Cleaning Up:

If someone had described this moment, this day to America half a year ago she'd have been waiting for the punchline. Had she really asked him to let her tag along to Russia? God almighty, was she really going to read a book to learn ********> Russian for this guy? Part of her was incredulous (dragons being real was one thing but learning Russian, unbelievable!) and the rest of her just wanted to laugh, loud and brightly at the turns life brings along.

One day she'd hug him, but he's received enough shocks to the system recently, so she settled for grinning at him with a quick, fierce surge of affection. "Thanks, Red, gonna look forward to it."