The privateer and his tracker

Chapter 5

Considering how shitty he was feeling, he couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain Nikolai will be in once he'll wake up. If he even will wake up.

Mal sincerely hoped that the king wasn't suffering any worrying dreams in his resting state.

The healer told Mal there was no brain activity, which meant that the king was in a sleep-like state and didn't see anything. However, there was a chance that the blonde could hear them and they were all encouraged to talk to him while they were visiting.

Three days into sitting by the queen-sized king's bed and Mal hasn't done it yet.

Although he spent most of his time in that room he didn't only sit around. He spent his time reading, tracking things, helping Alina with some of his work and trying to encourage Genya, which was by far the most time-consuming task.

At the moment, he was peacefully leaning on the window shelf, reading a book that was dear to him. He enjoyed listening to birds chirping, people talking, and the wind rustling the leaves.

Since he ended his education, spring has been his favourite season. Nature was waking up and the weather was pleasant, especially at the end of spring.

Looking out of his window he caught the barn that he became familiar with in the past few months. He wondered when Nikolai will be able to train with him in there again and wished that he could get just extra five minutes in case the king will never wake up again.

In realisation that he stopped reading, he turned back to his book, his memory taking him back to that autumn day when he sat with Nikolai under a tree in the garden, reading and fooling around.

That day was pure happiness and he yearned for an opportunity to relive it.

Naturally, he couldn't do that, so he settled for sitting on Nikolai's bed, closer to him than he ever dared. He focused back on the book, gently taking the king's hand in his and resumed reading.

This time, he read out loud.

--- le time skip ---

He closed the book with a gentle thud.

He let the second tear slide down his cheek and let himself slip into a grief-like state for a moment or two.

The door opening caught him off guard and with ease he stood up, dropping Nikolai's hand, startled.

A low chuckle answered his actions, he recognised the person standing there as Nikolai's soldier friend, whose name completely slipped his mind.

Nikolai didn't talk about him a lot, although Mal could see they were once dear friends. He knew they have known each other for a long time, but in the past year, he barely saw them interacting.

When he did, Nikolai's body language screamed: uncomfortable and he wondered if they were once lovers with a bitter ending. He subtly checked with Alina, which subtly checked with Zoya, which subtly checked with Genya, who laughed her ass off and told her: " Did you hit your head? Of course not."

Mal took a couple of steps away, towards the window, leaning on it again. He nodded in acknowledgement and felt quite awkward when he received no response.

He looked at his feet, planning some sort of an escape plan so that he wouldn't have to lose brain cells in a possible conversation with this man.

He took a couple of steps before the man just had to open his mouth and he unsurely paused in the middle of the room, right at the king's feet.

"Genya told me you were keeping an eye out, but I didn't expect you to still be here after more than three days." Mal didn't know what kind of response the soldier expected and frankly, he didn't even know what to answer.