly-Lesser-House-In-Comparison-To-Drakonya-Krov Klyk Vampira, Vladimir Alekseyevich Dostoyevsky!"

The boy immediately burst into a round of applause, squeezing the bottle of rum between his knees. While he had messed up several syllables during his addressing of the nonexistent crowd, he was still very proud of himself. He bowed before Vladimir before falling back into the chair, once again maintaining the bottle's upright position. Even plastered, one must keep their priorities!

His moment of glory was interrupted once Vlad mentioned the kiss. Timofei groaned again, head resting against the back of the chair with his eyes closed. Why did he have to think about this again? All he wanted to do was have a good time! A light switch flipped in the boy's head, undoubtedly one switched by liquor, and he sat up immediately. He realized that the only person making him have a bad time was himself. Vladimir had clearly been flirting with him for a few months now, at least he thought, so he clearly wanted it. Even with a drunken epiphany, Timofei still had no idea in the world what he wanted, but right now his the boy beside him felt like something he had been trying to deny he wanted for awhile.

Tima made attempt number two at standing up, this time managing to stay on his feet, though still stumbling around. "Hold this," he said, shoving the rum into Vladimir's lap. He used both hands to pull the chair, nearly falling backward; it was a lot lighter than he had expected. He positioned it facing his friend's, and resumed his seat, as well as his ownership of the liquor. His hand immediately reached forward, just missing Vlad's lips and landing on the small patch of hair below the bottom one. All of Timofei's senses were suddenly heightened. He felt an overwhelming mixture of fear and anticipation begin to set over him. He quickly took another shot, allowing the warm feeling to carry those thoughts away. "I've never kissed someone with facial hair before."

While he was so unsure of many things at this moment, Timofei was sure of one thing, and that was that he didn't want to talk himself out of what was about to happen. Before he could think about it, he began leaning forward, closing the gap between Vlad and himself. It felt as though years were passing between every millimeter, and his thoughts were running rampant. Tima's eyes were glued to Vladimir's until he had reached halfway, when the found his lips, and eventually closed completely. When their lips finally met, his brain exploded and he went from millions of thoughts to one. The Drakonya Krov felt so unable to process what was happening as it continued, but he didn't stop it for several seconds. As he pulled away, he wasn't even aware that he was smiling as he stared back at the younger boy.

"Fine then, I guess I won't cuddle with you."

Vladimir wanted to stand up and sing at the top of his lungs, but he didn't know why. He felt extremely good at the moment, and he was happy. Everything that had happened his lovely birthday night was perfect, even if he didn't really get to talk to Timofei up until he was ready to go to bed. Although, now he didn't want to go to bed, he wanted to stay up and talk and hit on Tima and shove it in Anzhelika's face that he wasn't going to marry her because he didn't even like her at all.

"You're not that weird." Vladimir said, looking over at him, giving the other boy a small smile. "You know who is weird though? Kaija. She doesn't eat meat, that's weird." He nodded a little bit more than he should have, mostly because of the fact that his head felt heavy and weird when he moved it up and down. "I wonder if she came, do you think she did? I think we should walk to her house, where does she live?" He looked around at the darkness, narrowing his eyes like he was going to see the house she lived in on the horizon. "No, we shouldn't walk there because she's too far away and that's her fault." The dark haired boy rest his head on the back of his chair and continued to look out at the darkness when Timofei stood up quickly.

Vladimir pushed himself forward in the chair, wanting to catch Tima before he fell, or cushion his fall or something, but before he could, the other sixteen year old boy caught himself and stood up, holding the bottle up above his head. Vladimir let out a loud cheer, clapping equally as loudly. His clapping and cheering died down once Tima started to talk, to which Vladimir shook his head and whispered to himself, "We're not in Rzhvera." He opened his mouth a little to tell Tima, but he seemed to get it, and whispered that he was wrong. Vladimir nodded again, looking up at his friend with a big smile plastered onto his face. His eyes were fixated on what he could see of his friends face before they slowly, slowly moved down to his bum. Vladimir hadn't noticed before, but Tima had a nice bum.

Ok, he had noticed before, but he hadn't really commented on it, or thought about it. But from what Vladimir could see, it was really nice. "Klyk Vampira is the best house." He raised a brow at his friend, clearing his throat. "And you want to know why? Don't guess because I'm gonna tell you." He laughed and licked his lips. "Because I'm in it!" He grinned, throwing his hands up, before letting them settle behind his head. "That's why it's the best, and that's why it will always be the best, and that's why Drakonya Krov sucks, because I'm not in it." He paused for a little, laughing at what he said before stopping and continuing. "But I guess it's alright because you're in it."

He looked back out at the darkness, only looking back over when he thought he heard Tima moving. Was he leaving? He couldn't leave! They were having a great time talking and Vladimir hadn't even been mean or demanding or anything. The rum was shoved into Vladimir's lap, and just as he was about to protest to his friend leaving, Tima pulled his chair in front of Vova and took another seat. The smile on Vladimir's face grew and he reached down to grab the bottle and take a drink. "That's an odd thing to say, why would yo-"

Vladimir was cut off by Tima's lips being pressed against his. His eyes opened wide at first, in shock, but he quickly closed them and kissed Tima back. In Vladimir's opinion, it was the best drunken kiss he'd ever had, if not the best kiss all around. He'd wanted it to last forever, maybe even longer, but it didn't. When Timofei pulled away, Vladimir pushed his bottom lip out in a pout, which only got bigger when Tima said he wasn't going to cuddle with Vova. His brows furrowed and he slammed his hands on the arm of a chair, much like a child throwing a fit. "No!" He said, glaring at Tima. "You have to, it's my birthday!" He continued, sitting back in his chair. "I really want you to, that means you have to." With a nod, Vladimir sat back in his chair, putting the bottle up to his lips. "I won't talk to you if you don't."

The realization of what had just happened didn't come immediately. For several seconds, Timofei just stared Vladimir with glossy eyes; there were so many thoughts running through his mind, but he felt as though he wasn't able to focus on anything long enough to figure out what he was thinking. However, once the kiss registered, his eyes widened, staring straight back at Vlad. "We just kissed. I just kissed you. I kissed you and you kissed me back and we just kissed. I just kissed a boy."

All of the sudden, it felt as though so many months had lead up to this moment. Subconsciously, he now could tell he knew this would happen. Even if he hadn't known it would be with Vladimir, he had known it would happen. For months now, he had been feeling as though Vlad had been coming onto him. Tima had been somewhat aware of his attraction to the same sex for years, and it was something he had spent a lot of time thinking about. Part of him had been hoping that if he didn't act on it, it would go away. When he found out he was an elemental, that desire increased; he already had one reason for his family to not accept him, he didn't need another. Once the boy sitting across from him had first expressed any type of interest, he realized it was something he had to think about; at that point, there was so much else going on in his life that it had not even made it on his radar then, and it was just easier to not acknowledge the advances than to have to think about it.

So many emotions were now coming at him full force, and he was way too drunk to even recognize them all. He had just kissed a boy, had anyone seen? He tried to look through the window, though couldn't really make out anything. He felt a strong sense of excitement, even if he couldn't form that into words. His teeth gripped his bottom lip as a small smile formed. Although he had an overwhelming feeling of confusion, his heart was beating fast. Not only had he just kissed Vlad, but he had liked it - really, really liked it.

Tima was so lost in his own head that he had forgotten his comment after separating. He couldn't keep his eyes from rolling as Vladimir acted in a way that could only be described as a temper tantrum. This was not the first time that alcohol had been shared between the two, so he was more than accustomed to how the boy operated under the influence. Even drunk, Timofei knew that he had no room to get annoyed by anyone else's drunken antics, not that he did. If anything, he was even more amicable amicable while inebriated; he just happened to also be a bit more talkative and much louder, in direct proportion to how much he had consumed.

"Well I guess I will cuddle with you, but only because it's your birthday. And dibs on big spoon."

He wanted to kiss him again, but was that allowed? The Drakonya Krov had very little experience making any type of move on anyone, and what experience he did have couldn't really be classified as overly successful aside from drunken escapades. Was he supposed to ask permission? Had that been rude of him not to? Vladimir seemed to be okay with it, but that wasn't really permission to do it again. What if he wasn't okay with it again. "Okay, I'm going to kiss you again." He paused, trying to convey a serious demeanor, though this was interrupted by a string of hiccups before he could continue. "If you don't want me to, just punch me in the face or something and I'll stop, promise. But I really hope you don't punch me in the face because that would hurt and then we wouldn't be kissing and that would be sad." With his less than poetic explanation out of the way, he took the bottle from Vlad, swigged out a shot for himself from the now nearly empty bottle, and put it off to the side. He leaned in for a kiss, this time his body leaning much farther over the other boy's since he was reclining in his seat. This time, his hands rose and found the side of Vladimir's face, attempting to get the boy as physically close to him as possible.