He’s been indolent as of late, but that might be because Georgia decided to plow over spring this year and burst into summer. Which explains why he ambles into the bath, fully dressed, and lies in cold water for an hour or so at a time.

But it’s different than it was before. He’s different than before. It isn’t teasing, it’s heavy and almost, sort of… lonely. Since we got home he’s been in the bath, to himself, shut off from the world, and after Simon went in for a while -neither doing much talking- Iakov started singing this song after Simon walked out.

Not loud. Not strong. Just loud enough to tell it’s in Russian. It’s soft, like a lullaby. He goes in and out of singing and Simon just sits here, shaking his head and smiling.

Some days I feel like I’ve known them lifetimes.

Others, I don’t feel like I know them at all.