#sanktaalinas

I want you to listen to me carefully.

Aleksander smirks, leaning oh so casually against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. An eyebrow raises, as if he's merely humoring her, the smirk on his lips ever-growing.

❝ Do you really think you are in a good position for that, my Alina? ❞ he muses, Aleksander pushing away from the door and stalking closer to her.

[ BATHE ]  our muses take a shower together and sender looks over receiver’s scars 

While it wasn't exactly a secret, the way his life had gone, there were a lot of things that Billy kept buried deep. Didn't reveal to anyone, lest it come back to haunt him, be used against him. He wasn't used to letting anyone in past a certain extent, a certain mask...

Somehow, though, Alina had managed to worm her way a bit deeper than Billy had initially intended her to. She'd made him actually care--at least a little, which was something Billy hadn't remembered doing for anyone else outside his own interests in what felt like forever.

Fingers roamed over her skin as the water cascaded down his back, over different scars that came from a life hard-lived. Knives and other blades; bullet wounds and broken bones...

❝ the realm owes you a great debt. ❞

The enemy had been pushed back, and perhaps that was cause for celebration among the nobility, the royal family. Not that they did much to ensure such a victory, of course, but any chance the Lantsovs had to congratulate themselves would obviously not be wasted.

Even if he and the others of the Second Army had been the ones actually succeeding.

But he'd fought that argument over and over; it rarely, if ever, amounted to anything. So Aleksander merely nodded at her.

❝ If only you knew, ❞ the Darkling muttered under his breath, but he forced a smile nonetheless. Like he was actually gracious, even if every bone in his body wanted to annihilate the royal family.

“Would you like to dance with me?”

She is beautiful tonight, but then again, Aleksander is no longer surprised by how radiant she shines. Like the sun itself, like the light from her is the same essence as that which gifts in her veins. Perhaps in the beginning, when he had first been forced into this arrangement, he hadn't appreciated it.

Perhaps, at first, he'd have done almost anything to escape this chain.

And yet now... Aleksander nods, his hand extending to take her arm as they move through the ballroom towards the dance floor.

Now, Aleksander simply cannot imagine not having this--all of this--with her.

❝ take your fucking hands off me. ❞

He sighed, as if she was being particularly difficult. A child that was misbehaving and he was almost on his last straw with it. ❝ I told you to behave, Alina. ❞ The words, hissed into her ear, as his hands tighten on her arms, holding her more firmly.

Quite the opposite of letting her go, of course.

 ❛ i felt your absence.  ❜  

He came and rested his hands on her shoulders as she sat there, Aleksander meeting Alina's stare in the reflection of her mirror. Fingers slid over her shoulders as he leaned down, whispered, ❝ It took longer than expected. ❞

Perhaps he might have considered apologizing, but the words--even now--caught on his tongue. Kept themselves silent. Apologies, regret-- it wasn't something he'd ever let himself feel, express.

What was the point, at the end of it all, to regret his actions?

we have been given a miraculous second chance.

𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐊𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐈𝐌, to her, and he might hold the title of Darkling, of a monster to so many, a heretic, but the power is his. The influence is his. And with the 'sun saint' at his side...