[Rybinsk] свобода, так много, так мало (Lea)

Aglaya was on a tight schedule today. She had fitted Lea in somehow but, really, their meeting totally messed up her day. Nonetheless Aglaya had agreed to meet her former school mate. They did occasionally exchange letters, Aglaya's usually being a lot shorter than Lea's. They even managed to meet a couple of times after Lea's graduation a few years ago. However, it had hardly been a regular thing. The fact that Lea had not wanted to meet early in the morning before Aglaya's morning practice (which started at 6 am) had irritated the Russian witch slightly. She just didn't have as much time to spare as others apparently had.

It was almost 7 pm now and Aglaya checked her watch. She'd have about an hour for Lea, then she wanted to work with some of the junior athletes on new choreographies. Hopefully the German could address her proposition quickly. There was no time to waste on useless small talk, after all. She quickly changed in the dressing room of the artistic flying school where she still practiced even now that she wasn't working with a coach anymore. It was funny how the media still wrote about that fact as though it meant anything. To Aglaya being coached by first Andrey and later Aleksandra had been torture. They had rarely had a kind word for her and by now she knew far more about the sport than they did. She was better off on her own or that was at least what she was talking herself into believing. A side effect of her new training situation was that she was constantly feeling like she was missing something essential.

Wearing black leather pants, a flowy mustard yellow top and some high ankle boots, Aglaya apparated to a nearby restaurant. She did rarely walk through town anymore, not even for short distances. While it was nice that people knew who she was it was also rather disturbing to be approached quite frequently or, alternatively, have people following her around to see what she was up to without them daring to address her directly. It was way easier to get around this by apparating from just outside the flying school to the place where she wanted to go to. After all, she didn't need additional exercise either.
She stepped over the threshold energetically, her red curls bouncing as she walked into the restaurant. "I'll find my table, thanks," she said coolly to an overly eager new waitress who wanted to guide her to the table she had reserved for the evening.

Lea wasn't there yet. Aglaya checked her watch again. 2 minutes to 7 pm... She felt almost certain that the other woman would be late and that was intolerable. She sat down at her favourite table in the back of the place. Truth be told, Aglaya did not come here often because she just didn't go out often but the good thing about being known was that she'd only have to send an owl and her table would be ready no matter if it was on short notice.

@Lea Dörfler

The little get-together Lea had with her old best friends from school had somehow ended up into a full party and the fashion designer had been drinking cocktails with people she'd never seen before in her life. She hadn't been complaining until she literally crashed home (apparating whilst rather sloshed was quite difficult) at half past five in the morning, flopped onto her bed fully clothed and slept until two in the afternoon.

Waking up with a splitting headache, Lea could barely remember what she had to do that day as she rubbed her eyes vigorously to try and bring some life into her body. By the time that she removed all the old makeup, got her hair freed from its tangled mess and made herself somewhat presentable again, it was already 4pm. A light snack in lieu of breakfast, and a change of clothes into a simple but elegant dress took her another hour and a half. Lea knew she had something important to do that day, but couldn't remember for the life of her what it was, so she rummaged around her desk, looking at every scrap of parchment there for a clue.

Her gaze landed on a sketch of a catsuit and on top of it, a scrap of parchment saying; Aglaya - Rybinsk, 7pm. "Damn it!" Lea muttered to herself, as her calm searching turned into frantic flapping. She knew her friend hated when people were late, and that was exactly what Lea was going to be if she didn't hurry. Luckily, she had already been to Rybinsk more than once before so she knew where she was going, or she'd have definitely been in major trouble. Gathering up all the catsuit sketches she had, Lea stuffed them in her handbag along with some fabric swatches. Perhaps, the swatches were a little optimistic but she hoped her friend wouldn't turn her down. Unable to find her purse, Lea used her wand to summon it from the pile of clothes it was hidden under and she re-applied her lipstick before rushing out the door.

The German witch apparated to the nearest place connected to the floo network, before stepping into the fireplace with her handful of floo powder. "Rybinsk, Russia." She called out in Russian as she throw the powder down. Stepping out of the fireplace, Lea took the time she needed to figure out her surroundings. She looked down at her watch to check the time, 10 to 7. She frowned, as she realised she'd probably have to run to make it but that was silly. Lea couldn't run in the heels she was wearing. She settled for a power walk instead in the direction of the restaurant.

The fashion World at present hadn't been going so well for Lea. After the festival in Italy, things had quietened down and Lea was struggling with motivation. It had only been a few days later when she read the newspaper covering the European Championships for artistic flying. Seeing Aglaya there reminded her that it was long overdue for a visit to see her. Despite the fact that Lea had given up the sport in her teens before she really got anywhere, she always remained very grateful to Aglaya for that day that a much younger Lea approached the older witch. It had given her an inspired idea. She could conquer a whole new realm of fashion! It seemed like a win-win situation; a known designer would bring artistic flying further attention and draw in a wider audience, and a champion wearing one of her own designs would help her out immensely.

Seeing the restaurant, Lea started walking as quickly as her stilettos would allow and she managed to walk through the threshold at precisely 7:01pm. Noticing her friend's signature red curls, Lea immediately made her way over to the back. "Aglaya, my dear!" Lea greeted her warmly, sitting down at the table. "I hope I'm not too late," she offered, not finding the courage to check the time herself as she placed her handbag on the chair's back.

"I know you probably don't have a lot of time, so I'll get right to it. I have a business proposition for you, if you're interested..."

When Lea finally entered the restaurant, Aglaya tried to smile. The other woman was not that late, after all. One minute wasn't really anything by the standards of 'normal' people. For Aglaya losing one minute was tolerable even though she wasn't pleased to be wasting her precious time sitting alone in the restaurant, waiting for Lea.

"Lea," Aglaya responded quietly, "it's okay, you're not much too late." It was as nice as she'd get regarding the small delay.

"That's a good plan," the athlete acknowledged. "Yes, you wrote you'd have a business proposition for me." Aglaya had not really given this any thought yet and had no idea what Lea was going to offer. She was mildly curious now, wondering what the other woman would tell her.

"We should order a drink first," she said, thinking that the other witch most likely had no further plans for the day while Aglaya was on a tight schedule. "It would be a shame if we didn't get anything before I have to leave again." At this point she did not even have a full hour left for her former school mate.

She looked at the new waitress who was setting up a table just a few steps away. Since the girl looked over to them quite frequently it didn't take Aglaya more than a few seconds to make her approach. The waitress cleared her throat nervously and dropped her pencil with which she just wanted to take their order. Having knelt down to retrieve it from below the table, the girl looked at them again, her cheeks bright pink now. Aglaya did not notice the girl's obvious embarrassment. "I'll take a black tea with lemon, please," she stated and waited until Lea had made her order as well. When the girl turned around to leave their table she almost stumbled but Aglaya had already turned to face Lea again.

"Now tell me, what is this business proposal you have for me?" she asked, vaguely aware that it must be important for Lea because she hadn't started their meeting with the usual small talk. Lea also hadn't congratulated her that she had defended her European title and for a split second Aglaya wondered if the other witch did not really follow the sport anymore and had just asked for the meeting because she needed the help of someone famous. It irked her that these thoughts came up now. The artistic flyer had, after all, learned how to allow her emotions solely when she was performing a free program on her broom and bottle them up otherwise. She could be professional and cool. She could try and ignore that she was longing for someone to just like her for herself and not for the role she played in the artistic flying world.

Oh, so she was late? Whoops, Lea thought, still thinking that she’d done a pretty good job getting there as soon as she had. “Oh, sorry.” She muttered, mainly to herself.

“Great,” Lea replied enthusiastically, about to begin her proposition, before Aglaya suggested that they should probably order a drink first. “Oh! Yes!” Lea smiled brightly, loving the idea of a drink. Was it too early to start thinking about another alcoholic drink, though? Most likely, Lea realised, especially in front of Aglaya. She had a feeling her friend wouldn’t be that impressed if she drank a cocktail in a business meeting. “Good idea,” she added belatedly, as a waitress already began heading their direction.

The waitress must have been rather new at her job, Lea supposed, as the clumsy girl dropped her pencil on the floor and had to kneel down to pick it back up. The German witch smiled kindly at her, feeling the waitress’ embarrassment radiating off of her. Lea listened to Aglaya’s order to see what she could possibly get away with, and since the artistic flyer ordered a caffeinated drink, the fashion designer deemed this to be fair game. “And, I’ll have a latte, two sugars please.” She stated gently, smiling with amusement as the poor waitress nearly stumbled as she left.

She turned her attention back to Aglaya as the older witch asked her about the proposal, and Lea was now a little nervous as she could feel her heartbeat racing a bit and she licked her lips. “Well, I was trying to follow the European Championships with the German newspapers, radios and the like but they were awful with their coverage so I had to switch to the Russian ones and it got me thinking…” She paused, adjusting her dress as she tried to think of where her train of thought was going and trying to make it make sense to the artistic flyer. “Oh!” She exclaimed, completely forgetting about what she was trying to say. “Congratulations for winning that, by the way! I forgot to mention that before. You did amazing, as usual!”

“Right… where was I?” She asked Aglaya, her face scrunching up as she began searching for the thought she’d had a moment prior. “Oh yeah,” Lea smiled, lifting her finger up triumphantly as she remembered. “My press coverage in general as a designer could be better, your press coverage outside of Russia could be better and I figured that perhaps we could help each other in getting that to happen.” Perhaps that was a little too vague, Lea realised as she adjusted her dress again, and smiled at Aglaya nervously, hoping her reaction would be kind and not dismissive.

“What I’m trying to say is… I have sketches for catsuits for competition that I’ve designed and I’d like to be your personal costume designer? I brought them with me if you want to see them…?”

The start of Lea's business proposal sounded rather confusing. Aglaya wasn't quite sure where she was going but decided to remain silent and give the younger witch a chance to get to the point. It was not like her to be patient but, even though they were not particularly close, she felt like she owed Lea something for having unknowingly prevented her to do something silly back in their school days.

“Thanks,” Aglaya said, a slight hint of a smile spreading across her features. She did not need people to congratulate her and remind her that she did amazing, she knew it herself. However, it was, of course, still pleasant to hear that others agreed. She wondered why the German witch had not travelled to Leknes to watch the competition herself. If she was truly interested in following the sport she could have been there, at least for the free program.

Raising her eyebrows ever so slightly as Lea lost the thread, Aglaya had to force herself not to say anything. She felt that if she wanted to bring forward a business proposal she should be well prepared and make a concise presentation of the matter.

Lea's press coverage could be better? Well, that was no surprise, if this was how she usually behaved in business meetings. Probably nobody really took her seriously. However, she had no timeinteresting to think about this for long as the other witch now said that Aglaya's press coverage outside of Russia could be better as well. She stared at Lea incredulously for a brief moment. Then she opted for a neutral and unreadable expression as she listened to what else her former school mate had to say.

As Lea finished, Aglaya was almost relieved that the waitress arrived with their drinks. She eyed the young girl suspicious as she put down her cup of tea in front of her, her hand shaking so much as she did so that a little tea puddle spilled on the saucer. “Thank you,” Aglaya said slowly, staring disapprovingly at the cup. As the girl left their table, the redhead looked at Lea again.

“I actually think that people around the world know me if they are interested in artistic flying at all,” she said coolly. “Anyway, I see how a cooperation with me, and my family for that matter, might be beneficial for you.” She paused as she picked up a napkin to dry the saucer.

“Well, I'm happy to take a look at the sketches. Truth be told, I always have a say in how my costumes look. That means that if you want to work with me, we'll have to work on drafts together.” She looked at Lea again now, wondering if the other woman was fine working under these circumstances. “If I think that your catsuits work for artistic flying competitions, I'm happy to introduce you to the part of our family that currently creates the outfits. You might even be able to work together with them, have your own line there – that is if that is of interest to you at all.”

Lea smiled warmly at her friend, as she thanked her for the congratulations, but felt that there was no need to go on praising Aglaya to the skies. It would waste the little time she had with the artistic flyer, and Lea wanted to get her proposition out of the way so that she could actually have a nice conversation with her friend whom she hadn’t seen for a while. As she began introducing her idea though, Lea got the distinct feeling that her business idea would not be so warmly received as she had planned for. Aglaya just seemed to stare at her, and Lea shifted uncomfortably in her seat, wondering if she had accidentally offended her friend somehow.

Waiting with bated breath for Aglaya’s reply, Lea was relieved that the waitress suddenly appeared with their drinks, easing the tension that Lea was beginning to feel. Stirring her latte as the waitress placed it down in front of her, Lea smiled gratefully up at her, not noticing how her hand shook as she placed down Aglaya’s own drink. “Thanks.” Lea offered kindly, becoming extremely interested in her latte and staring into it so that she didn’t have to look at Aglaya while she waited for a response.

Aglaya began coolly, and had it been anyone else in the World Lea would have gathered her things and scarpered immediately to dramatically declare that she’d quit the fashion business as she flopped on her bed. However, Lea was used to her friend’s somewhat odd and colder demeanour, and she was not deterred by it at all. “Well, of course, I suppose I do stand to benefit more from it, but that can’t really be avoided… I’m not as influential as your family are.” Lea smiled sheepishly, feeling it was weird for her to declare this. After all, her family in Germany were certainly a prominent family even if they weren’t the most powerful. “Of course, those interested in artistic flying know you and the sport. But, as I said, I had to switch to the Russian coverage to get decent news for Europeans. That’s all well and good, I know Russian fine obviously. But what about those who went to Beauxbatons who don’t? Or those from Hogwarts and Ilvermorny?” She took a quick pause to take a sip of her latte, not wanting to lose her train of thought now that she had it. “How are people supposed to get into artistic flying internationally if they’ve never even heard of it because of no coverage?” She smirked, feeling like she was on a roll. “I have more than just my own power at my disposal… I’m on close terms with many from the media and the ministries. It wouldn’t be difficult to persuade them, I don’t think.”

She took another pause, taking several sips of her coffee, enjoying the caffeinated boost to get her through this somewhat nerve-wracking meeting. At least Aglaya was willing to look at the sketches, that was a very good start. “Great!” Lea breathed in relief, grabbing her bag and opening the clasp to begin rummaging through her bag to grab the sketches as she listened to the rest of what her friend was saying. “Oh, of course! I wouldn’t expect anything less!” Lea agreed, nodding her head fervently. That wasn’t a problem at all, she had designed for Quidditch stars before for their fancy gala events afterwards, and she’d always let them guide her. They had to be comfy and confident in her designs, of course. She was just the tool to help them create their vision and add some advice on the side.

Lea couldn’t hide her delight, gasping with glee as her eyes twinkled, as Aglaya said she’d even be willing to introduce her to other family members that currently worked on the costumes, that they could even collaborate, that she could have her own line! “I’d like that very much!” She beamed, holding the sketches in her hand and wondering if she should pull out the swatches too. “Well, here they are…” Lea gently placed them on the table, pushing them over to Aglaya’s side. “I wasn’t sure what colours you liked best, so I based them off of your costumes for the Europeans for now,” Lea explained, as she gazed at the golden catsuit drawing in front of Aglaya. “Of course, we can change that depending on your music for the next season.” She added, placing her hands under the table as they began to gently shake from nerves. She prayed that her friend would like them, she’d worked so hard on the idea of them, and that was quite rare for her.

“I can use chiffon or elastane fabric depending on your preference… I have the swatches of both if you need to feel them to make up your mind on that. But either way, the fabric will be reinforced and made waterproof. I’ve just mastered the charm to ensure that it’ll keep you warm when the arena is cold, and help keep you cool when it becomes too hot.” She smiled, quite proud of finally figuring it out when it took her a long to figure out how to make that work. It was simple on linen and cotton fabrics, but the real challenge had been on velour. “Oh, and the gems there won’t weigh you down, they’ll be as light as a feather.” She added, pointing out the crystals along the bodice.

Aglaya wondered why she had come to this meeting in the first place. She didn’t need Lea and if Lea needed help then she was foolish to look for it here. Aglaya was busy to say the least. She did not have time to spare for some social project. However, she was here now and that meant that she could as well listen to it all and see if, maybe, Lea’s proposal wasn’t quite so bad, after all.

When the younger witch said that it couldn’t be avoided that she’d benefit more from the collaboration than Aglaya herself, the artistic flyer nodded thoughtfully. That wasn’t really a problem for her. People usually wanted more from her than she did from them. She knew that she was more famous than maybe 99 % of the people she met. She was a champion, a star in the world of artistic flying.

“So,” Aglaya said, putting the soaked napkin down again, “I would like to know what you intend to do to improve the international coverage of artistic flying. How do you think you can persuade all these great people from the media and from the ministries that you are close to to support artistic flying more?” Her voice was cool, indicating that Aglaya did not believe that Lea could pull any strings.

However, while she was hardly enthusiastic about the prospect of working with Lea, Aglaya was seriously interested in seeing if her former schoolmate had any talent as a designer for artistic fyling outfits and it reassured her a little that Lea wasn’t opposed to working with her instead of just designing an outfit for her. Yet, Aglaya clearly didn’t want to waste a lot of time on this business collaboration and, therefore, quite liked the idea of introducing Lea to those members of her family that worked on the costumes now. It seemed as though the younger witch rather liked that idea, too, which was quite reassuring.

Aglaya tried to keep a neutral expression as she looked at the sketches. She had hoped for more creativity rather than Lea taking the colours of her previous costumes to work with. If she thought she’d impress her that way then she had clearly been mistaken. The artistic flyer’s opinion of Lea as a fashion designer wasn’t really high now that she saw the sketches and thought about how the other witch had agreed to work closely with her. To Aglaya that basically meant that she had no ideas of her own. She seemed more like a dressmaker than an actual designer but Aglaya thought that this was probably even better for their collaboration.

“Yeah,” she began, “I like that you grasp the general concept of an artistic flying outfit. It is indeed important that it’s reinforced and waterproof,” she acknowledged. Sometimes Aglaya wished that they’d just cast a spell over the arena so it wouldn’t rain there, but so far this wish hadn’t been granted.

“I’d like to see the swatches, of course,” she added. She needed to check if Lea was working with high quality fabric. If she wasn’t, then there was no point to keep talking about this any longer.

Lea gave a knowing smile, despite her heart beating quickly in her chest. She could tell that Aglaya probably didn’t believe her. The fashion designer was used to that by now, many people underestimated her. She supposed some of it was deserved, she wasn’t exactly the most reliable person in the universe. However, Lea knew that if there was one thing she was good at, it was wrapping people around her little finger and getting them to do what she wanted. “Well,” she began, grabbing her napkin and placing it under the table so that she could wring it to death. “It’s amazing how much having so many friends in high places can get you.” Lea stressed firmly, feeling that even now Aglaya probably didn’t have much in the way of friends and probably wouldn’t understand that without being explicitly told.

“Take good old König, for example. He’s a sports reporter who mainly covers Quidditch in Germany,” she added with a gossiping tone, as if she was telling Aglaya the most scandalous secret in the World. “If I can get three glasses of wine down him, then I can get him to do absolutely anything I want.” Lea had actually counted how many was necessary before. “He even let me stay at his super fancy place in Italy once, for free, for over a month. So, getting him to cover artistic flying every once and a while? Easy.”

“Now, at the French Ministry in their department of sport and whatnot, there is this big sourpuss called George. His greatest weakness is a velvet purple robe, obsessed with the idea… for some reason.” Personally Lea couldn’t see the allure, and she thought he’d look ridiculous in it but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make. “I’ve refused up until this point, but he’s desperate for one. I make that hideous robe for him and he’ll help me in return for sure.”

“And then there’s that weird lady from the Swedish radio show. They cover artistic flying only like... once a year.” Lea made a face at this, her dislike of the show and the rude lady very evident. “She won’t be persuaded by material means, but if I let her think she actually has a friend for once in her life, then she’d be like a putty in my hands, and she would easily cover more competitions in return.”

She took a sip of her drink as she waited for Aglaya to react or respond. Lea did her best not to let it show that she was extremely nervous. It wasn’t because Aglaya was important, or famous, or anything like that. After all, Lea had rubbed elbows with bigger stars than Aglaya (though she didn’t think Aglaya would appreciate hearing that there were more important people in the World than her) before and had been far less nervous dealing with them than she was now. This was different, because Aglaya’s opinion meant a lot to her, much more than others she had worked with before. She considered the elder witch a friend, and therefore her approval meant everything. She hadn’t had much approval from her family, so she sought it from others who meant something to her.

Lea had to stop herself before she rolled her eyes as Aglaya seemed to talk down to her. Obviously, she knew the general concept of what an artistic flyer would need, it didn’t take a genius to figure that out. Even a basic fan would probably realise that, having seen the outfits the athletes wore often enough. “Good.” Lea replied with a forced smile, taking another sip of her drink. There wasn’t much else to really say there.

“Really?” Lea breathed, mainly to herself, as she looked at her friend for a second, surprised that she had somehow made it as far as she had. “Great!” She rummaged in her bag to make sure she had the right swatches, pulling them out and laying them onto the table. The fashion designer had skipped her lower quality fabrics, not even bothering to bring them just in case. “I assumed price wouldn’t be a problem here.” Lea gently added, as she smoothed the chiffon and elastane out. “Personally, I think chiffon is better, but I’m not the one who’ll be jumping about in it.” Aglaya probably already knew this, and would probably cooly remind her of it despite Lea not needing to be reminded. It wasn’t her decision to make, it was the artistic flyer’s. Aglaya had to be comfy, of course. “Play about with them, stretch them out if you like, so you can see what you think before you make your mind up. You can keep them too, of course.”