Work Text:
SaB || Alinej || SaB || Alinej || SaB || An Owl Among Crows || SaB || Alinej || SaB || Alinej || SaB
Title: An Owl Among Crows – Birds of a Feather
Fandom: Shadow and Bone / Grishaverse
Disclaimer: All rights to the Shadow and Bone show reserved to Eric Heisserer, the books the show is based off and its characters belong to Leigh Bardugo. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: f/f, alpha/beta/omega dynamics, fluff, nesting, shapeshifters, flock dynamics
Main Pairing: Alina/Inej
Grishaverse Characters: Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, Kaz Brekker, Alina Starkov, Malyen 'Mal' Oretsev, Milo the Goat
Summary: Mal and Alina have to leave and find a new life. During her journey, she had bonded with a flock of crows. After they had tried to abduct her, but those were mere details.
An Owl Among Crows
Birds of a Feather
The Sun Summoner was breathtaking. Inej had never seen anything like her. Simply seeing her had made Inej's heart soar. As beautiful as her human form was though... the first time Inej saw the Sun Summoner's shifter-form? Inej had not hit a tree since she had been a fledgling herself, but the distraction was nearly enough to cause her to crash.
Most, if not all, people were shapeshifters of sort. An animal form that reflected their very soul. Grisha were usually associated with the element they controlled, the stronger ones often times even supposedly mythical creatures. With that shifter-side came a secondary destination of being either alpha, beta or omega, a very primal side to them all.
Inej was a crow – as were Kaz and Jesper, it was where they had gotten their name from. They were the Crows. Crows didn't have the best of reputations, but the three of them wore their shift-forms with pride. Kaz was the Alpha of their flock, their leader, the one to care for them. Even if he didn't admit it aloud a lot, he showed it in different manners. Though he would glare if he heard her say it, Kaz Brekker was the kindest man Inej had ever met. Just because he wasn't... soft and cuddly didn't mean he wasn't kind. He'd given Inej a home, a flock, had gotten her away from the menagerie – Inej was an omega and life for an omega without a family or a mate was always hard.
Alina Starkov was an owl-shifter. A barn owl, nearly fully white but flecked with gold. Not just brown that seemed to shine in the right light, her feathers were actually golden. She was absolutely breathtaking, Inej had never seen anything like her. She was everything.
Jesper nearly immediately started teasing Inej about having a crush. Inej didn't know about that. Well, it wasn't like she had too much to compare it to. She had no idea what she had pictured meeting the Sun Summoner to be like, but this wasn't it. Alina was everything Inej had pictured and more. So much more. With every shared interaction, Inej felt more and more drawn to her.
And then they all flew away from the scene together – the Crows, the beautiful barn owl, her hawk-friend and the peacock who had helped Inej on the ship. The six of them had landed, made a fire and rested. Gathering themselves before parting. The peacock Grisha was the first one to leave their group and Inej found herself entirely focused on Alina.
Her loyalty was torn, for the first time in a long time. Deep down, she also knew what it was, but she was not yet ready to name it. Her loyalty to her flock was being tested by a forming loyalty to an alpha. An alpha she liked. Liked as more than just a comrade. But those were thoughts she couldn't put into words, because it was terrifying to think it aloud. Preposterous, really. Who was Inej, after all? A street-wise omega on her own with her little flock. And Alina? Aline was the Sun Summoner, a hero in the making, the bringer of... everything good to come, really.
"Where will you go from here?" asked Inej as their group walked together.
"Ketterdam. For now. And then... who knows where the wind will carry us," replied Alina.
It was a surprise, one that made Inej's heart beat faster.
/break\
Alina had never formed flock-bonds before. She had come close at the Little Palace, with Marie, Nadia and Genya. Then Marie died and Genya... betrayed Alina. It had always just been her and Mal, they were the only family they needed, that they had agreed on in the orphanage already. Even if they never got adopted, they would always have family in each other. Who needed more than that? And then she got kidnapped by three crows. They fought, but not much. And in the end, the crows came through and turned out to be the only ones – aside from Mal – that Alina could rely on. As they flew off together and gathered around a fire, she couldn't help but feel like she was among flock. Among her people. A feeling she never had before, not even at the Little Palace – there, it had been more a forming friendship that gave her this sense. But this, for the first time, felt like she just sat among her people. She thought that Mal could tell, because he didn't object to her suggestion of going to Ketterdam, the very place the crows came from.
"You know, I joked about seeing Ketterdam before. I never thought we'd actually go. Not like this, at that," Mal's voice was low and dark, a thoughtful, nearly doubtful, frown on his face.
Which was entirely undermined by the goat on his lap that he was currently cuddling. Before the five of them had made their way to Ketterdam, they had made a detour, on orders of the Alpha. Usually both Mal and Alina tended to edge on with Alphas – leading alphas, that were. Perhaps because they were flock-less. Kaz was... easier to follow. The man had a plan and a backup plan and even a backup plan for his backup plan. For the first time, Alina felt like she had met an Alpha who actually was a leader, who actually knew what they were doing. They went there to get a goat. A goat that Mal was immediately attached to too because it had saved his life. If that wasn't fate, Alina honestly didn't know what was. A small smile found its way onto her lips as she watched Mal ruffle the goat's fur between the ears, making it bleat happily.
"Are you objecting after all?" asked Alina in a very soft voice.
It was night-time. Most others were already asleep, but the two childhood friends laid awake, talking softly as they used to at the orphanage. Milo got off from Mal and walked over to where Jesper was sleeping, laying down with him. Even in his sleep, Jesper lifted an arm to hug Milo.
"I'm not. And I feel like that should be a red flag in on itself," whispered Mal concerned. "Jesper's a lot of fun to be around, actually. I think... I think we could get along with them. Maybe."
"It's a strange thought, I know," admitted Alina.
"Not as strange as you courting an omega," Mal huffed under his breath.
"Co—What?" Alina's voice pitched a little and she covered her mouth to quiet herself.
Mal rolled his eyes at her, before turning over onto his side to fully face her. "You gave an unmated omega a shiny, completely unprompted gift. What else would you call that?"
Alina flushed furiously at that, trying to cover her face. "That's not what that wa—as. I just... that... I didn't retrieve her knife so I... got her... a different one. That's... all."
"It... wasn't your duty to retrieve her knife," offered Mal in a dry voice. "You gave an unmated omega an unprompted gift is what you did, Alina."
"It was a knife, Mal," argued Alina, still fighting her blush. "That's not really romantic! How could you mistake that for—for courting! It wasn't jewelry or anything."
"...I may not have known Inej long, but she does not strike me as the type of omega impressed by fancy jewelry. She strikes me as the omega impressed by shiny weapons," countered Mal.
Now, Alina found herself at a loss for words. There was no arguing with that. Her blush returned full-force at that. Inej did seem like the girl who appreciated a knife more than a ring, if the way she had lit up was anything to go by. She'd been so excited. Alina covered her face with her hands.
"You're going to make a fool out of yourself in Ketterdam, aren't you?" asked Mal amused.
"A real best friend would help me and stop me," Alina muttered softly to herself.
"Nah, where's the fun in that?" Mal laughed. "Never seen you this interested in an omega before."
/break\
Jesper sat with his legs up on a chair, crossed at the ankles. His hat was tipped forward, half hiding his face. He'd just taken most of Mal's money in a very fair game of cards and now the two friends were sitting together, watching the girls with barely hidden amusement.
"They're so bad," declared Jesper, fondness in his voice. "Like. So bad."
"They absolutely are. Both of them," confirmed Mal.
Milo between them bleated in agreement. Good goat. Both reached out to pat him. It was day fifty-six of Mal and Alina being in Ketterdam and it was the seventh gift that Alina had given Inej. Most were knives of sort. Or other kind of shiny weapon – the emphasis on shiny, because yeah, they were crows. Crows liked shiny things, it was why Kaz cherished that cane in particular, why Jesper polished his guns to perfection. They liked their shiny things, they liked collecting them. But for Inej, as an omega, to get these very pretty, shiny gifts from that cute alpha she liked. She didn't need to say it, Jesper knew his friend well enough to notice. Though, at this point honestly everyone could see the longing glances between them.
"They're so oblivious, it is physically painful to watch," Mal sighed, grabbing his drink and handing Jesper a new one too. "They even smell like each other at this point. You noticed that too?"
"Oh ye—eah. Inej's covered in Alina's scent," agreed Jesper with an enthusiastic nod.
"Instead of drinking, gambling and gossiping, I'm sure there is something more productive you two could do," Kaz suddenly appeared out of nowhere, nearly giving Mal a heart-attack.
Mal was still not used to their Alpha, he still gave him the creeps. Jesper all the while simply offered a lazy grin. He knew Kaz had a soft spot for Inej and didn't welcome their teasing of her. In Jesper's opinion, Inej deserved the teasing at this point. It had been going on for too long.
/break\
Inej was in her room, in her nest. It was high up in the wooden beams in the ceiling. Most of the things in her nest were from Alina at this point, including one of Alina's scarves that Inej might or might not have stolen. It was soft and smelt like her. In her crow-form, she picked the things to set them properly, pleased at all the shiny objects poking out. Little knives and even other things – pins for her scarf that she had gotten from Alina too. The whooshing of wings caught her attention and as she turned, a barn owl landed next to her, loosing some beautiful, golden-white feathers. Her crow-instincts immediately made Inej open her beak and pick them up, happily stuffing them into her nest as fodder. They were soft and smelt like Alina and they were shiny. Once her nest looked good, Inej hopped out of it and approached Alina, rubbing her head against the owl's.
The boys might be teasing them, but only because neither of the girls was ready to tell them yet that they were more than flock-mates. It was still so new and exciting and intimate. It was only theirs, neither was ready to share that with the world yet. Inej nudged Alina and took off, with Alina hot on her heels, both flying out into the night-sky together, just the two of them.
~*~ The End ~*~