His echo of her words brings her smile to the surface once more, a sense of rightness settling into place. She is here and she wants to be here. All she wanted was for him to open the door and let her explain, to break through the dark cloud that has hovered over them since the elevator. Since he became a ghost in her own life against her wishes. She never wanted to lose him. She didn't know he mattered to her so much until she nearly did. The heart is a strange thing, love stranger still. It is easy to say that such confusion and hardship is God's will, trails to make someone earn their reward.

Anya isn't as certain of that as others in her family might once have been. There has been so much suffering in her life, so much fear and loss and pain that she has to believe in the possibility of good or else she will never manage to survive. And this, this is a good thing. But it isn't a reward for either of them, Gleb isn't her prize and she isn't his. She cannot explain it, doesn't know where it falls. But she believes that love and overcoming obstacles and heartbreak is enough.

She wonders briefly about Dmitry, about the obstacle his own words and actions have constructed. Then she just steps passed that thought, brushing it aside for another time. There is no doubt over her standing here, Gleb's arm around her, his hand in hers, the closeness of her bodies. She knows what she wants. She can tell from the way that Gleb's swallows, the look in his eyes that maybe, she's allowed to have it.

"You may," she breathes permission before lifting herself onto the balls of her feet enough to brush a kiss to his lips, showing him that it is all right to want that, that she wants it too.