[for Anya]

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina stared at the dress in the window with a little bit of longing. Something about being able to afford it made window shopping less fun, but she did it anyway, doing her best that she didn't have such a huge haul just sitting in her bank account. Even after helping Geralt with building his house in the woods, she still had more than enough.

If she were in Ketterdam, that money would have gotten her back to Ravka. She would have given it to the Second Army, or the king, or something. She didn't need it for herself. She didn't even really want it. She hadn't done the job for the money, she'd done it to help Matthias.

But Matthias was not in danger here, and there was no way to go home. Not even with five million kruge.

So she would window shop, and she would do her best to live a life in Darrow that didn't leave her bored to tears.

"I wonder if it comes in red," she said out loud. "Even if I have almost nowhere to wear it."

Comments

[homelovefamily]

"Yes...?" In an instantly Anya feels caught out and uncertain, like being plied with memories that only half add up in her mind or dancing when she only knows part of the steps and a little of the music. The moment comes and goes as Nina explains the familiarity. A sad little bubble bursts in her chest at the mention of Gleb, heart aching faintly.

"Oh, Gleb. Yes I know him very well." She wonders if she should say knew him well as all of that has seem to gone to pieces. The mention of the dog brightens her mood. "Ah yes, the little dog is mainly mine these days. His name is Pushkin, but I call him Sasha."

Nodding she smiles a bit brighter. "Oh yes. Down by Odessa it would get quite warm, but that was near a southern sea. Russia can have cool summers in places and warm winters in others, if you are willing to follow the seasons."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I keep thinking I might want a dog, or a cat or something... I've no idea how a cat would feel about Geralt," she said as she spied the dress they'd been looking at in the window. She tugged Anya along with her as she described Odessa.

"I was so happy when we got snow here in the winter. In Ketterdam the snow got dirty so fast, I almost wished it wouldn't happen at all." It was beautiful in the moment, but as soon as human activity resumed, it was grey and dreary.

[homelovefamily]

"Perhaps a dog or cat will just take up residence with you and you won't have to worry," she offers thinking of how Pushkin just settled into her life without much say. Once she had met him, she knew that she couldn't truly part with him.

Letting herself be tugged along by Nina as she talks, Anya sighs at the loveliness of the dress. Without the layer of glass and sunlight it is somehow even prettier. "Oh it is lovely," she remarks with a smile. "You should try it on, no matter the price."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Is it terrible to say I might get it if I like it enough? I really need to do something more worth while with this money," she sighed as she looked at the dress. Nina peered over at Anya.

"Will you try one on, too? Even if we decide not to."

Anya had a rather different body type than Nina did, and she was curious to see what it would look like on someone else.

[homelovefamily]

Years of lacking in nice things and the ability to have them makes Anya hesitate a moment before she answers. "No, I don't think that is terrible."

There are certainly more worthwhile things to spend such money on, but she understands the appeal of having something nice. Her fingers reach out to casually touch the fabric of one of the dresses on the rack. She nods before smiling.

"Yes. I will try one on. The same one in a different color or something else entirely?"