Chapter 427: Perhaps This Smelled Like Home

[FROLO]

While the city was burning, and the realm was preparing for the worst of the worst...

While everything seemed to be falling apart for the citizens of Frolo and their desire to get things in order, Sergei Moskowsky, Katya Romanov, Yaroslav, Anya, Rastenkin, and even the Romanov parents were having lunch at a restaurant in the middle of the city...

... where everyone could see them.

They looked like a happy, whole family without anything to worry about. It was quite the opposite of everything.

Hell, they even had the nerve to laugh at whatever joke was among them while the televisions around them broadcast live feeds of the government sending the best operatives to Romanov Steel.

The nonchalance was baffling.

Dangerous even.

Because the government had absolutely no reason to charge Sergei Moskowsky or even Mr. Romanov.

They were only hoping that by going to conduct another raid on Romanov Steel, they would be able to get the Romanovs to convince the Moskowskys to stand down and stop the pointless battle.

Besides, if they went after Romanov, everyone knew Sergei would react.

But then the entirety of the Moskowsky and Romanov families was at a café, unbothered by anything that was happening around them.

It was even more shocking than the fact that today, Mr. Romanov was seated beside his wife and Yaroslav Moskowsky sat on his left. They were chatting like a normal family when there was an entire war with them.

What the hell kind of madness was this?

"He is scared of chicken," Rastenkin said suddenly, and Sergei froze.

Anya snickered while Yaroslav and the rest of the table stared in disbelief, like that couldn’t really be the one thing the most dangerous man in Frolo was terrified of. It made no sense that the man was scared of poultry.

"The thing we just ate right now?" Yaroslav asked, still not believing that his father was that much of a coward. There was just no fucking way this was real right now. Perhaps at the end of the day there was more to it, right?

"Vladimir?" Katya asked when he noticed Sergei sulking.

This was definitely going into the history books as the most unserious moment of Sergei Moskowsky. There was no way this could be justified.

"I am not," Sergei grumbled, determined to keep his sanity in front of the parents of the man he loved. Surely Rastenkin would cut him some slack, right?

"We used to have a farm some time back, and he hated chickens because they were noisy. So to get him to resolve his issues with the damn things, we locked him up for seven hours," Anya said like it was the most normal of things.

Meanwhile, Masha, Katya, and Yaroslav held back snickers.

Even Mr. Romanov, who was doing a good job pretending to be nonchalant, smiled at the thought of a Sergei stuck in the same room as chickens.

"In my defense, he had tried to murder me in my sleep with his blade because I made him go to school at dawn... the school demanded that, not me. The little shit couldn’t take it out on the teachers, so he chose me.

"And he couldn’t even try with Anya because Anya would kill us both if she found out we skipped," Rastenkin said, like it had happened just yesterday.

Sergei, on the other hand, was just looking everywhere but at anyone at the table. He couldn’t believe his greatest fear was being outed right here.

And he couldn’t even complain so much because the last time Anya made him write apology letters, he had walked out of work smelling like blue ink and wood that was used to make the damn papers.

"I was not that bad," Sergei tried to defend, and Rastenkin laughed before continuing:

"You strangled me in the barn when I was milking goats. If Anya hadn’t shown up on time, I would have been dead, you demon spawn. That was not the last of it.

"The one time the school said they would be going on a trip, this little shit bargained with me to not let him go," Rastenkin said, not giving Sergei the reprieve the alpha clearly needed from the madness his father figure was airing in front of his very respected in-laws.

Oh, there would be no getting out of this after lunch.

Why exactly was Rastenkin still talking about his embarrassing past?

"What did father bargain for?" Yaroslav asked, giving a lot of clear cues.

Then again, it wasn’t daily that there were memories like these shared between them. He didn’t even know his father was really a crazy boy from the beginning. And that was the kind of thing he was determined to hear more of.

"He said to bring him some of the herbs he was allergic to, so he could fall sick and not go, and in exchange, he would not try to kill me for three days...

"I have never chosen peace that fast," Rastenkin said, and the entire table burst out laughing at a horrified Rastenkin being so happy about the relief.

"Ahh, so you thought you two shits were clever," Anya said.

Rastenkin stopped laughing suddenly, scooting closer to Masha like the Romanov woman was his only safe place right now.

"I managed you two for long; of course, I knew he didn’t need to go. I only let him be because he had improved his grades from the last semester.

"Otherwise, I would have tied you both beside the bus and made sure you went," Anya said casually, while Rastenkin and Sergei swallowed thickly.

"You’re really scared of chicken??" Katya’s soft voice interrupted the chaos.

Everyone once again broke into fits of laughter, unbothered by the fact that on the television, the convoy that had been sent to investigate Romanov Steel had just been blown to bits and some of the soldiers had been killed.

"They can fly!" Sergei complained, an explanation he had given Rastenkin all those years ago and one that he’d give forever.

"They were just three hens and their chicks. You were eleven, you little shit," Rastenkin said.

Sergei breathed in and out, like he was chasing away the horrible memories of what he had seen inside that hen house.

"He tried to kill the hens and successfully failed; hence his fears of chickens. If you bring them here right now, he would probably go into shock and never speak to any of us again," Anya snickered.

"Absolutely noted, and here I thought the only person that scared you the most was Papa," Yaroslav said subconsciously before silence befell the table at the mention of Vitya.

Oh, Vitya Moskowsky.

Katya looked at the faces that had slumped, at how that was a topic that seemed to trigger a lot, but he knew Yaroslav was just talking about his father.

Not the man who had died and left a blank space.

Katya understood so well.

"He’s scared of Miss Anya’s apology letters too," Katya said, laughing as the table quietly came back to life.

Sergei smiled in earnest, squeezing Katya’s hand in appreciation for saving the day.

And the Romanov and Moskowsky family went on talking about mundane things while the world exploded around them.

Yaroslav smiled thankfully at Katya before he went back to teasing his father about chicken.

Only when there was another explosion on television did they stop and groan like this was not what they wanted.

"Masha and Katya are staying with me. The rest of you go do your jobs," Anya said to the men.

"I am not scared of chicken," Sergei said begrudgingly as Rastenkin dragged him away.