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[solmate]

Wait, was I supposed to be convincing the citizens of Noctium I am their saint as well this whole time?

I should have spent less time at the party eating shrimp cocktails and more time doing party tricks.

[reznikolai]

I've seen the way you eat. That in itself is enough of a party trick.

[solmate]

We all didn't grow up with palace chefs, thank you.

[reznikolai]

But nor were you raised by wolves, to my knowledge.

[solmate]

Ana Kuya was quite scary at times, but you are correct.

[ She pauses, her head swirling with memories from the night, but should she share with him? Is that too much? He is her friend, but he is also her ex(?)-lover. That makes occasionally appearances in her bed. ]

I met someone tonight.

[ All the grace of something she might have blurted out in person. Is she apologizing? Is she sharing as a friend? She doesn't know either. ]

[reznikolai]

[Oh. He loses a long moment to staring at her message. Translating all the myriad meanings hidden in those four words. Calculating her intentions. In the end, all he can write in reply is:]

Someone rather interesting, I take it, if they've made it into your report of the evening.

[solmate]

[ He takes so long to reply that she knows she's made some mistake, some miscalculation. These are unfamiliar waters she doesn't know how to navigate. She thinks how she would feel if Nikolai had said the same thing to her. Jealous? But Nikolai's isn't hers to hold. When he was, she found she enjoyed his tales when he came back to her.

This feels different, but he is still the one she is closest with. She had missed telling him even the mundane aspects of her day. ]

She was rather fond of my dress, so I do have you to thank for that.

Sorry. I didn't mean to make this weird.

[reznikolai]

[He isn't entitled to the feelings pinching his heart, something like jealousy choked by loneliness. He's taken new lovers since they parted, and indulged in old lovers too, the same ones he shared himself with when Alina was still his, the same ones he used to tell her stories about when he came home. But that's just it, isn't it? They wouldn't be coming home to each other tonight.]

Why would it be weird? You're allowed to make new friends.

In fact, I should commend you for making such a good first impression. Social events aren't usually your forte.

[...Or is that too forced?]

[solmate]

Right... Well, we all can't be charming and on all the time. Although if we're giving notes, I'd say yours left a little to be desired.

[ Ahem. ]

I'm not sure I want her to just be my friend.

[reznikolai]

What, my first impression or my suit tonight?

[The second half of the message comes a little later:]

You don't need my permission, Alina.

[solmate]

You were very dashing in your suit tonight.

[ Which is to say masquerading as a pirate is a weird start to a relationship. ]

I know.
But you're my friend.
And these are things friends tell each other.
I think.

[reznikolai]

[Friends. Yes, he can remember how to be friends with her again. All right.]

Then I wish you all the best. Is she cute?

[solmate]

Saints, yes.

[reznikolai]

Of course, your taste is USUALLY quite excellent.

Things have been going well with Matt BTW.

[Since this is the sort of thing friends tell one another.]

[solmate]

Is it?

[ Curiosity creeps in. The kind she might have indulged in, her attention held raptly as Nikolai traced his hands across her skin and told her stories of his escapades with Matt in warm, low tones.

Not something she has any right to indulge now. She squashes it. ]

Are you... seeing anyone else?

[reznikolai]

You saw something in me. That's proof enough of good taste.

[Their ill-fated relationship doesn't have to be a taboo subject, does it?]

Not exactly in the same way. If that makes any sense at all. But I see a few others. Gwenhwyfar, Konoha, Liem, Cardan.

[solmate]

Ah. Well you always have been the bigger social butterfly between us.

[ She does not mean that disparagingly (she's never not certain he's a charming king), but she does not share his particular talent for making people fall in love with her wherever she goes here.

And then totally unrelated: ]

Have you seen Zoya recently?

[reznikolai]

[Suddenly that list of names seems longer than he thought... There follows a rare twinge of something like self-consciousness, a holdover from their home culture, where it's not meet that a king should be so loose. But he's not a king here.]

I assume you mean seen and not "seen".

But no, I haven't. She was supposed to come be my jailer the other night. She never came, and she never answered my calls.

[solmate]

[ Oh no. ]

You haven't done anything to annoy her recently, have you?

[reznikolai]

Oh, I'm sure I annoy her on a regular basis.

But that has never kept her from her duties before.

[solmate]

I meant more than usual.

[ The base level is a given. ]

You don't suppose she's been sent back do you?

[reznikolai]

[A pause longer than usual lurks between her message and his reply.]

Would it be a terrible tragedy if she was?

She never was happy here.

[solmate]

Don't lie to me and act as if you don't care now.

[reznikolai]

Of course I care about her.

That's why it's for the best that she return to Ravka.

[solmate]

It's not your affection for her that I'm calling into question.

It's that you'd rather she'd be there than here.