Wings of Fire Ch. 16 - Teaser (Patreon)

Kosta slid into the booth first, shoulders filling the space like he’d been built for it. The Mead twins sat opposite him, both of them looking bright-eyed and grinning mischievously. He picked up the menu with both hands and frowned at it, brow furrowing as he read.

“Chicken and waffles… for breakfast?” he said slowly, accent thick and unmistakable. Julia snorted into her menu, and Jeanette didn’t even look up from hers.

“Oh, you’re absolutely getting that.”

“This is… strange thing,” Kosta muttered as he stared at the menu as if it had personally insulted him. “Back home, chicken for breakfast is… fairy tale, or for rich man. Not for people like me.”

“That’s because you grew up in Soviet Russia eating cabbage and disappointment,” Julia said sweetly. “Welcome to Chicago.”

He shook his head, baffled but intrigued. “Waffles I know… chicken I know. Together? You sure this is not joke?”

“Trust us,” Jeanette smiled.

A moment later the waitress appeared, a tall Indigenous woman with dark hair braided down her back and a smile that lingered just a fraction longer on Kosta than strictly necessary. She took their orders with an easy confidence, scribbling quickly, eyes flicking between them.

Kosta ordered the chicken and waffles after a moment’s hesitation, then added sausage ‘just in case,’ earning another round of teasing. As she walked away with their menus, the twins’ smiles thinned slightly. Julia followed the waitress with her eyes until she disappeared behind the counter.

“She was laying it on a bit thick,” Jeanette commented with a huff.

Kosta blinked, then laughed, broad and unbothered. “What? She smile. Is friendly city.”

“She was flirting,” Julia groused, shooting him a look sharp enough to cut glass.

“Oh,” Kosta said as he considered that, then shrugged. “I am charming man.”

Both twins fixed him with identical death stares, and he quickly raised his hands in surrender, grin widening.

“Joking! Joking!”

Their coffees arrived, steam curling upward, and the mood shifted, not darker, but quieter. Purpose edged back in as Julia leaned in, voice dropping.

“So. The circus.”

“Not good place,” Kosta murmured as his grin faded, nodding once. “Too many eyes… too many guns.”

Jeanette’s fingers drummed lightly on the table. “And the talk Julia heard, about the Vengeance and the plane… that lines up too cleanly to ignore.”

“I do not like letting fascist pigs walk free,” Kosta muttered, scowling into his mug. “In my country, men like that…” He made a sharp slicing motion. “Problem solved.”

“And you’ll get your chance,” Jeanette said calmly as she reached across the table and covered his hand. “Just not yet.”

“She’s right,” Julia nodded. “We stick with the captain’s orders. We wait, watch and make sure when we move, it sticks.”

Kosta looked between them, then sighed, the tension easing out of his shoulders. “You always do this… make me calm when I want to break things.”

“That’s because we like you alive,” Jeanette smiled faintly.

“And out of jail,” Julia added.

“Is why I love you both,” he said simply, laughing to himself, his earlier warmth returning.

The food arrived then, each plate heavy with food, and for a few minutes the world narrowed to syrup, crisp chicken, and the small joy of a full stomach. But even as Kosta dug in with reverence, the twins’ eyes never quite stopped moving or watching. Because the morning was easy and they all knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long.