The best thing life ever gave him || Shadow and Bone || The Grishaverse

Awe and Surprise

After so long he didn't know the concept of love. Love was something so subtle to hold on to for centuries. Possession was something concrete. He would have owned her. Her power and every aspect of her life. Until she knew nothing other than him. And turned to him deliberately. He wanted to cage her and let her only have him for the rest of her life. Him, as the only thing she could cling to.
Reading those letters that she sent the tracker was disheartening. She still wanted to go away and would have given up her power to do so. How dared she, after everything he gave her?!
Mal, Mal, Mal... He enjoyed burning each letter.
But her letters to him were the only thing that gave him the certainty that the stag existed. Why did she dream of it? Did she have a connection with it? Maybe it was because she was the one destined to kill it and to use it as an amplifier. Could it be he had dreams of it too when he was younger? Maybe he had just forgotten. Maybe not.

—————-

The fete was that evening and the Little Palace was in such a fuss. He wondered how she would dress, he couldn't wait to see the amazement written on the face of spectators.

Then he heard a sound coming from the nearest room.
"Ivan? My kefta,"asked out loud.
Alina Starkov, he thought and scoffed, better get her out of his mind.
Obviously, when he turned she was there. Her hair, which was usually loose on her shoulders was now up, her neck free.
She held his kefta in her hands and was looking at him with her chin up.
"You're not Ivan," he said matter-of-factly.
She glanced down for a moment and at him again with a hilarious expression, "Sorry to disappoint."
She wasn't sorry. He could see her smirk. She had surprised him again. How dare she, he thought, starting to smile.
"Do I sense a little disdain from my Heartrender? You know, when you get to know him, he's actually quite funny," a sneer on his lips.
"I bet you find Volcra hilarious," she answered challenging. Oh, you have no idea, miss Starkov.
"May I?" she asked. Like he would refuse.
He thanked her and started talking again.
That morning he sent David to her with his new invention. He didn't think she would send it back. Another pleasant surprise. It was really only a safeguard. In case she felt uneasy with that many people watching her.
They were facing each other, he was a lot taller than her, he didn't know why he kept forgetting it. Maybe the extent of her power made her seem taller.
Her eyes started to fidget while looking at him and she twirled to move away from him.
Was she fleeing from him? Did she still feel in danger?

"But I'm actually not that nervous," she raised her voice to be heard.
He somehow doubted it.
"I may have considered throwing myself down the stairs to get out of it, once or twice," there she was again, making jokes.
"Wouldn't work, I have healers," he replied following her and leaning on a table behind her.
"I was nervous at first, but talking to Genya, I've realized what this demonstration represents."
He wanted to tell her that she didn't need to demonstrate anything. That people, the King, Ravkans, even Grisha were frail and needed to be reassured. Her demonstration was a beacon of hope for those who didn't believe she was a sun summoner.
What she said between brief glances was different and still surprising. "...but now I finally feel like I belong, and not that I just belong here but..."
You belong to me, Alina " ...to something greater." She paused and turned away again "That we can offer Grisha and Ravkans hope for the future."
Was it all a ruse? Did she really mean it? Of course she meant it, she wasn't a fraud. But how could it be?
She was changing her ideas and he had done nothing. What had caused such a change? It couldn't have only been Genya. Could she so easily change her mind, was she so malleable?
He knew she wasn't. Though young she wasn't gullible; of course, she couldn't outsmart his centuries of practice, but she had an orphan's life, she had learned on her own not to trust others.
She probably had thought about this a lot. Maybe those letters to the tracker were written in her worst moments, when she felt down.
"That means a lot to me, Alina." And that was the truth, the fact that she believed in a greater good, that they, together, could do... was what he had always hoped for. Maybe one day he could stop lying to her and tell her his true identity, maybe she would accept him for who he was. Maybe she really was his.
She turned to face him, and he looked right into her eyes "You mean a lot..." She lowered her gaze on her hands.
It wasn't only her power, she was special on her own. but he couldn't expose himself so easily. Yes, she meant a lot "...to... everyone."
At that moment he knew something was going to happen, and when she looked at him, really looked at him, he could see himself in her eyes: the same want, the same desire.
She walked to him, his lips parted. This was it. She was going to kiss him.
Would it be as he thought? Would it be a poignant kiss? The first meeting of two predestined souls?
He could only look into her eyes, mesmerized. In a blink of an eye, her hands were on the collar of his kefta, reaching for his face and he closed his eyes ever before feeling the soft touch of her lips.
She was delicate, yet demanding; she wanted him to kiss her back, and he did, her fingertips lightly brushing his beard.
A simple kiss, so simple that he thought he'd never felt so at ease kissing someone. He wanted more, but something told him this was enough at that moment. His hands tightened on the edge of the table, if he raised them he would not have let her go.
The simple kiss ended in a simple manner, her lips departed from his but her hands remained on his kefta. He slowly stood up, his height impending on her, his chin up and his eyes down on her. Awe and amazement were visible on her face. Was she amazed that she kissed him, or that he kissed her back? She surely had surprised him.
Another smirk starting to form on his lips "Not many people surprise me, Miss Starkov."
She smiled (such an emotional smile) and then that shyness returned and he fully smiled tilting his chin and trying to reach for another kiss-
When someone knocked on the fucking door. Damn it.

Notes:
Hi check my other story about Darklina: 'Just hold me'
Thank you for reading my story!!❤️🥰