nikolai lanstov things

the girl #1

okay hello there. this little thing is the first thing i've written on here and i'm not polishing or perfecting it so be prepared for many, many spelling mistake and misuse of punctuation and all that jazz (my english teacher would approve a lot).

another thing to add, this part is from the perspective of alina starkov upon meeting nikolai's love interest after, she and some of the crew have helped alina and mal escape something. (sorry to be vague I just want to describe this girl really)

enjoy :)

We ran without stopping. The twisting avenues and alleys were difficult enough to navigate on a normal day never mind in the dark, whilst your being chased by some ruthless scum the Barrel had to offer. I could hear Mal's footsteps behind me. Good, the countless bottle's of kvas hadn't affected his ability to run.

"Where is she taking us?" I heard Mal pant behind me, as we darted to the opposite side of the canal, slipping momentarily into the light of a lamppost.
"I don't know." I shouted behind me. "But I hope for our sake she does."

My heart was thrumming in my chest, and I felt as if it would spring straight from my mouth and onto the rain slick pavement. We'd ran so much I felt we were going back on ourselves, running over the same bridges, through the same tunnels, past the same taverns. Did she know where she was going?

"How are you two holding up back there?" I'm going to punch that girl when we get to wherever we're going.
"I'll take that silence as a no then." She laughed. Laughed. Laughed whilst being chased by criminals through the roughest part of Ketterdam in the middle of the night? Was this girl crazy?

"Is this girl asking for a fight?" Mal growled angrily.
"Easy, Oretsev, don't go picking fights without knowing what you're up against." The satisfaction in her voice irritated Mal even more than the fact she'd made him run after he'd had maybe one too many glasses of red.

We scurried under a bridge where the canal was particularly short however I still managed to get my feet wet with dirty canal water. Dancing shoes weren't very good at waterproofing feet.

"Where are we going anyway?"
"Just a few more turns, down an alleyway and up a ladder and we're there." She called joyfully as she swung her body around a lamppost and down a dismal alleyway.

Mal and I's footsteps bounced off of the slick walls, sending a cascade of noise throughout the tunnel - no doubt giving away our location - but her footsteps were silent, almost as if she wasn't even there at all.
I must have been concentrating on her too much because the next thing I knew I was lying on my back and tumbling down a flight of stairs. I lost sight of her and I could no longer hear Mal. Great. I may as well be a sitting target now.

"Enjoy your trip Starkov?" The girl giggled as she slipped past me, flashing me a grin. She really is looking for a fight isn't she.
"Come on, Alina." The rough of his voice in the darkness startled me, as I came to realisation. I could barely make out his silhouette but the voice had come from none other than Tolya. And there he stood hand outstretched before me. "There's not much farther to go now." I grasped his large hand as I heard the echo of voice from somewhere above me. One of those voices I recognised as Mal's, and another as Tamar's. Just what is going on here? Tolya threw me over his shoulder as he sprinted through the alley. For saints sake what are two of the best soldiers in Ravka doing here?

"Tamar!" The girl shouted. "How are we looking back there?" There wasn't a strain, or a pant to her voice.
"Oretsev's with me and Tolya's got Starkov! The rest of us are spread out!" She was short of breath as well.
"Good, keep the numbers low to evade suspicion!" The girl spoke strategy. Like Nikolai.