Work Text:
Alina stared at her reflection in the mirror, gazing hard into the reflective surface to see herself in a chair, framed in bronze vines and birds making her look like a mockery of a painting. Her long, gilded hair was pulled back, tightly wound into a braid that draped over her deep blue kefta.
Genya stepped up behind her, a playful smile on her beautiful lips.
“Well, are you sure? This will last a few days, after all.” She said, softly teasing in her good natured way, her lovely face framed by her fiery red hair.
“I’m as sure as I’m ever going to be. Hurry up with it before I lose my nerves.” Alina softly snapped, swallowing thickly with anticipation and a thrill of anxiety.
Her friend tutted, rolling her eyes and began her work, taking time to shift and adjust her features with delicate precision.
Alina remembers what brought this on as she sits in the cushiony chair, her eyes fluttering closed.
“Again!” Her voice, eternally annoyed and set in frustration, demanded another try at her powers.
“I’ve done it again and again and again! I don’t know what you want from me!”
“I want you to stop complaining and to be better! Are you daft, girl?”
A knife jabbed in her chest, and she snapped at the old woman. “Will you stop calling me girl?”
“I’ll stop calling you girl when you get rid of that blockage in you! You’re blocking out the light, for what? You need to stop denying a part of yourself girl!”
Alina had scoffed, how dare she assume she was holding something down? She was trying, and trying hard! “I am not!”
“Then deal with being called girl, girl, and go again!”
Baghra was not the best, nor most supportive teacher out there, spiteful in her words and how often she whipped her cane against her hands.
Yet Alina was more excited than she had expected to be.
The same thrill rushed through her veins as she heard Genya giggle in triumph, feeling her fingers pressed against her skin. When she finished up the transformation tingled and itched deeply after her fingers had left her face.
“I can’t do too much more without drawing out the ire of the Queen, but I must say I did wonderfully!” She clapped her hands, “Open your eyes! You need to see this! You’re adorable.”
Alina opened up her eyes to see herself in the mirror, and the first thing she noticed was that she was looking at herself. She never really enjoyed catching herself in the mirror, however…
With a square and sharp jaw, adjusted cheeks to look far less rosy--She looked like a he , and her heart pounded hard in her chest, a wonderful feeling thrumming through her body. Her kefta was thick enough to hide her stick-like frame.
It was only meant to get at Baghra, a prank. But this...
That was when Alina knew what had been hidden.
The war room always felt too tense to relax in, knowing what would be discussed here in hushed whispers… Years of fighting and blood shed, planned and people protected here. Today was a bit different, the Sun Summoner having caught wind that the Darkling was back from a trip for only a short while. He pounced on the chance as soon as he could. He couldn’t wait any longer!
Of all things to expect, he had never expected the Darkling to arch his dark brow in a brief question before simply asking if he would prefer to stay that way. His stormy grey eyes seemed unbothered, and when he had hesitated, the Darkling chuckled, the familiar sound sending shivers down his back.
“If you think that in my hundred odd years, that I haven’t met others like you, or that we had none among us now, you must be a fool. You, however, are not a fool. What should you be called? Alina no longer works, correct?”
Shifting on his feet, he let out a weak laugh, looking at the Darkling in his dark ebony chair, intimidating yet welcoming all the same. “Right.”
“Do you have any in mind?”
“No, actually…” He cleared his throat, “I was hoping you might be able to help me.”
The Darkling stared hard at the Sun Summoner, before a smile cascaded across his lips in a charmed way. He leaned on his elbow, sizing up the one before him in deep contemplation, taking every bit of pleasure in naming the one before him.
“Pasha Starkov? No, that’s a bit on the nose…” He became lost in his thoughts, before his eyes latched onto Alina’s and his smile grew. “Aloshka.”
“What does it mean?”
“To help, a defender.” He loved the secret parallel between their names, his possessive nature flickering across his face as he named the Sun Summoner. “I’ll give word to our people that you are to be addressed as such. The King won’t be too happy, but…” His smile faltered, falling into a brief look of annoyance before turning into passive neutrality. “He isn’t going to control you.”
His skin prickled at his words.
“Do it again! I do not like repeating myself, yet you seem intent on making me a broken music box!”
The light was so much closer to the surface now. He could feel it, thrumming and begging to be freed. “I need to concentrate!”
“Concentrate harder, then! I don’t need some useless child who can’t get it right!”
“I’m trying! ”
“Try harder, boy!”
Some things never change.