@esotericdescent : "It's better with you here." nina to inej
π‘ Though her hat still lay so close within her reach and though her wounds of victory had bled through her sleeves, Inej still felt more like an ordinary girl than a pirate captain in a company as blissfully true as this.
Nina had waited for her at the harbour, arms held open, the warmest and most heartbreaking of faraway greetings. There had been shouts of excitement, the sound of both their names as they had been cried out into the wind, and then Inej had run; to her.
There had been laughter, followed by the clumsy collision of their bodies. There had been a tender silence, followed by an embrace of five full minutes; An embrace that had been unable to compensate for the three long months that The Wraith had spent sailing across foreign tides. The revelation of it had made Inej tear up against the tickle of Nina's brown curls, her cheek still resting against the heartrender's shoulder, her lips moving in quiet, grateful prayer.
Despite the fact that the Slat was still whirling with the chaos and excitement that always came after victory, the music was now somewhat fainter. The Dregs were too drunk or too focused on typical card games to take further part in off-key singing and even more terrible dancing.
Nina had taken notice of Inej's bruises and, naturally, she had dragged her all the way to a couch at the very back of the room so she could work on relieving her of some discomfort.
Saints bless your own loving heart, Inej thought when she sensed the way the grisha's gentle grasp eased into her pulse, still wild with the adrenaline of sea travel, and carefully soothed her into calmness, easing her headache and stiffness of mind away.
It was as they both watched the other Dregs snore and drink and laugh over card tricks that Nina said it; It's better with you here.
"Moya milaya," Inej muttered gratefully in Ravkan, reaching for Nina's hand.
She had never regretted her choice to leave part of her life in Ketterdam behind and to keep leaving it for the sake of one holy purpose, but in moments like this, the burdens of her new life became all the more evident.
Nina had a purpose of her own too, one that required tremendous strength, and her country was lucky to have a soldier as fierce as her.
They both had separate paths to walk upon, different lives to lead, and though the thought filled Inej with great pride, leaving a friend behind, let alone Nina of all people, would never get any easier.
Nina, who still smelled like roses and cinnamon. Nina, who chose to speak in Suli as happily as Inej chose to speak in Ravkan, if only because of the familiarity and appreciation that was shared in the back and forth switching between their two respective languages; Finding a home in words that no Kerch man in this Saints-forsaken city could defile, because it was theirs and theirs alone.
Inej picked up her hat, the one she wore as captain, and gently placed it on Nina's head before leaning close to press their foreheads together.
"I haven't bathed in over a week and it will be a great inconvenience to care for all my injuries. So if you think this is better, I might have to draw a knife on somebody because, Saints, they must have done something truly horrible to you."
