Chapter Text
The plane crashes.
Double engine failure and fire everywhere. They’d barely gotten in the air before it happens.
He looks around at his team and absurdly thinks, this wasn’t supposed to happen yet. I was supposed to have more time. Something about the scene is wrong. The answers are at the edge of his mind, but there are far more pressing things to be thinking about right now.
He puts himself in the brace position as instructed and fights back the tears behind his eyes. He clings to the gold cross on his necklace and thinks of his mama and what lies for him on the other side.
He hasn’t had a good life, he thinks. Seventeen years and some change, and all of them spent in Russia, enduring screams and thrown objects at home and at practice. One golden person among it all; her light fading slowly, slowly, and then suddenly blinking out. Five years of darkness.
At least, for whatever it’s worth, he got out of Russia. Not for long, but he did get out. That feels important.
The plane crashes and he starts to hum an old lullaby softly to himself. Tries to keep his mother’s face in his mind.
The plane crashes and he thinks of a few days ago. A blistering cold afternoon. A deserted parking lot. Dark eyes and a firm handshake.
The plane crashes.