#winter sun
suuun
you deserve to see this
Feb 1, 2022 - a winter afternoon - taken Jan 31, 2022
Feb 1, 2022 - late afternoon sun at the end of January - taken Jan 31, 2022
And here is my second fic for the @grishaversebigbang ! ZOYALINA BABIES! So much love to my wonderful gang, you are all so sweet and talented and supportive and it was a true joy working with you on this!!
Beta Readers:@purns-art
@floriahart
Artists: @krasnyzmeya[X]
@kiiro-art [X]
@generalstarkov [X]
@octopiconsortium [X]
@paperplanenomad [X]
@lemonpuffin [X]
@polekands [X]
@novembereverart [X]
Rating:Mature
Relationships: Zoya Nazyalensky/Alina Starkov, David Kostyk/Genya Safin, Darkling has one-sided feelings for Alina, friendship trio Alina/Zoya/Genya, Malina (platonic)
Additional Tags: Growing Up Together, Zoya PoV, Alina grows up at the Little Palace, (sort of — from the age of 13), Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Angst, Pining, so much pining, 4 years of pining, Zoya “i won’t say i’m in love” Nazyalensky, Alina “i’m too dumb to see what’s right in front of me” Starkov, and now for the Darkling-related content warnings, cw: grooming, cw: ancient man has feelings for underage girl, just cw: darkling really, Coming of Age, Jealous Zoya, Getting Together, Slow Burn
Summary:
“Come on, please,” a little voice begged. “Please don’t die.”
Zoya struggled to flutter open her frozen lashes. “What…”
Above her leaned a girl with tears pearling from her eyes — and they were such beautiful eyes, dark as trees and oceans in the night. She looked Zoya’s age or thereabout, with silky black hair and a pale, delicate face.
And, impossibly, the girl was glowing.
————–
An AU in which Alina gets taken to the Little Palace at 13, and her relationship with Zoya ends up following a very different route.
[Ao3 Link]
| Beginning of chapter 1 under the cut |
The snow was black with blood. Zoya’s blood. Her back burnt against the frozen ground; the cold seeped into her wounds. The white tiger had pierced her kefta, her jumper, her skin, leaving her bleeding and exposed to the frost. The mythical beast’s body lied a few feet from her, sprawled against thick roots. Its spine was bent in half, broken. Zoya hadn’t intended to kill it when she’d summoned a desperate gust of wind. She hadn’t intended anything except to survive.
That impulse seemed very distant, now.
Is this how I die? Alone in the cold, my blood in the snow?
She was barely thirteen years old. There was so much more she’d wanted to do, so much more she had to prove, but the frostbites were spreading up her limbs. The Darkling’s grisha were sleeping, or they simply didn’t care. No one was coming to help her.
The tiger cubs were long gone. At least they would be free to grow as strong as their mother — not reduced to a greedy grisha’s trophy or a male tiger’s meal. The thought was strangely comforting. The cubs would live.
Then, Zoya felt sunlight.
Warm, gentle on her skin. It had to be death coming to claim her — why else would she feel the heat of the sun in the middle of this winter night? Even during the day the sun wasn’t this warm, this close to the Permafrost.
This is a nice way to go, she thought. Zoya had always been more suited for warm weather.
“Come on, please,” a little voice begged. “Please don’t die.”
Zoya struggled to flutter open her frozen lashes. “What…”
Above her leaned a girl with tears pearling from her eyes — and they were such beautiful eyes, dark as trees and oceans in the night. She looked Zoya’s age or thereabout, with silky black hair and a pale, delicate face.
And, impossibly, the girl was glowing.
“Oh thank the Saints, you’re awake,” she said with a laugh that shuddered in relief. “Y-you’ve lost a lot of blood, but it’s going to be okay, alright? You’re going to be okay, I promise. Mal went to get some bandages—”
Zoya could barely hear any of her words. She was glowing. Her light was bright and warm, as though the sun was trapped under her skin. Zoya had been around grisha power for years, surrounded by every prowess of the Small Science, and she had never seen anything like this.
“Why are you…” But Zoya’s voice trailed off, weak. Even with the soothing warmth, it hurt. It hurt so much.
The girl said something else, something that sounded panicked, but suddenly, she stopped. Silence engulfed the clearing. The sounds of the forest vanished, all at once — even the wind quieted, even the distant howls of animals.
At the edge of her vision, Zoya noticed the Darkling.
The girl’s sunlight died like a snuffed candle, throwing the world back in darkness, and just as quickly she was bolting out of the clearing into the thick of the forest. The Darkling shouted something, his shadows thrusting outward, chasing after the girl.
Dimly, Zoya hoped he wouldn’t catch her.
The thought was confusing, inexplicable, but she didn’t have the strength to examine it now.
All she could do was close her eyes, and lie in the snow.
Soon, everything was dark again.
when the sun starts to warm us
try to see the bright side when each new day begins
baby you, what i never said to you, cause you really are my living legend
