Call me : Darkness

Let me be

When the ship touched port, everyone was relieved like anything. With Aurora skittering about in the ship and The Darkling glowering behind her, it was a rather...claustrophobic space.

The moment Aurora was introduced to horses was the moment the horses decided to be genius bastards. They made their soul duty to follow Aurora's every whim, and kick anyone who as much as raised their voices at the girl. As always, Alina was an exception to this because of course she was.
The ride to little palace wasn't short and while the Darkling didn't want Aurora to be screaming all the way, he also hadn't anticipated her cooing at the horses and feeding them apples.

Boom, now they had six horses named Butter, Dog, Lion, Flower, Sea and Bee.
Alina said they're nice names. The Darkling silently agreed because they were so much better than Genocide, Hurricane, Grisha, Destiny, Death and Shadow.
Aleksander blamed the skills on his part of the genes, Alina silently disagreed.

"No," Alina sighed as Aurora sprawled on the horseback and tried to look as pathetic as possible. She was doing a rather good job according to the Darkling - he would've broken on her whims already but Alina was just built different.
"Pwease?" Aurora's bottom lip wobbled as she raised her chin in defiance, and yeah, Aleksander really has a soft spot after all.
"We can stop," He offered from his horse, face never leaving the road.
Ivan may or may not have snickered.

"Absolutely not," Alina coldly spoke and oh the face Aurora made at that. It was the perfect impression of a kitten who was denied her favorite treat.
"We are stopping," Aleksander spoke in discomfort and reared his horse to the side. Behind him others followed and after a while so did Alina, though there was a lot of scowling on her part.

As soon as Alina lowered Aurora to the ground she ran across the road and practically threw herself on the Darkling.
The act was so startling that Aleksander almost raised his hands to summon the shadows. Thankfully, his hands denied his brain and caught the toddler before she could crash on the ground. Then, he lowered himself to the ground (their were gasps of shock) and Aurora buried her face in his chest, mumbling a "thank you".

No, the darkling absolutely refused to cry because a toddler hugged him and thanked him. No-fucking-way.

Apparently his eyes had other plans and he had to violently wipe at them to rid them of the moisture. His throat ached and he couldn't recall when he had felt this close to breaking down.

It felt like eternity before Aurora pulled away and ran towards Lion.
Alina was looking at him with something akin to yearning in her eyes before she turned away and wiped at her own eyes. Neither of them mentioned the tears.

Apparently Butter decided that he  deserved more pats from Aurora than Lion did and gave a judgemental neigh. Aurora spoke horse. She turned towards him and patted his snout obligingly.

Aleksander couldn't understand why the girl was so keen on stopping when all she did at the moment was run around like an overhyped bird, never stopping to rest.
She had stopped by the Etherealki several times to watch in awe at sparkling fire or blowing wind, stopping by the Materealki once or twice to muddle together their items and pointedly ignored the Corporalki. They were furious. They had almost attacked the Etherealki in rage. Aurora was in the way.

While the Darkling was staring at the whole...whatever it was, Alina had stalked up to his side, almost making him jump in surprise. He would refuse to his dying day the surprise yelp that he made.
"Her whole name is Aurora Enyo," Alina stated, a soft smile gracing her face as she followed the movements of her daughter.
Aleksander blinked, once - twice. "Wait-"
"Yes."
"That means-"
"Yes."
"Oh?"
"Hmm."
The Darkling wisely shut up after that. Unfortunately fates had planned things differently for him since Aurora scrambled to his side after some while.

He stilled like a stone, not daring to move a single muscle. Faintly, he heard someone (probably Alina) chuckle in amusement.
"Up-up," Aurora grinned and made grabby hands in Aleksander's direction.

The Darkling helplessly looked to Alina who was smirking in his direction.
He scowled and stared back at the petite hands grabbing in thin air.

"I-uh...." Aleksander muttered but Aurora was already babbling something incredibly fast in her baby language.

Alina sighed beside him, "Just pick her up or she's threatening to bite your finger."

Although Aleksander was fairly certain that Aurora wouldn't succeed on her threat, it bought a great amount of pleasure knowing that his two hear old was making threats already.

"Sure?" He said and Aurora threw herself at thin air.
Thankfully for her, Aleksander caught her just in time, and tucked her below his chin.
And froze.

For a whole eternity, there was just silence, then there were snickers.

Alina pinched the bridge of her nose, "You can move, you know."

Aleksander scowled and took a single step forward before freezing again as soon as Aurora made a strangled noise.

"I swear I didn't do anything."

"I know, she does that sometimes."

"Pretends to be dying!?"

"Yep, when she realizes that someone's afraid for her."

"I'm not - I am not afraid for her!"

The lie sounded bitter in his tongue.

"Sure," Alina mockingly patted him on his shoulder as if to prove her point of Aleksander not moving. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Moi soverennyi."
Somehow she managed to make the title sound sarcastic.

"Frow me!" Aurora shrieked and almost yanked herself away from the darkling.

"Why would I-"

"In the sky, general, you need to throw her and catch her." Ivan stated and oh, that little shit was using sarcasm now?

"I knew that...." The darkling muttered and adjusted his grip on Aurora.

As gently as he could, Aleksander threw his hands upwards while having a harsh grip on Aurora's shoulders. The girl squealed and giggled.

Then she glowed.

Her mop of brown hair suddenly glittered in a brilliant white light, her eyes like shining black cobalt.
Her laughter seemed to resonate from everywhere and nowhere.
She threw her hands around Aleksander's neck and buried her face in the collar of his Kefta.

And maybe, maybe there would be a time when the second army would need a general, maybe there would be a time when the grisha of Ravka would need a Darkling, but for now, just a moment, a tiny moment, a little boy in the woods, wanted to just be a boy, with infinite dreams and a sunny heart.

Perhaps there was just Aleksander now, the darkling lost in the shadows somewhere.