Blood In The Water ~ Shadow & Bone

2

//cw!// mentions of violence

It was a beautiful sight, lost friends finding each other after what seems like a lifetime apart. Nikolai Lantsov and Marina Astyalenzi were two such people. Having met in Os Alta and been part of two separate lifestyles, the two were an unlikely pair. Marina was drowning in work, training consistently to perfect her skills with Tidemaking and physical combat alike. For Nikolai, it was trailing after his father or his brother, learning to run a country if the need ever arose. But they made it work.

They would meet after dark, when their beds had been checked by those in charge of them, and would sneak around the back of the palaces to meet in the woods. There would be no one to scrutinize them in the woods. There, they felt no need to be the prince or the soldier. There, they were free to simply be children.

Everything was wonderful until they were twelve. Marina had been in the Little Palace for five years when they sent her into the field. They had sent a few recruits with the soldiers to clean up a group of bandits that had been terrorizing a military camp. They were gone four days when Nikolai heard the news that nearly made his heart stop.

Marina had been nearly shot and had her throat slit.

Luckily, the knife wound across her throat hadn't been enough to kill her, but she had refused help from a healer, instead letting one of the First Army mediks wrap it himself.

As soon as the squadron returned to the Little Palace, Nikolai sprinted across the grounds, ignoring every call from his family and servants for him to come back. He refused to wait any longer before checking on his friend. He found himself lucky enough to be a member of the royal family, allowing him access to the palace and the medical wing. He hoped his presence would not disturb anyone finding residence in the building and especially, he wished to avoid attention from the Darkling, but every thought was drowned out by his concern for Marina. He recognized the girl's dark chocolate hair the moment he stepped foot in the room and ran across the wing to her.

He had never hugged anyone as tightly as he hugged her that day.

After that, he couldn't bear to see her put in harm's way again. He heard whispers of a privateer meeting with delegates in Os Alta and paid off a servant to send word to him that he needed help.

That day in the outer section of Os Alta was what Nikolai thought would be the last time he saw his best friend.

Until he saw the girl on the pier in Ketterdam, drowning two men twice her size from the inside out. He never would've guessed that the mystery figure would be his old friend, but once he realized it was, he wasted no time in wrapping her in a warm embrace and returning with her to his ship.

He loved the way her eyes lit up as she looked around the deck.

"This is the Volkvolny," he told her. She looked back at him with a smile.

"It's yours?" He nodded. "Never thought I'd see Nikolai Lantsov on a ship. Last I heard, you were absolutely terrified of the ocean." He chuckled and shook his head.

"That was four years ago, Rin." He sighed, his happy aura dampening as he remembered the events that led him to run away. "That was before I saw you nearly die at the hands of a Fyerdan hunter. That was before I enlisted with my only other friend and watched him die next to me." He shook his head. "After that, water didn't seem as terrifying anymore." Marina gazed up at him with soft eyes before pulling him into a hug. He buried his face in her hair, relishing whatever moments of familiarity he could.

It had been four years, and she still felt the same. She still felt like home and smelled like warm coffee filled with caramel.

"Don't leave," he murmured quietly. She looked up at him, her arms remaining around his waist as her eyes met his. "Stay here. Stay with me." She smiled softly.

"Here?" she asked. "On this little boat with you and your crew." He hummed and shook his head.

"Not my crew, me." He smiled a bit. "And not this ship. We'll get a bigger ship. One big enough for both of us, that you deserve." She furrowed her brows slightly.

"That I deserve?" He nodded with the most loving smile she had ever seen. It sent warmth down her spine despite the cold breeze from the ocean.

"You deserve the best. And I will give it to you." Marina smiled and nodded, resting her head against his chest.

"Okay."