Lucky O'Cléirigh

After an awkward dinner where I speak as uncharacteristically little as possible for fear of saying something stupid infront of my sister and her husband, I stand in quiet solitude out on the terrace.. Sipping on my glass of white wine, I look out over the twinkling buildings that surround my sister's midtown apartment.. The city is so peaceful from above..

Behind me the glass door slides open and I turn to see Konstantin step a shiny leather Oxford out into the brisk night air.. He sets his highball down on the table and taps at a packet of white labeled cigarettes.. Joining me by the balustrade he holds the shiny white box out to me in offering..

I lift a hand to politely decline.. "Oh no, thank you, but I don't smoke.."

He smirks a teasing smile as he sticks the cigarette between his lips and I watch the way it bounces as he speaks.. "Of courze.. Amerikos, the healthy humanitarianz have washed clean 'zat beautiful brain.. You are one of 'zem!"

He pauses and chuckles dryly with the click of his tongue, taking the cigarette from his mouth and wagging a teasing finger in disapproval.. "Tsk tsk, Malishka.. Smoking iz bad."

I can't entirely tell if he is being sarcastic or if he is serious, but I assume he is kidding because the way he smiles is insultngly iridescent, like a grizzly bear with a mouthful of white diamonds.. He sticks the smoke back between his lips before digging through his pockets to find a book of matches..

"I'm not American.." I argue playfully as I peer at him over the rim of my wine glass, taking a stabilising gulp to calm my knotted nerves.. "I'm lucky enough to be Irish!"

"Da, krasivaya!" He cheers, lifting his palms together in praise.. "You are Irlandtsy, like Grace O'malley.."

I swirl the wine in the glass and squint at him with a snicker.. He is so straightforward and sardonic that it is impossible to read his humour.. "You mean the Irish pirate queen?"

He grins back at me in wicked delight.. "Ah, so you know thiz story?"

"O'course I do.. She commanded over twenty ships and two hundred men.." Feeling flushed and fidgety I finish my drink a little too fast.. "I'm just surprised that you know it!"

He takes a step closer to stand beside me, leaning his elbows against the rail and tipping his head back to look up at the sky.. "Fearsome, they say she waz.. I appreciate thiz type ov' v'woman."

I can smell his masculine scent of liquorice and smoke in the air and something about what he is saying sounds like a dare.. Like he is testing me, to find out if I am fearsome.. Or maybe he is teasing me by saying I am not.. I can't quite figure him out..

"That is what they say.." I watch as he strikes a match and when my curiosity reaches its tipping point, I succumb to the pressure of his challenge.. "Actually.. I will take one."

He stares at me with his gooey golden gaze for a second and I bravely reach up to pluck the cigarette from between his lips.. "A cigarette-- I wanna try one.."

He chuckles and shakes out the flame, reaching into his pocket to take another one of the euro-branded cigarettes from the pack for himself.. "Vury well.."

I bring it to my lips and he strikes a second match, holding it up for me to light the end of my smoke.. I suck on it like a straw with no idea what I'm doing while he lights his own smoke using the same match, watching me with twinkling eyes and taunting amusement..

I inhale and nearly choke to death, coughing and wheezing when I find the habit is as nasty as I'd imagined it to be.. "Oh god, Konstantin! That's bloody disgusting!"

Reaching out I take his glass from the table and steal a mouthful, innocently assuming it is water..

Wrong!

It is straight Vodka, the burn of it slices it's way down my throat.. "Oh god! You let me drink that! You're a monster!"

He laughs as I sputter and scrunch up my face in horror.. "Da, iz good! Dizgusting sometimez iz sexy and Vodka iz vury healthy for you.. The cigarettes 'zey kill me, but 'ze Vodka it keepz me alive.."

My cheeks burn and I smile stupidly at him as he draws on his smoke to exhale a billowing plume that dissipates on the soft evening breeze.. "You think smoking is sexy?"

He is not wrong about the sexy part.. I've never seen anything more erotic than the way he sucks on his cigarette, the way he twists it between his fingers and flicks the ashy debris from the end.. The rest of it, I'm not so sure about.. Somehow I don't think Vodka is part of a balanced diet..

"Da, Malishka.." He leans forward with a mischievous wink.. "It iz sexy to me, to see you with 'zat cigarette between thoze pretty pink lips, how you suck and blow.."

My heart leaps to my throat as I consider taking up the terrible habit permanently just to have him look at me the way he is..

As I open my mouth to make a joke about sucking and blowing to ease my fluttering butterflies, Hunter pulls open the door and I toss the cigarette down with a jump.. A wildly guilty reaction to getting caught doing something bad..

Except I'm an adult!

I'm almost twenty two for crying out loud!

So why do I still feel like a kid about to be scolded?

Axe frowns between us both, calling out our childish behaviour.. "Don't let Kirby catch you guys smoking out here, she's been tryin' to keep off 'em.. And If she can't have em, no one can.. Including me.."

Konstantin begins to pace across the terrace tiles, counting out his steps, four steps one way and four steps back.. His demeanor is calm and unbothered.. "I will take my chancez, Comrade.. 'Ze little shark doez not much scare me.."

I giggle at his fearless statement and Hunter shakes his head.. "I'm the one you should be scared for, bro.. I gotta live with her.." My brother in law turns his disappointment on me instead.. "I expect it from him, but you're better than this bullshit, Ducky!"

Hunter leaves us to our mischief and returns inside, pulling the door closed before he shuts the curtain, hiding us so that we can't be seen from the living room..

Protecting me from my sister's judgment.. That is the kind of man Hunter is.. Thoughtful and overprotective..

Konstantin pauses his pacing as we share a look of amusement with each other and begin to laugh.. I snicker into my hand.. "Oh dear, Poor Hunter.. He seems a little tense.."

Konstantin grins.. "He haz alwayz been thiz way.. He haz -- how 'ze Americanetsy say-- 'A stick up 'ze azz'?"

I choke with laughter.. "Oh my god, Konstantin! You can't say that!"

He shrugs and resumes his pacing, taking a hefty drag of his cigarette as he strides back and forth, never more than four steps in either direction.. "I did already say it, Malishka.."

"Naw, I don't actually mean you can't-- I mean you shouldn't.." I shake my head, still smiling as I lean back against the railing.. "I feel bad.. He's my brother.. Actually he's me my best friend and he's been really good to me.. Besides, he needs that stick to take on Kirby.. She's-- scary.."

"Da.." He nods in agreement.. "She iz Grace O'Malley.."

With a sigh of self pity I turn away.. To hear him praise her is almost painful.. Kirby was always the special one.. Smarter than me.. More beautiful than me.. More Confident and Independent.. Just better in every way.. "I don't think I'll ever be fearsome.. Not like her.. She protects people, you know? She makes the city safe, she makes the world a better place.. She's like a superhero.. And all I do is take pictures.."

Konstantin pauses his pacing and considers me for a long moment.. "The picturez you take, zey are important, Malishka.. Kirby could not be doing her job without 'zem, 'zat is how ze system here works, iz it not? You are-- ah-- making 'ze evidence available for 'ze trials.. Da?"

I blink at him, amazed that he seems to know what I do.. "Well.. Yeah, you're right.."

Come to think of it.. I don't actually remember ever telling him about my work..

Has Kirby been talking about me to him?

Why would she do that?

"Your picturez make the world a better place.. There iz an impact for every death, a family seeking closure, justice to be done.. To have thiz, many would suffer less.."

"You say that as if you've seen suffering for yourself.." I whisper, confronted by his eerie softness and desperate to know what he means..

"Da, I know suffering.. Do not think of yourself az so insignificant, Solnyshko.."

"Sol-nish-ko?" I repeat the exotic word and he smirks, reaching out to trail his fingers through the ends of my lose golden strands..

"Mhm.. It iz meaning-- 'little sunshine'."

"Oh.." My cheeks burn with humiliation and happiness all at once.. I breathe a sigh of gratitude.. "You really think I'm sunshine?"

He puffs out a billow and beams back at me.. "This iz not what I think, Luchenskaya, thiz iz what I know."

He says my name in his own way, like 'Luck-chen-ska', and my heart squeezes at the familiar and affectionate tone to it..