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There were a number of things that Zoya hadn’t expected to happen when the war was over. Weekly friend group dinners were one of them.
She wasn’t even sure whose idea they had originally been--thought she suspected Nadia or Genya. All she knew was that one evening Tamar was outside her door saying that she was eating dinner with the rest of them and that was that. That first night had been slightly awkward, after all, they’d helped to save the world together but never been casual friends. However the awkwardness faded quickly because, as previously mentioned, they had helped to save the world together and that tied people together. The first few meals the missing people in their group left gaping holes in their absence, but as time passed they all became more adept at pretending that no one was missing.
That was how they got to tonight.
“Curse you!” Genya snaps throwing her cards down onto the table. “You’re going to rob me of everything!”
Nikolai grins and sweeps his winnings over to his massive stack of chips. “That is the point of the game isn’t it, Genya dear?”
It turns out Nikolai picked something new up while they were in Ketterdam and has just been sitting on it all this time. He’s cheating. Blatantly. Unfortunately for the rest of their wallets when they’d accused him he’d just grinned and said he’d stop when they could figure out what he’s doing.
It’s been two hours. None of them can figure out what he’s doing.
“You know, we should just quit this game and do something else,” David says. “Save what money we have left.” However even as he speaks he’s shuffling the deck of cards for another hand. He’s as obsessed with catching Nikolai in the act as the rest of them.
“Just give us a hint already!” Nadia demands gesticulating wildly--none of them are sober at this point but Nadia is a lightweight. “Does it involve counting cards in any capacity ?”
“Not telling,” Nikolai replies, then he turns to Zoya still grinning like a fiend. “Are we taking another shot?”
“Sure,” Zoya says and pours the glasses despite her better judgement. She’d started taking shots with him in the hopes of getting him drunk enough to be sloppy, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious he has the kind of alcohol tolerance one gets growing up around adults who hand you alcoholic beverages at fancy parties. In other words he’s as much a heavyweight as she is and this strategy is fast turning into a drinking contest that will likely end in them both passing out near simultaneously with no ground made on the cheating front.
Still she takes the shot even though it’s a horrible idea. They always drink a little at these gatherings but what she and Nikolai are doing is something different. They should stop; the last thing Ravka needs is for both the king and the commander of the Second Army to be hungover tomorrow, but she’s having fun and she doesn’t want to stop.
David deals the next hand. Nadia picks up her cards, looks at them and bursts into hysterical laughter. She tries to show whatever ridiculous hand she has to Tamar who tries to stop her then starts laughing at her laughing. Soon the whole table is laughing even though no one knows what they’re laughing about. It’s a freeing, amazing feeling, one that Zoya had not even thought would happen. If someone would have told her five years ago that she would be consistently having dinner and laughing with this collection of people she would never have believed them. Now the idea of anything else happening sounds ludicrous.
As they finally manage to reign in the hysteria, Nikolai pours another shot for the two of them. Zoya takes hers. It will be fine. Everything is going surprisingly well. She can relax for tonight and enjoy this. Everything is finally going to be alright.
She’s wrong, because it’s Ravka and there will always be something else. The next morning Nikolai will walk into their meeting hideously late with a livid scrape across his cheek, announce that he’s taken up sleepwalking and start them on a path to yet another crisis.
But tonight she doesn’t know that yet. Tonight she thinks that everything is well.