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« solntse » TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION ALINA STARKOV ✦ GRISHAVERSE
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[solmate]

[ She nods, agreeing quietly. It sounds more like an apology than anything. ]

Of course.

[ She's gentle as she guides his arm, but ultimately the tightness of the restraints is necessary to keep the both of them safe.

There's little for him here that her company feels like the only thing she can offer that might make up for her closing the leather and metal bands around his remaining hand. And how could she deny him after he wore such stark honesty in his request? Only Nikolai could be expected to still wear a mask over his vulnerability when literally in chains, but she blames the lapse in the swift effect of the sleeping pills.

She grabs the edge of the blanket and fixes it to lay gently over him. With little other furniture, her only option is to perch at the end of the bed and wait for sleep to take him.

Quietly, as not to disturb him, she offers: ]

Goodnight, Nikolai. I'm grateful you're here.

[reznikolai]

[Like always, Nikolai must steel himself against the urge to resist. Against the panic that rises in him as the cuff clicks shut around his wrist. Her touch against his skin, however brief, acts as a counterbalance to the cold metal. It provides something else for him to focus on.

Then the job is done. But she stays — not because he is her king, he hopes, but because he is her friend. Something about the way she rearranges the blanket, the way her weight quietly sinks the mattress to mark her presence, is overwhelmingly tender. It's the sort of thing that has been absent from his life for too long. The sort of thing he has craved.]

It was good to see you again, Alina. I missed you.

[That quiet voice again, fuzzier around the edges as he fades. His eyelids are already drooping.

As promised, she won't have to wait long before he slides into sleep. Within ten minutes, he's snoring softly. His face is placid. For now, at least, he is not a king, or a demon, or any of the countless roles he inhabits.]