For Harry Goodsir

[every_blossom_blooming]

It's finally a beautiful day and Nina is taking the chance to run errands. She has Katya with her - she feels bad depending on her friends as much as she does. Besides, Frank is working most days now that construction season has picked up. She doesn't mind, of course - her daughter is rather delightful now that she's mostly sleeping through the night - but having an infant on one's chest does occasionally get cumbersome.

She hasn't quite been able to bring herself to embrace a stroller yet, though at the moment she's seeing the benefits. She has Katya in a sling against her chest and she has some bags slung over one shoulder.

"Saints, hold on little girl."

With a soft grunt, Nina leans down to set the bags on the ground and stands up again so she can see what Katya is fussing about. It can't be a diaper, she just changed her at the last shop.

"I know, darling, you've had a long morning." She murmurs sweetly in Ravkan at the baby, who happens to be wearing a watermelon dress. Someone bumps by her in a hurry and kicks over half her bags.

"Hey!" she snaps at their retreating back, scowling when she sees a phone held to an ear. A few packages roll out of the bag and onto the sidewalk. She knows she's off to the side but she's wearing red and she isn't exactly a slip of a thing, how do people miss her?

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[naturalmisery]

Harry sees it as it happens, the man knocking over the young woman's bags and simply hurrying on as her things roll out onto the walkway without stopping to help her. It's terribly rude and he hurries forward as quickly as he can, ducking to the road so he can collect the packages that have rolled away.

"Let me help," he says with a soft smile, taking care not to look at any of the things he's picked up, respecting her privacy. He rights the bags and begins to place the items back inside before he stands once more, holding the bags in his arms. Although he knows he's a stranger to her and in this world people seem to be more cautious than they would have been in London, Harry knows he can't very well simply leave her on her own with this.

"I can carry these if you'd like," he offers, then smiles at her baby. "It's only that you seem to have your hands full."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Thank you," she says with breathless gratitude to the man leaning down to pick up her bags. She's still angry and she can still see the man walking away. She keeps one arm around Katya but the other hand clenches into a fist and twists.

Ahead of them, the man on the phone yelps and practically falls into a light post. Good. Nina turns her attention to the man helping with her bags and she can't help but smile as he stands.

"Thank you," she says with a heavy sincerity. "I should just get myself a stroller but I haven't. Would you mind terribly? I'd be happy to get you coffee or lunch or something, if you'd like."

[naturalmisery]

"Oh, of course not," Harry answers. "And repayment wouldn't at all be necessary, I would be glad to help."

It's the right thing to do, the thing his mother and father would have expected from him without question, though it's become clear to Harry during his time in Darrow that not all people have been raised with the same sense of manners. So many people spend so much time on their telephones and Harry can barely bring himself to look at his own for longer than a moment or two. He understands their usefulness, but he doesn't under the obsession.

"My name is Harry," he tells her, knowing that is also polite. "Harry Goodsir. I'm terribly sorry about that man's appalling behaviour. It seems as though some people haven't an appreciation or awareness of the world around them."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Maybe it's not necessary, but I also hate eating alone. You'd be doing me another favor, if you think of it that way," she says with a charming smile. She is hungry. No one warned her that breastfeeding would make her ravenous.

"I'm Nina, it's nice to meet you. And this little melon is Katya. Honestly, I'm just thankful she's not howling."

Sometimes she swore the baby responded to her moods and the last thing Nina needs right now is an upset infant.

[naturalmisery]

"Well, in that case, it seems as though I must," he answers, quite aware she's creating a scenario for him to accompany her and not minding it at all. Though he still finds the very idea of settling in Darrow difficult, it's also something he knows he can't avoid and the doctors tell him regularly it will do him well to make more connections.

He can't rely so heavily on Zoe and Edgar as the two people he feels most connected to. He must branch out and meet others.

"I'm terribly pleased to meet you both," he says. "How old is Katya? She's very sweet."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Is there anything in particular you like? I'm not at all picky. It's probably a character flaw," she says with a bright smile. Nina adjusts Katya, lifting her out of the sling so the baby is resting more against her shoulder.

"She's three months, soon. Feels like it's been ages longer than that, but that might be the sleep deprivation," she says with a wry little smile.

[naturalmisery]

"Ah, well, I don't eat meat," he admits, knowing there are plenty of people in Darrow for whom that won't be typical. He's been generally met with little confusion when it comes to this reality, but some people have thought it quite a strange choice, and he hasn't had the capacity to explain it. It is an odd choice for a man of his time, as he well knows, but he simply can't. Maybe one day in the future he'll have forgotten what it was like, cutting into those men, but he doesn't anticipate that any time soon.

"But beyond that, my needs are simple," he adds. "I lived in canned provisions for three years and on strict ratios on top of that, so I certainly wouldn't call myself terribly picky."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I can work with that," Nina says happily. She knows a lovely vegetarian place that Inej introduced her to at some point during her pregnancy. "Can you eat fish or is that right off the list too?"

Nina makes a little face at the idea of living on canned provisions. "I was living on what I could scrape together to afford before I came here," she sighs. She doesn't look like she suffered much, she knows. She indulged whenever she could - if she was going to live in poverty, she was going to enjoy cake whenever she could have it.

[naturalmisery]

"I-" He pauses, considering, then says, "I really don't know. I've not tried since my arrival here. I feel like fish might not upset my system as much as other meats might."

He smiles then, in sympathy and commiseration. Before the Arctic, Harry had certainly never particularly wanted for anything. He'd come from a line of surgeons, men who had made acceptable incomes and provided well for their families, his father included, and before he'd joined the Royal Navy, his own college income had been more than sufficient. But in the Arctic, all that had changed.

"It can be difficult, yes?" he asks. "Having to live on whatever is most convenient."

[every_blossom_blooming]

(I'm sorry this is so late!!)

"Well, if you find you don't like it, I'm sure I'll eat it for you," she says with a little smile. Not that there will be fish on the menu wherever they end up, or that Harry will feel compelled to order it, but it's a possibility.

"It's exhausting," she sighs. "I arrived in Ketterdam with nothing. I wasn't exactly living in luxury before, but-- I'd never had to worry about being hungry."

Nina tucks her hair back and smiles as she points out the little restaurant she's bringing them to. "Here we are. Maybe now I won't get dirty looks for being out and about with a baby alone."

It doesn't happen often, she'll admit that. Darrow and it's social sensibilities is fairly open and accepting, but. Some people will always have opinions about single mothers. Even if they don't say anything, Nina knows the look well now.

[naturalmisery]

"Why should you?" Harry asks, peering at Nina and the baby curiously. Women in London often went about town with their children and not their husbands, usually because they were working to take care of their family financially. For Harry, a woman alone with her child seems to be the most natural thing in the world.

He steps forward to open the door for Nina, gesturing for her to go in ahead of him, then follows close behind. The restaurant is small, which he likes immediately, as there are still moments when Harry feels the closeness of the city pressing in on him. After the Arctic, most of Darrow seems too small and too close. A place like this is a relief.

[every_blossom_blooming]

"You'd be surprised," she says dryly. "Some of the mothers I took classes with are uh-- well. I'm sure they didn't approve of how I did things."

It probably didn't help that she kept showing up with different men - and sometimes Inej - to her prenatal classes. Frank and Sweeney, in particular, had been excellent for attracting uncertain looks. Tommy seemed downright respectable next to them.

"I think at some point there was a running pool betting who the father is."

[naturalmisery]

"I should think that's none of their business," he says, although he can understand how such people might respond. Certainly a woman alone with her children would have been normal in his time, but a woman with children and without a husband would have absolutely raised eyebrows. Still, he thinks it's a bit foolish for others to concern themselves.

He smiles a little, looking over at Nina. "You should have joined in. Placed your own bet. Then doctored the results so you were able to take their money from them."

To bet on such a thing is crass and impolite. Taking their money would have been her right, he thinks, to have to put up with such behaviour from them.