At first he honestly hadn't recognized Mariya at all. She had changed quite a bit, but then again so hadn't he? Everything was vastly changed from when they had first met.<br/><br/>That didn't mean that they couldn't be friends any more, though, did it? It shouldn't have had to, it thought, and he was elated to find that she seemed to be very excited to see him.<br/><br/>"Even Heroes of the Soviet Union need hugs." With a continuing well-placed grin, he walked up over toward her and tried to throw his arms around her before she even had done the same to him.<br/><br/>"I never know when I might be assigned to a space mission again, but since I flew not that long ago I know very well that it won't be any time soon. Perhaps you wouldn't mind staying as a guest?" Vitali laughed, "I mean at least for dinner, right...you could stay for dinner, couldn't you?"<br/><br/>Eventually he tilted his head a bit to one side. Apparently it would have perhaps been a little bit of an offense not to accept his invitation.<br/><br/>"I would take you out if you would like...oh my I don't mean to make it sound like that. I mean, unless of course you would have wanted to make it like that."<br/><br/>In spite of the fact that it would have seemed that so much had changed, apparently his personality had not at all.<br/><br/>He was the same old Vitali that he had always been on the inside, but maybe a bit stronger and surer of himself. Being a 'National Hero' as she had called him had done nothing at all to make him arrogant though.<br/><br/>He actually hadn't seemed to have any more of an ego now than he had before.<br/><br/>There were, indeed, many things that needed to be said. If she had wanted to say anything, though, she might very well have soon found it quite easy to talk to him. He didn't seem to be any different.<br/><br/>What he didn't realize, though, was just how much she had changed. If she had any sort of ulterior motive, then Vitali had no idea. This was just a meeting up with a friend that he hadn't seen in a long time to him, and he didn't think that anything could have gone wrong from it.<br/><br/>Mariya would never have betrayed him at all, right?