Attempt Two
Marya was raised under three values: respect, diligence, and dignity. It had never occurred to the redhead-a woman so confident in all that she managed to do-that one day these values may be put to the test. She had heard stories of the Kuragins before meeting any of them. She knew the reputation of Helene once she walked in, though Helene had twisted that perception in a way its realism didn’t feel so off putting. There was something in her-something more than spite that told the woman in crimson she would be running into the daughter of the Kuragin family again.
Helene was known to be a sultry woman with knowledge of her title and reflection in the mirror. Aline was known to be a quiet, agreeable mother.
Yet only one of these statements was true.
Marya may have been only a few years into the allowance to drive, but she was always taught to give and receive respect. She did not stoop low, and similarly expected to be addressed with the same politeness she offered. Those habits had worked for years and gained her a reputation of behaving twice her age. So when the Aline Kuragina’s words reached her ears, Marya froze.
“Why would you defer my daughter’s happiness?”
“Pardon?” Marya wasn’t sure she heard the woman right-she was in denial that she had with the smile on her lips that showed the most artificial set of teeth she’d ever seen. In fact, her whole expression resembled that of plastic dolls Marya had played with or begged for at the store in her childhood.
“You’re Marya Dmitrievna, aren’t you?” Marya nodded, suspicion still in her eyes. “I must say, Marya, that your parents have done an excellent job building the brand for their company,” Her smile didn’t change, but the glacial temperature of her gaze seemed to make the hair on the back of the redhead’s neck stand up. “And you, even as a young woman, have quite the reputation built up already,”
Marya wasn’t sure if that was meant to be a compliment, but offered a dignified, “Thank you, Mrs. Kuragin,” nonetheless.
“-So I just wanted to know, Marya,” She set her glass down on a small marble table, lowering her voice yet making it even more offhanded, “Why you have decided to tarnish it almost as soon as you arrived here from abroad,”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Marya feared she knew exactly what it meant, but convinced herself to stomach it.
“You are supposedly loyal and yet you are that doesn’t apply to your friend’s happiness, does it?” Marya opened her mouth to respond, yet the sounds were muted. “Let me advise you, dear, since your parents seemed to have turned you loose a little too early-” She took a small step forward, resting pale bejewled fingers on Marya’s shoulders, “You can make your reputation self-serving if you do it right. You can sabotage your friends’ relationships, but you must own it,”
“That isn’t what I am doing,” Marya couldn’t help the heat rising to her face, jaw clenching. “These are some very strong accusations you are saying,”
“Accusations do not apply to facts, dear,”
“I spoke to Helene at the open bar and that is all,” Marya did not lie. She was a truthful woman, raised to be such, but this woman did not warrant anything more than Marya’s growing distaste. In fact, Aline seemed to deserve more fire than the patience and tolerance Marya was offering her.
“Well, you didn’t allow my Helene and Pierre to chat and get to know each other when clearly they wanted to!” Aline exclaimed, her tone playful, but Marya was not as absent-minded as it seemed this woman expected of her.
Marya’s eyes squinted slightly. “Why do you care?”
“Because I want my daughter to be happy,”
“Do you?”
-------------------
Two things changed from the last time Marya and Helene crossed paths: Marya approached Helene, and Helene seemed to have an ounce of shame tied to her name.
“Your mother is something, Helene,”
The sound of her voice made Helene jump, whipping around to face her with wide eyes. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what she-”
‘Sorry for me?” Something about Helene was different this time. Fortunately, Marya’s fire seemed to bring them back to something familiar. Helene laughed in a way that felt more genuine than anything Marya had ever witnessed from her.
“They’re a little uptight sometimes…”
Marya rubbed her hand down her face. “You know that leash comment I made the other day was supposed to be a joke,” Helene smiled back at her as if the words hadn’t phased her. Helene was used to this. Used to her father shoving his ideals down her throat until she couldn’t breathe. She was used to him shoving a drink in her hand and telling her to smile. He knew she wasn’t having a good time, and she knew he didn’t care. She would bite the bullet and sat she loved them, flaws and all. Helene did not simply step out of line; that was Anatole’s job. Even then, he would not pull anything at an event like this. They’d been trained for the world, and when it was watching, they were careful.
Helene used to be careful.
Helene was careful and she was cautious, but when there was alcohol and embarassment running through her veins, Helene did the one thing she knew how to do- the one thing she knew she was good at, the one thing she could predict and control-and grabbed Marya's drink out of her hand, setting it down. Pretending things were fine was about confidence, not comfort. The movement felt rushed, and Marya could feel that it was, but she let Helene take control in an instant. To be fair, Marya wasn't sure it was up for debate.
Two near strangers, two women barely on a first name basis sent Marya's drink to the ground with how hard her back was pushed against the wall. Helene almost laughed, looking up at this woman a good amount taller than herself. She felt the danger hit the very back of her conscience- perhaps the wall wasn’t her smartest move.
“What are you thinking about?” Marya’s voice was hazy, coming out in a baited breath as she eyed the brunette a bit more intently. Slowly, the taller of the two tilted her head. “You okay?”
The question was all Helene needed to snap herself into things again. She wasn’t losing it. She wasn’t because she refused to. Instead, Helene forced her eyes to focus down on the red fabric of Marya’s dress. What it would look like against the mahogany colored laminate flooring of the guest bedrooms-
"If you want to make a move-" Her voice was as soft as breeze through Petersburg nights, but her grip was harsh and decisive, grabbing the redhead by the collar and yanking her forward. "You can,"
Pierre had been right with what he said a week prior. She had always gravitated towards the company of more quiet individuals. Sonya, Mary, and Pierre were all a kind of person that encompassed everything Helene wasn't. It was alluring and Marya had pointed this out to herself before. It was dangerous and it was wrong, but it was everything Marya needed right now. She needed this as a ‘fuck you’ to that family who demeaned her in the middle of the meeting hall. Yet as soon as she had made that choice, Helene’s hands had her wrists again and marya couldn’t help the low growl of impatience.
Helene decided she wanted Marya, and Helene got everything she wanted.
Helene did not want Marya to kiss her. Not yet. When Marya leaned, Helene's hands stopped her immediately.
"Don't hold back," The roughness to her voice surprised Helene, shown by a small squeal of delight. But even then, the woman clad in green did not let her hands off the wall. She did not control her finances, or her relationships, or hell even her body, but she did control this. “You shouldn’t tease,”
“But I want to tease,” Helene pointed out, curling her lips ever-so-slightly. “Are you really in a position to deny me of that right now?” Helene laughed, but there was something unexpectedly weighted in the way she looked over her again.
“Are you okay?” Marya asked the question for the second time, and Helene jumped in alarm as if the words were a scream. Their eye contact was too long.
“What?”
“Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you clearly aren’t,”
“What makes you say that to someone you barely know?”
“Because your eyes are watering,”
“They are not,”
“They are,” Marya swallowed hard, taking a moment to recover from the rapid fire while Helene pulled her hands away, frowning. “And you are shaking,”
“You don’t have the title right now to be asking that,” Helene huffed, pulling away sharply. The shift was too sudden for Helene, yet the redhead didn’t have the ability to backtrack when she’d dug her grave this deep. Either way, Marya wasn’t sure she wanted to crawl out of it; Marya was a woman of respect, but she was one of courtesy and compassion as well. To leave someone clearly stressed out went against everything Marya stood for. Her concern meant more than any revenge sex-that much was certain.
“It’s an observation-”
“I’m fine,”
“I don’t see any harm in telling me, especially when as you said-”
“I said I am fine,” Helene snapped, taking another step towards a retreat. “We were having a great time, and you-”
“You were not having a great time. Don’t lie,” Marya pointed out with a gruffness; she wasn’t sure whether it was the tone or the words that caused Helene to snap, but she could see it like a rubber band reaching its capacity.
Helene's back straightened, head turning down the hall. Marya watched in dreaded silence as Helene cleared her throat. “I am going now,”
“Helene please tal-”
“I will see you at dinner,”
It was the second time Marya watched Helene walk away.