Is it really you? - Yakov (fremtidsemne)

Yakov nodded. It was no surprise to be fair. "I did too for many years. I still do sometimes. We'll figure out something that works for both of us." Hopefully they wouldn't trigger each other, but rather help getting the other on track again. At least Yakov didn't scream often anymore, now it was more... flashbacks where he needed to ground himself before calming down.

It did fill him with warmth to hear that Alexei still trusted him, despite everything. Sure, Yakov had changed a lot in his morals, but personality-wise he was very much the same, so hopefully the boy wouldn't feel too much of a difference. He'd shield him from the less... Nice parts that had emerged since he fell.

Downstairs, he walked into the kitchen, that was connected to the living room and filled a kettle with water to make Alexei some tea. For himself, he pulled out a mug and got ready to make a quick cup of coffee. "It's a long story really," he started his explanation, while working in the kitchen. "I stayed in Denmark until your grandmother passed away - from old age, don't worry - and then I just... Kinda travelled the world. I travelled around a lot for about a hundred years, moved to a new country at least every five years to avoid any suspicion about my age. Germany, France, Spain, Nigeria, Hong Kong... I even lived in Russia after the Soviet Union was dissolved - only for a few months though, I'm not a fan of communism," he started, leaning against the kitchen countertop.
"Anyway, two and a half years ago, I decided to... settle down for a little longer. Travelling was fine, but it got boring and lonely to be frank and then I heard about Gaia from an old acquaintance I met in Paris. My age wouldn't be a problem here, and I decided to seek out a less ostentatious job than before and well... Here I am, trying to teach teens to speak Russian and how to fence." He didn't really want to tell Alexei that it was kind of a coverup for... Less legal matters. The angel didn't need to know that.

Alexei nodded, with just a small, soft smile. "At least the psychiatrist is doing a very good job. I... The coping mechanisms are working rather well, at the very least. And... If I'm to be completely honest... Having you nearby... I'm sure it'll make things easier for me, too. Just... Just a slight semblance of things being how they used to be. Even if... I guess... We're both sort of broken, right now." he sighed. One could hope they would be able to help mend each other, just a little, at the very least.

Sitting there in the couch, back straight, posture the one he had been taught to have his entire childhood, Alexei calmly watched the other angel, heard him explain - and as expected, he had been all sorts of places, while Alexei... Well, he didn't quite know what his soul had been doing for these 102 years. It had really just felt like he had justgotten killed - and woke up five minutes later in the middle of a cold, snowy forest. No recollection of anything happening in between those two segments. How and why it had taken so long - he did not know, but he was just happy that he had found Yasha again. And... Well, even if it was a broken version he had returned to... He wasn't going to dwell on that. He was going to look on the positive side, and ignore the negatives.

He chuckled a little bit at the last part. "I'm guessing some of the students really butcher our language, don't they?" he joked, just to lighten the mood a little. In general, it seemed to be rather difficult for people of non-Slavic countries to learn it properly without some kind of awful accent on top of it. "But, well... At least, now I'm very happy I looked at the possible subjects and fencing caught my eye," he then said, a bright smile on his lips. Otherwise, it might've taken a very long time before he'd have randomly seen Yakov on the hallways of the school.

"It's good that you're getting help," Yakov was a little... well, not jealous. But he sure wished that mental illness had been more readily treatable than it was back in the early 1920's. Even just a psychiatrist could've probably prevented a lot of Yakov's current issues. But he didn't really want to talk to anyone now, he did fairly well, all things considered.

The question pulled a chuckle from Yakov's lips. "Your father would turn in his grave if he could hear it, it's terrible! There are very few East Slavs in my classes who are alright, even a few Scandinavians, but most of them are British kids who decided that Russian would be more fun to learn than French because they've heard someone on the internet say cy- well... Some not so nice things," he rolled his eyes, and while Alexei probably couldn't see it, it was almost audible as he spoke.
Meanwhile, he pulled out a mug and poured the now boiling water into it, and started his little coffee maker, which in just a few minutes would make him a perfectly fine cup of coffee. While that was brewing, he started pulling out some teas, not even considering what to take, as he just did everything from memory. Earl grey, with a little bit of honey to sweeten it just a bit - something he often did behind Alexandra's back, as she, as a proud brit, never would've let her son drink sweetened tea. He let it all steep for just a few minutes, before pulling the teabag our and bringing the two mugs into the living room.

"I am too. You won't get out of class this easily again though, I don't want anyone thinking I have favourites," he said, voice a lot softer at first, before turning to a more joking tone. He'd like to think he was a fair teacher. Not even Sam who he had... adult fun-time with, got any special treatment, much to the siren's dismay. He handed the tea to Alexei, before sitting down on the couch next to the tsarevich. "What about you? You said you woke up in Yekaterinburg in November, but how did you end up in Gaia?" he asked, before taking a sip of his coffee.

"With all that I've read... I'm sort of... Very thankful that this is the era I was sent back to," he said, twiddling his thumbs a little as he'd folded his hand in his lap. He had read more than enough about asylums back in the day to know he'd probably have been put in one, if people had gotten to know about any issues like this, back then. But at least, today, psychological illnesses were much better understood and treatment a lot more varied, and readily available.

Alexei couldn't help it as that brought a laugh from his lips. "Is that really any different from when I - in secret, I thought, until Mama came and scolded me - asked Pierre for all of the naughty words in French?" the laugh teetered off into a small chuckle. Though he had been mostly well-behaved, he had still had those small moments. Just like that dinner party where he had stolen that boring lady's shoe as well. It got boring just staying near the palace since you couldn't risk getting injured, after all. So he'd had to get his fun elsewhere.

When he got his tea, he smiled a little, when he could already smell that it was his favorite one... And sweetened ever so softly as it had always been when the angel had made it for him. "... You still remembered, huh..." he said, the smile softening a little. So many years had passed... And still, Yakov remembered the little things... "And I'm not looking to be treated any differently, either. I mean - not I can go get injured without getting deathly ill from it. I just want to feel like a normal teenager, now that I can."

"Anyway... I... Well, as I've told you, Michael was the one to find me. You know - he arch angel? Anyway... He brought me to a hotel in town, taught me the most basic stuff over the next while. How to fly, what tv's and computers were, how the basic cellphones work, that sort of thing. And then suggested that I travel over here, as there would be more people ready to help me at the school. So, I sold the jewels I had - you remember, the ones Mama told me and my sisters to sow into our underwear so the bolsheviks wouldn't find them? - and that gave me more than enough money to get over here. I only started classes now, since both the psychiatrist and the doctors told me it would be better to wait until I was both physically and mentally better. But I've been here since the start of the year. Only reason I could get into the country without a passport was because Michael helped me in the direction of a witch who knew teleportation spells."

"It's very different - you were a child! These people are technically adults, but act like hormonal teenagers," Yakov seemed pretty disgruntled by the mere thoughts of his students, but it was all said with a small smile to show he wasn't too serious. He actually enjoyed teaching a lot more than he thought he would. It gave him a purpose that wasn't entirely self-serving which some parts of him were very happy about.

When Alexei pointed out that Yakov remembered how to make the tea for Alexei, the older Russian was actually surprised himself. "Huh. I didn't really think about it to be honest," he replied before taking a sip of his coffee. "Well, I hope your tastes haven't changed too much in the past year," he then added, chuckling slightly awkwardly. Thinking back, he could probably still make the drink that all of the Romanovs preferred. Probably even Mikhail's if he was honest. "Modern medicine sure has changed the world. Imagine if your mom could've gotten you medicine, rather than a charlatan," he muttered, still a little miffed that Alexandra had hired a priest, especially when the Romanovs had an actual guardian angel with healing blood.

Yakov listened intently to Alexei's explanation, occasionally sipping his coffee. It was strange to think that Alexei had just... Existed here for almost a year. If he ever met the archangel... Well, Yakov would probably thank him, but he wouldn't be too nice about it. He was still a little pissed about the whole we're all children of god, but still getting ditched after 322 years of servitude. Like what the hell was he supposed to do, stop the revolution single-handedly? But Yakov kept listening, nodding his head when appropriate.
"I'll keep an eye out for him. I suppose I owe him a thank you. Whether or not he knew it, he brought you back to me after all," Yakov said, a soft smile on his lips, as he put a hand on Alexei's knee and gave it a light squeeze. "So how do you like it here? It's quite different from Russia in 1918." he asked, keeping up the Smalltalk. Sure, he really wanted to talk to... well, all of the Romanovs really, but no matter if he could talk to them or not, Alexei was actually alive and there - and that mattered the most.

"... So what you're saying is they're acting the way I should, given my... Well... Mental age, I guess?" he chuckled - his body may be 17 in looks, and he may have been born all the way back in 1904, but... His consciousness, so to speak, was 'just' 14, about to turn 15. But then again, he had always been told he was a bit of a precocious child. Almost always having acted older than he was - he guessed that living with a - back then - certain death looming over you because of the illness, it had made him appreciate everything more, think about everything a bit more, than other kids his age usually did.

"Not that I've ever really acted much of my age, have I?" Even his big sister, Olga, had been rather surprised when she'd found him lounging by the lake near the summer palace, one day, when he was ten... Asked him what he was thinking about, to which he'd answered that he'd been thinking about sort of everything, and just enjoying the summer since he didn't know if it would be the last one he'd ever see.

That was just before Yakov had been sent out to get them inside for dinner, that day. He didn't know if the angel had heard that conversation, but he had a hunch he might have, because he remembered so vividly the tender look he'd had on his face as he called them inside. He raised the cup of tea to his lips, taking just a small sip as it was still rather hot. "And don't worry... My tastes are pretty much the same." he chuckled.

"And yes..." Alexei sighed. "I told her on numerous occasions to not thank him for me getting better, but you... She just shushed me each and every time." he muttered, seeming just a bit bitter about that as well. He'd never really liked Rasputin, especially not when the guy gladly took all the credit for Yakov saving him time and time again. He'd only been civil around Rasputin because his mother had expected him to be, and his father had told him to go along with it to make her happy.

"I'm certainly very thankful he was there right after I'd returned... Or I could possibly have just kept wandering that forest and... Who knows... Bumped into a demon or something," he muttered, looking down at his cup of tea before taking another sip of it. "It's still a lot to take in, there's new things everyday - but I'm kinda happy to be back. And then I guess it's just a good thing I've always been a fast learner." he said, and shrugged. he'd always loved to learn, too - the more stuff he could get to know about, the better.

And now... Well, there was a ton of stuff to begin learning. He was still working his way through history books and documentaries, as well. "But I do like this era already. I mean, of course there's still pitfalls here and there, but the world has always had those... And there's so many other things there's been so much progress with."