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Earlier, Alec had mentioned that he was inviting a friend over. The indication of the way he said friend was 'someone I like so please don't scare the shit out of him before I can get to know him
better'.

As there was noise coming from his room, clearly the friend was now visiting.

The noise was mostly the aimless strumming of a guitar, followed suddenly by Alec snorting and giggling and several sour notes were hit.

"Stop that! It's tickles," he says.

In Russian.

"Only if you stop having such adorable toes, Sasha," someone else says.

Also in Russian.

His door is locked. He's learned his lesson.

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"Is your friend here? I'd like to meet him."

Andrew is gratified to see that there doesn't appear to be anything inappropriate happening behind the locked door. And glad to see that Alec has learned to lock the door.

It took him a while, but he did learn to lock it.

"Yeah um." Alec gives Andrew a pleading look of PLEASE DON'T SCARE HIM OFF, before opening the door.

The other boy is slouched in Alec's desk chair, also barefoot, though he sits up quickly at Andrew's entrance. He's about Alec's age with messy brown hair and paint under his fingernails and flecked on his clothes.

"Andrew this is Henri. Henri this is Andrew." He fires off the introduction quickly and nervously. And thankfully in English.

"Pleased to meet you, Henri."

He has no interest in scaring him off. Not yet, at least. There's nothing outwardly objectionable about him -- he looks like the artistic type, but Andrew can appreciate that -- except for the Russian speaking, which makes him raise an internal eyebrow.

"How did you two meet?" He offers Henri a powerful handshake, doing his best to be polite, as Alec has requested.

"A pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Ryan," Henri says. His English is good, if accented. He must have come to the States later in life. The handshake is a bit strong but he's able to give a firm one back, if not as powerful.

"At the university a few weeks ago," Alec says, in a mostly normal voice. A strain of worry was still there. "I was looking at the classes and got lost on my way to the admissions office."

He nods. "Good, good. What do you study, Henri?"

In his opinion, it was good for Alec to be spending time with people from the university. Maybe one of them would have an interest Alec could get involved in. Of course, Alec had been playing guitar more lately, which Andrew could appreciate, too. So long as he tried hard.

"Nothing yet, my parents are teachers there so I spend a good amount of time on campus. I am planning on enrolling next year and want to study philosophy." He shoves his hands into his pockets.

Alec was just looking for something to do after high school. It was all right working for Andrew, but he also wanted to do something else. Going to university seemed to be a good idea as he didn't get so much flack for it by all those busy enlisting.

Andrew brightened considerably. He'd always found philosophy fascinating, though he was occasionally doubtful of whether anyone could get a job studying that sort of thing. Still, he found the topic interesting.

"Philosophy is an excellent field of study. Is that what your parents teach?"

At the brightening, Alec relaxes a little.

"Yes. I guess I'm taking after them," Henri says with a smile.

He nods. This seems good so far. Perhaps this is the type of boy Alec should be with. Someone who will be a good influence. A thoughtful type.

"And where are you from, Henri?"

Someone who might ground him a little. At least in theory. Over on his side, Alec is relaxing a bit more, though there's still a hint of nervousness.

"Leningrad. We left when I was ten. So, about nine years ago?"

A brusque nod. "When I was a child, it was called Saint Petersburg. Then Petrograd. Now, I suppose, it's Leningrad. Ridiculous."

Yeah. Surprising that he doesn't like somewhere in Russia? Not at all. Alec's probably already told Henri that he's touchy about his Russian heritage.

"I've only known it as Leningrad. People do tend to name cities after great leaders, or change its name." He shrugs. "Or the great leaders name it after themselves, like all the Alexandrias." He gives Alec a grin here.

Alec has mentioned it. It's hard not to when it comes to Andrew. It's pretty much an important point.

"Of course, it's entirely debatable as to whether you could characterize Lenin as a great leader," Andrew said, immediately seizing onto the topic of politics. He had a hard time avoiding it.

Annnnd all the color drains from Alec's face. No. We don't want to talk about politics. He doesn't want Andrew to scare the guy away and when Andrew gets his rant on, it's sure to do that.

"I don't see why not. He did help free Russia from the strangle hold of the Tsarist autocracy, which wasn't a good thing, I don't think."

"No, the tsars were poor rulers, but can you really say that socialism has done any better? You're too young to remember the revolution, but you grew up in socialist Russia. Surely you can see that communism is a terrible way to handle anything."

"Only because they're doing it wrong. The idea is fairly sound."

Alec's panic levels have now shot up through the roof.

"The ideas are almost as inane as the implementation of them. Communism encourages laziness, tells people that being a parasite is a viable way to live, and takes money from those who work hard only to give it to those who never work a day in their lives."

"I always thought of it as a way to even the playing field. Giving everyone a chance to live a good life."

In between the two of them, Alec is slowly dying of something.

"That is a truly myopic viewpoint. The whole idea of collective ownership is ridiculous at best, and communist governments almost always severely oppress political opposition, which hardly strikes me as a truly even playing field. Communist leaders claim that they're working for the common good, that they want everyone to live a good life, but history has shown that most, if not all, of them have been corrupt and oppressive. Furthermore, people should motivate themselves to achieve, and obtain wealth through personal ambition. Communism stunts and discourages personal ambition. If achievement and productivity is man's true goal, which I believe it should be, how can a communist society claim to be working for the good of the people, when in reality, it defies the very tenant most intrinsic to human nature: self-interest."

Oh yeah. It's capitalism time up in here.

Realizing that the rant machine has been turned on Alec finally manages to jump into the conversation with hopefully a save.

"Henri, maybe you should go... um." He sounds more than a bit desperate and looks horribly guilty about this. "I don't know if this is the best time for this conversation."

Henri looks at Alec and then at Andrew. "I thought we were having a nice conversation."

"Please?"

The boy sighs and then nods. Grabbing his shoes he says (in Russian), "Very well. We'll talk later?"

Andrew frowns, looking confused. "I was enjoying my conversation with the young man, Alec. It was interesting. You don't need to leave if you don't want to, Henri."

This is a first. For once, he's not the one kicking one of Alec's friends out.

"Sasha's never been much for politics," Henri says, stopping at the door, smiling as Alec puts his head in his hands.

"No, he hasn't, much to my chagrin. It was nice to meet you. Come back for dinner sometime."

Yes, Alec will love that.

"I'd love to. It was an interesting discussion."

Alec would love it about as much as he'd love to have his toenails ripped off with a hot poker.

"Yes. I'm sure," Alec said softly.

"I'll see you later, Sasha. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Ryan."

"Yeah. Bye."

As soon as Henri leaves, Andrew turns to Alec, raising an eyebrow.

"He seems... nice. Misguided, but interesting. Though... I certainly hope his interests aren't wearing off on you."

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I'm so glad I was a poli sci major right now

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