Makarovia! Yes, I Know Where That is! Sophomore Year - 3. Chapter 3

I didn’t like that there might be something more going on. Yet, there were things that were, how do I say it? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it usually isn’t true. Since we had time and Peter wasn’t hungry anymore, we looked at the rest of the house. We went into a room half the size of the living area that had a grand piano. To me, it was nice, again with the higher ceiling and moldings. Then behind it, deeper in the house was a library. There were shelves and shelves of books. The room was wood paneled and very nice. I didn’t see one room without a fireplace, but this one was set up for reading, smaller couches, and chairs set around to do that. We went to the billiard room. It had the pool table…not a billiard table, there is a difference as pool tables had pockets, a true billiards did not or was that snooker? It was a pool table. This one was not the one that you get the ball in the pocket and it rolled to a retrieval slot. These were leather pockets. There were the assortment of pool cues on the wall. Again wood paneled and a fireplace. Through another door led to a hallway that took us to some offices and bedrooms for the live in security and then Boris and Yuri. We didn’t go in those. We found the stairs in the back! Only, the stairs went down, too! You didn’t know that in the foyer.

“Let’s see what’s down here,” Peter said with the excitement of new discovery taking my hand as we went down. The difference between Charleston and Boston is, Charleston was close to the water, too, but in Charleston, we were too close to the waterline so that was why you would saw all those houses where the first floor was really on the second floor. You hit water if you dug basement there. Here, it wasn’t a problem. We walked into…a big pool! It this Greco-Roman style with the columns. Murals on the wall depicted a really nice, realistic sunny beach with palm trees. I don’t know what size the pool was, but you could do laps. You could smell the chlorine! Still blue water with no diving board, but tiled nicely in the pool and around it with the stone lady ready to pour more water in, but was just standing there now. The room was the width of the house! The room, not the pool. Over to the side was…exercise equipment! Stair steppers, that odd Nordic track-like thing like a treadmill and a regular treadmill and weight machines! Peter and I walked toward a series of lounges that were plush, covered in a waterproof fabric but soft. I looked at the wall where there was a control panel for something.

“Sunflower lights?” I read on a labeled panel with a code. I entered the code on the keypad hitting “on.” Over the lounges, a series of what I thought were just recessed lights in the ceiling, but it was now a sunny day. It was brightly lit! We were underground! “Peter, that’s real sunlight!”

“How?” Peter looked up at the lights that he had to shield his eyes to do like looking up at the sun!

“There must be something up there…that follows the sun and directs the sunlight down here. They had it in Japan. I saw it on one of those incredible inventions show.” I said smiling as I held my hand out. “It even feels warm!”

Peter shook his head. “It’s still summer out.” He said a little dismissing.

“No, the sun shines in the winter. I saw it. Those whatevers above us catches the light and it's piped or whatever it down here!” I grinned.

Peter marveled at the lights. “We’ve got to get one of these for Makarovia!” He looked at the panel and hit another code, we were now hearing the soft sound of some waves coming to shore and a seagull or two. He brightened. “You can choose with…or without seagulls.” He hit some buttons and now there was just the soft sound of the surf.

“Whoever owned it…made whatever changes. He had money.” I stated the obvious.

Peter nodded bringing me close putting his arms around me from behind pulling me back against him. “Okay, Eric…it’s okay. The mystery will be solved.” He assured softly in my ear. “By the man trained and was hired to do the job. Let Yuri do his job. He’s very good at it or Olek won’t have trusted him.”

I smiled my arms over his sort of caressing his arms as they held me. “You’re right, but I hate it when things don’t add up.”

Peter turned me around and kissed me gently. “Yes, just…” he thought, “stop trying to figure out the answer until you see the equation. You don’t even know the equation to know the math needed to solve it.”

I know my eyes widened as I turned to look at him. “Did you just come up with that? That was…pretty good.” I gave an appreciative grin as I returned another kiss, my lips lingering against his. “Almost poetic.”

“I’m capable of poetry.” He said lightly smug.

“Yes, you are.” We kissed again with more intent. Will I bore you telling you I loved him?

Going back up, we saw more employees. There were the additional security men and others doing things about the house.

We passed by some of the offices used by Yuri and Penny. Looking into Penny’s office, it was nice. A little bigger than the one in the townhouse, but it was…feminine, of course. More girly things in it.

She looked up from her computer, that thing in her ear so she could listen or talk on the phone without holding anything to be able to keep typing. Her smile came up seeing us. “I know you’ve seen more of the house. What do you think?”

“It’s very nice,” I said.

“I know you’ll be comfortable.” She said rolling in her chair to a filing cabinet. She quickly found what she wanted and handed us a folder that contained some things. “Here are some requests for interviews I’ve gone through.” She smiled at us. “You two are quite the celebrities now.”

Peter looked with me over some of the different papers with requests. “I know some of these.” He read. He pointed at one. “I know her.”

“Sure.” I smiled. “Ellen DeGeneres, I love her comedy. I loved as she was the voice of Dory in Finding Nemo. She wants us on to come on her show.” I grinned at one I knew. “We just left London. Do you know Graham Norton? He’s…a little over the top, but so funny.” I read more of them. “There are other requests from others like Out and Advocate…regular news requests for interviews…” I nodded as I read. “I know this one. Out and About. We get married in ten months, we have time.” I chuckled. “And there is our school schedule to think about.” Then I remembered this time last year going to get the copy of scheduled events and other things where I met Ted. “I guess we won’t be going to any parties this year.” Then I remembered. “I guess I need to sell my car.”

“Why?” Peter asked surprised. “I like your car. You love that car.”

“I don’t drive anymore, Peter,” I said simply. “We’re taken to school and everywhere else. Yuri would have a heart attack if I even think of driving anywhere. No more trips to Walmart or the mall.”

“You can in Makarovia.” Peter said. “We can have it shipped there.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I sighed. “Do we do any of the beginning of the years stuff for Northeastern?”

Penny smiled a little sadly. “I have what you usually get from the University.” She went back to the cabinet and handed us another envelope. “You both pre-registered for the classes you want to take online. Here are your class schedules and their locations. If there are any events you want to go to, you need to let Yuri know. Things like…a football game or dance…arrangements will need to be made before hand with Yuri.”

I saw another one. “It seems our presence is requested by Northeastern’s LGBT advocacy group. They also request an interview for the NSUNews. That one shouldn’t be difficult to do.” I chuckled. “We begin school again next week.”

“We need to talk to Yuri to see how that will work before that.” Peter said.

Going back in the kitchen area Yuri was speaking to one of the security men. He was speaking English, so it must have been one of the American Security men. The man nodded and walked off to do…whatever. Boris came over to Yuri touching his husband’s side and handed Yuri a cup of coffee. They were an attractive couple. Boris was a few inches taller and a couple of years older and thinner. Not that Yuri was fat at all, his build was just…if he didn’t work out or whatever, he’d struggle with his weight. Boris was saying something softer to Yuri who nodded, but it wasn’t a pleasant look.

We walked closer to them and now there were smiles to us.

“Okay, don’t do that,” Peter said to both of them. “What happened?”

Yuri hesitated but shook his head. “It could be nothing.”

I nodded. “But…”

Boris smiled and went off to do Boris things elsewhere.

“You told us about the house…you are suspicious. You told us about that.” I said. “What happened?”

Yuri drank some of his coffee and motioned for us to sit down at the table which we did getting situated. “There were some threats sent.”

“Threats you’re taking seriously,” Peter said.

Yuri chuckled and nodded. “I take all threats seriously. There were a little more…pointed. About you two. Death threats.”

“I see. The same group that was outside?” I asked.

Yuri shrugged a nod. “I’m not sure.” Then he brightened. “It will be handled.” He shrugged. “It could be a crank or just some crazies.”

“Thanks for telling us,” I said smiling at him. “You see me differently now, don’t you?”

Yuri smiled at me sipping his coffee. There was humor in his eyes. “I do.” He waved at Peter. “You’re engaged Makarovia, Eric! More importantly, you’re engaged to Peter.” He grinned now. “I saw the proposal. I believed what you said and that hit me.”

“Which part?” Peter asked.

“Where Eric said what his priority was. You.” Yuri said to Peter simply.

I chuckled. “I marrying Peter. Not Makarovia.” I looked in Yuri’s eyes. “You didn’t trust me before?”

Yuri shook his head. “No. I didn’t.” He said honestly. “I believed you would be in love with a lifestyle you imagined. You made it clear, you didn’t care about that. You love Peter.” He shrugged again. “Now, I do trust you. I’ll be as protective of you as I am of him.” He shook his head. “And I heard about what you’re doing in Makarovia. That shows loyalty…to Peter. I wanted this job. Security, but I chose to protect Peter.”

I grinned back at Yuri. “Okay. I’m doing it.” I warned getting up, came over, pulled him to stand up and hugged the man. “To hell with protocol.”

Yuri chuckled as he hugged back. “That’s fine. I like hugs.” He hugged me back, I mean he really did a tighter, real hug. He broke it a little and patted my arm. “Feel free to do that whenever you like, but…can I ask…maybe not as much when we’re out there and doing my job?” He smiled. “I will protect you. That’s what I do. Not for Makarovia. Not even for the family. For me. I care about you two.”

Peter smiled getting up and did the same thing. “We can’t do this without you.”

Boris came with more of our favorite coffees and set them down with a smile to us.

Now that things were clearer for us…for me. We began to get ready to go back to the University. This was…a lot to accept, but what choice was there? This was our life. I was marrying Peter. Now, I had several guards and so did Peter. Getting to the University had become more…there were more people, more vehicles, just…more. An SUV in front of ours and one behind. All this so we could get an education? Makarovia didn’t have anything but a technical college. I chose this school because it was the best for what I wanted to do. Peter had chosen it too, for the same reason and to have the American experience. Also, reporters were asked to leave, not by us, but campus officials and campus police as they said things like “freedom of the press” and things like that. They were escorted off the campus. The other students were again, like last year, watching when we arrived. Yuri was there with all of the other men in security. Unfortunately, Peter and I had one class together. You guessed it. Economics again. I loved that class. Not because of the course or professor; it was because of it…well, I liked the professor who put us together. I met Peter in his class. Principles of Microeconomics 201! From there, our chosen classes made us go our separate ways. I was still going for Industrialization for me, Urban Planning for Peter. So, what are you going to do? We walked through the quad followed by the dark-suited men who was going with us and their eyes watched everything around us.

We went to our one shared class, which seeing that same professor who taught us the first year was teaching this next level. Again, we were in the back of the class where all just watched us get into place, but tried not to look like they were looking, that was just expected. It was going to happen. We only had five additional men with us. Yuri was one seated next to us and there were four that remained near the back wall on either side of us and four out in the hall. Like last year, there was no preamble. The professor simply began.

“Welcome back.” The professor started. “We begin.” Boom, he did. Our sophomore year had officially begun.

We gathered after class outside before we would split up.

“We’ll meet before lunch,” Peter said, leaving it a question if I changed my mind or something happened.

I held up my cellphone. “You can text me, I can text you if there’s any change. Two or three hours apart…” I smiled at him. “How will we survive?” I said exaggeratedly.

Peter chuckled. “It will be difficult.” He said about to kiss me when…

“Hey, guys!” We heard off to the side, the voice and accent told us who it was.

“Ted!” We greeted him smiling. This was his last year at Northeastern as he was a senior now.

Ted smiled but waved at the men surrounding us. “Do I bow or something? Use a password? Can I get closer?”

Peter chuckled. “He’s okay, guys.” He said to the men with us as they moved to allow Ted to approach. “Ted Dawe is a friend.” He said hugging our big friend. “Hello, Ted.”

I’m never left out as I hugged him, too. “How’s Amanda?”

Ted nodded. “She’s great! We’re getting married in the spring, too. We’ll almost have the same anniversary now.” He grinned. “We have to get class, I know, but I wanted to see how things were. Pretty good from what I’ve seen.”

“You saw?” I asked. “You saw what?”

“The entire palace was shown, about Makarovia, the proposal and different shows about the two of you!” Ted said happily. “It’s been the rage for months!” He waggled his eyebrows. “I had to watch it! I know you two!”

“And wrote the first story about us,” I said. “We know.”

“It’s good to see you,” Ted said. “See you around campus?”

Peter nodded as Ted walked on to his next class. “I know we will.” Peter smiled at me pulling me in for that kiss. “See you at lunch.” He said pressing the side of his head against mine. “I love you.”

“I know,” I said kissing him again. “I love you.”

Hands together until the distance was too much. “I know.” He said and headed off with the security assigned him and Yuri.

Yuri shrugged as he kept up with them. “I go with you after lunch!”

“I trust you,” I said to him. “Watch him! I’ll be fine with them.” I thumbed at my four security men who were American and I wondered if they even knew what we were saying. We spoke English, but Makarovian to each other.

Yuri shook his head and said firmly. “I’m watching you, too. You’re both my responsibility.”

The rest of the morning was as expected. I went to class and they began teaching with no real visible notice of me or the additional people with me. The reactions from the students were as always. That would even out later as they got used to seeing it.

I came to the cafeteria at lunch to see Peter, Yuri sitting together and the others were standing there waiting. I walked over to them.

“Hi, Gorgeous.” I greeted them, standing between them. “Hi, Peter.” I said kissing Peter and sitting in the vacant chair next to him. Peter’s eyebrows went up and Yuri grinned and looked away. I shrugged. “Peter, you know I have a thing for Russians.”

“You know I’m not all Russian?” Peter growled.

I waved toward Yuri. “Are you all Russian?” I asked Yuri.

Yuri chuckled and shook his head. “No.”

“See?” I smiled. “Most of the European Russians aren’t all Russian. There’s no one that can claim to all from one country. I’m not all English!” I kissed Peter again. “Sorry, but you’re marrying a mongrel. Only a quarter of me is even Eastern European!”

Peter chuckled. “A very handsome mongrel.” His lips caressed mine gently.

“How did it go today for you?”

“Some are boring no matter what language is used,” Peter grumbled. “How was yours?”

I sighed. “Just like yours.” There was a “bing” from my pocket. Peter’s went off, too.

We both looked at our phones. “Olek?” Peter asked me.

“Olek.” I nodded. “He wants a call. Do I reply or you?”

“Both.” Peter grinned. “Six in the evening here? It will be one in the morning there, but not too late for him.”

“Midnight here is seven in the morning there, he’s up by then,” I said.

Peter nodded. “Okay.” He grumbled again. “If I can stay up.”

I grinned a little evilly. “I can help you with that.”

Peter smiled at me. “That was so obvious!”

“And your statement wasn’t?” I shot back.

“No!” He defended but smiled more. “I’ll pick something from my gift box. To give us something to do to help you keep me up.” His eyebrows danced. “Admit it. Almost everything about us is sexual.”

I nodded. “I hope so. That was why I gave what I did for your birthday. I’m glad you like it.”

Monday done and we returned to the house. Peter and I did use the pool for a few hours. It was heated! There was studying done and we had that great room for that, but…we liked to be together more, so we studied on the sofa side by side. Dinner was served by Boris, only to my delight, we were joined by both Boris and Yuri! I really liked those two now.

“Tell me,” I said to Boris. “I get the feeling…whenever you do this…it feels, kind of British.”

Boris nodded with a light laugh. “I was trained at the British Butler Institute in England and have gone back a few times to keep up my training.” He nodded. “I suppose it is British. I trained in many parts, residential mostly. There were other courses I took.”

Yuri nodded. “He’s a chef, too.” He said proudly of his husband. “He studied at the Cordon Bleu, in France!”

“Damn,” I said impressed. “I think Peter and I should bow to you.”

Boris smiled. “No. I like what I do and where I do it.”

“Don’t be so modest,” Yuri said. “He was working at the palace and your father noticed what Boris could do and sent him to school!”

“Since you’ve tooted my horn, I’ll toot yours,” Boris said smiling. “He graduated top of his classes at the European Security Academy. He’s been to several boot camps. Even here as a US Marine! While you were in Makarovia, he went again for some more training. We both left Russia shortly after we met. We got married soon after arriving in Makarovia. We got jobs with your father.” He said to Peter. “He saw that Yuri was a Russian trained military and I could cook. We’ve proved we could do our jobs, that’s how we got to leave Makarovia to train.” He leaned in kissing Yuri. “I’m modest?” He waved at Yuri. “I say he is, he’s very, very good.”

“I’m not the only one,” Yuri said. “All the men here from Makarovia were sent to the Academy. They are well trained.”

Boris nodded. “But you wouldn’t stop. He’s learned everything from tactical, security driving, close protection, arm to arm combat, weapons, cybersecurity training and courses on investigating. My husband is brilliant.”

I shook my head. “Daaammnn!”

Peter nodded. “I knew some of this.” He chuckled. “I think we should bow to both of you.” He looked at me. “Think Yuri can’t handle whatever is happening?”

I gave an appreciative nod. “Noooo.”

Yuri looked puzzled. “You didn’t think I could?”

I looked at Yuri. “No. I never thought you could not. I just hate…mysteries. Understand? I never doubted you could do it. You told us about what may be wrong. Why?”

Yuri smiled. “Good. I can do it. I will find the answer to this. And there are some people I won’t tell. I told you so you’d understand how things have changed. This isn’t simple anymore.” He frowned. “I believe in being honest. I knew you could handle the truth and…” he nodded, “I did want to scare you a little so you would hear me and really listen.”

“We do,” I said to assure him. “Now…” I began. “I need to call my grandmother. Is it okay if she comes here?”

Yuri nodded remembering her. “Katrina Sams is more than welcome.”