The privateer and his tracker

Chapter 7

Almost a week passed since Nikolai woke up and he still hasn't seen Mal. This wasn't surprising, since the king spent most of the time recovering and resting in his room, trying to regain his strength.

Genya told him his skin got most of its colour back and he looked well already. He was handling most of his duties just well and knew some exercising would do him good.

"How a person can go through the physical pain you did and still be so annoying afterwards is beside me" Zoya, who was dutifully hanging out with him at the moment, because of a tight schedule Genya made, commented with her eyebrows pulling together in a soft frown.

"I don't see how these two are connected if I'm honest." Nothing else made much sense, and the only thing on his mind was how to restart the silly little training routine he and Mal had going on for a couple of months leading up to the shit happening.

"Of course, you don't." Most of the time he genuinely couldn't tell whether she was actually annoyed with him or slightly enjoyed the time they spent together. The fact that she scoffed but also smiled softly with her last sentence was confusing by itself.

"You don't have to be here, you know? I appreciate your company, I do, but I know you're here because Genya asked you to be and I can manage just fine on my own." That was a bit of a lie since he still couldn't shower alone, but she didn't have to know that.

"First of all" she started with a scary tone: " I'm only here because if I wasn't Alina would be here all the time and the congress would have her head." A smirk appears on her face after she stopped for a slight pause and Nikolai braced himself for whatever was coming.

"I'm quite enjoying seeing the always collected Nikolai the Just, king of Ravka, having a crisis over not knowing how to tell a tracker, who he has a silly little crush on, that he wants to continue their silly little training, that neither of them actually needs."

Leaning back in her chair she did look amused to watch the whole thing unravel. However, the sad thing made Nikolai quite frustrated and he wished he could sit in a corner and cry.

"I just. I don't know. It's more complicated." Zoya was the type of person who didn't take nonsense and her expression was confirming that.

"It's always is when it comes to you." Quickly after she said this, she also winced and Nikolai knew it was more of a natural response than an insult targeting him. He knew she won't apologise but didn't take her too seriously.

"I'll be straight with you. If he walked into this room right now, I'd ask him to go back to training with me. Hell, I'd even as him on a date. But the fact that he is not here tells me a lot and I won't push." He didn't hate many things but he hated to push into others' space just to get their attention. If Mal wanted to, he would.

"But Genya told you-"

"Yes. Genya did tell me. He was here. But when I woke up he wasn't and it's been a long time since that and yet he still never visited. Does it make me happy that he likes me back? Sure, it does. But if he's going to be a coward about it, it's not going to work anyways."

He wasn't sure if he made a good point or if Zoya just didn't have the energy to deal with him anymore but she only nodded in reply.

"Again, I'm thankful for your company, but I'll be okay if you leave. In fact, I might take a walk." Zoya offered him a genuine smile, which was quite surprising, and then left as quietly as she came.

He turned around to look outside and it calmed him. He felt peace washing over him and he thought more of going outside for a bit.

As he was about to turn around and get ready the door opened with a creak. For the first time, he wondered why people stopped knocking after everything that happened.