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Sleeping in a three to a bed on a ship is a tight squeeze, even for them. Especially after having spent some time in the luxuriousness of the king’s bed. But Nikolai and Alina abolished the Ravka monarchy in favor of a republic so there’s no king’s bed anymore.
So instead, they sleep in a tightly packed formation in the captain’s bed and only sometimes wish they had more space.
When Alina wakes up, Mal’s back is to her and his head is resting on Nikolai’s bare chest. When she reaches out to play with his growing hair, he sighs a little, acknowledging her. Then he says, “I need to shave it again soon.”
“Really? I think it looks nice, growing it out a bit. Very handsome.”
He turns around to face her, catches her hand and presses it to his lips. “I’ll think about it.”
“Maybe,” Nikolai says gruffly, “We can all think about Mal’s hair later and go back to sleep instead.”
“As lovely as that sounds, there’s no time for sleeping in. We have a ship to run.”
Alina crawls over the two of them and ignores Nikolai’s exaggerated oof as she does so. She goes to their dresser, tosses a shirt to Mal and then slips on her own shirt. By the time she’s finished buttoning up her shirt, both men have started getting dressed as well.
The captain of the Volkvolny certainly has the biggest and most private room on the ship. But it’s still a ship and a cabin originally built for one person. So they have to maneuver around each other. Alina wonders if one day, they’ll get irritated by this. It’s only been less than a year since the three of them made the Volkvolny their home.
But that’s a problem they’ll have to solve later. For now, it’s almost cozy, getting ready for the day together, a privilege they didn’t have in the palace, where Alina and Nikolai were whisked away by maids and manservants.
Finally, when they’re all dressed, Alina says to them, “Okay, let’s go.”