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heliads · 1 year

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just a short time chapter one: didn't see the news

Y/N L/N and Nikolai Lantsov have already fallen in love. They have yet to meet. Their stories are over and done. There is far more to the world than just one series.

this time: Zoya knows better than to believe that whatever is going on between Y/N and Nikolai will last. It is the believing, though, that might do her in.

this chapter's song: paris

series masterlist / chapter two

Zoya Nazyalensky is accustomed to bad endings. Saints know she’s seen enough, caused enough, even been in enough of them to know. This one shouldn’t faze her, then. It does anyway. The worst part about it, she decides, is that it hasn’t started yet. All of the players are still in the good part, the part where they think they can get away with anything they want. Zoya knows otherwise. She always has.

Zoya is watching one such ending now, trying to figure out how bad it’s going to get. This story is worse than the others; it’s caught up not just her friends in this twisting mass of red lines and knotted thread, but her as well. The conspirator of all this, the one who drew up his sick master plan, didn't realize how much it would consume him. Perhaps none of them truly do.

It was not her idea, this. That doesn’t mean her hands will be clean of blood in the end, only that she was not the one to first plunge the knife into a heart or two. Aleksander set this into motion a couple of months ago. Zoya had sat there, listened, and known that this one would hurt.

She’s tried to rid herself of troublesome things like a conscience. Zoya has specialized in looking the other way over the years: for Alina, for Genya, even for herself. This should be no exception, and at the beginning, it wasn’t.

The plan was simple. In all honesty, Zoya thought it was a sign that maybe Aleksander was finally quieting down, practicing kindness instead of that never ending cruelty. Y/N L/N was going a little too far, everyone knew it. Zoya tried her hardest to course correct, but by the Saints, she’s never met with a person more determined to drag down everything with her. Maybe that’s a sign that Y/N’s rebellion will save her someday, but for now, it just forces Aleksander’s hand, and that has never been a good thing in all Zoya’s time of knowing him.

Zoya had been summoned to Aleksander’s office late one evening. It was not the first time her path had led to the so-called War Room when the lights were mostly off and no one else was around to see what happened. It used to excite her. Zoya has grown up, and now all she feels is fear.

Aleksander had been pacing as he always did when troubles grew to test his mettle more than normal. Zoya cast her gaze around the office, searching for signs of change. That’s the first indicator of his temper, as she’s learned; anything from a picture frame placed facedown can signal the end. The far wall is plastered with the photos of Aleksander’s clients, his conquests.

There’s an empty spot in the top row that he still hasn’t bothered to cover up. Then again, perhaps he keeps it barren in the hopes that he’ll be able to hang the photograph back up again. Zoya knows his delusions, though, and she knows that Alina Starkov will never come back here unless it’s to burn the place down.

Y/N, though, Y/N stays, and it is Y/N that they were to discuss that night. Alexander had stood, gripping the back of the chair in front of him until his knuckles ran of blood and turned deathly white.

“She’s out of control,” he’d whispered, his syllables unsettling and snakelike.

If there’s one thing Aleksander hates more than anything, it’s a lack of control. He fancies himself a general sometimes, the sole schemer in a war no one ever knows they’re serving in until it’s too late.

Zoya cleared her throat. “She can still be convinced to settle down.”

In all this time, Zoya still doesn’t know if she was lying or not. Y/N is Y/N, she refuses to make anything she does make sense. Sometimes, Zoya doesn’t even think Y/N knows who she is. The public sees one side of you; if you let that part of yourself grow too strong, you start forgetting what’s real and what isn’t. Y/N is just starting to fall. Zoya has no idea if she’s going to catch herself or not.

Aleksander, however, seems to have a plan for that. “She needs encouragement to see things our way,” he had mused, “that’s why we’re going to an outside party.”

Zoya’s brows knit together in confusion. “Who?”

Aleksander had slammed a news article down on the table in front of Zoya, the primary photograph winking up at her. It shows a gilded boy, a movie star so lost in the glow of someone else’s fame that he’s half blinded by it. Maybe that’s just Zoya’s lack of trust speaking, however; Nikolai Lantsov has not done anything to her yet, but he has yet to impress her, either.

“Lantsov’s agents reached out to me last night,” he said, “they have an idea I quite like.”

“Do you think it’ll work?” Zoya had asked, realizing belatedly what he meant.

“Of course not,” Aleksander had muttered, “but we can always paint him to look like a criminal. We protect our own, do we not?”

Zoya had not dared to answer that, but swept from the room the second Aleksander turned his back. Even then, both of them had known that it likely wouldn’t last. In fact, Aleksander was counting on them ruining each other. That bloody separation would rattle Y/N, forcing her to run back to Aleksander and his meddling business.

Zoya has to admit that she may have meddled as well. She’d been the one to encourage Y/N and Nikolai to fight to keep the image afloat. They were all dealt a failing hand, but Zoya would not be the one captaining the ship when it went under. No, she’d pull strings and provide advice whenever and wherever necessary if it meant both of them stayed intact. Aleksander never knew. No one did.

Now, Zoya is sitting by herself and wondering if she might have gone too far. The problem is not that Nikolai and Y/N hate each other, far from it. Despite the fact that Aleksander only accepted Nikolai’s gamble because he knew there could never be two more unlikely stars, they’re working somehow anyway. Call it star-crossed lovers, call it Fate liking a good laugh, but regardless, they grow closer by the day.

Too close, that is. Zoya watches Y/N, she sees the way Y/N smiles when she talks about the Lantsov princeling. Where there had once been an irritated glare, there’s a spark, a light. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen at all.

Zoya had not meant for Nikolai and Y/N to truly fall in love. She doesn’t think they’ve realized it, either, but they will soon enough. Something like this is impossible to ignore. Y/N and Nikolai are falling farther and farther away from the public frenzy. They ignore headlines, they sideline gossip, they see no photos and hear no lies. All that seems to matter is each other.

She’s monitoring them now, even if they aren’t aware of it. As Zoya sips her coffee in the shade of a small shop, Y/N and Nikolai are sitting together in a bistro down the street. They’re located by a window, which is meant to be a nod to their respective agencies that they’re just doing this for the media attention, but Zoya knows better. No one looks at someone with that sort of verve unless they’re in love.

As Zoya sits there, Y/N and Nikolai get up. He holds open the door for her, and Y/N laughs. Zoya can’t quite hear her from here, but she can imagine that Y/N’s teasing him for being too much of a gentleman. They hear a camera shutter from down the block and their footsteps quicken, stumbling down pretend alleyways and lingering quietly in the shade until they think no one can see them. They’ve left their wine on the table, but they still laugh like they’re dizzy, like they might stop breathing entirely just to experience the full rush of it all.

Zoya sighs, forcing her eyes forward just long enough until they disappear from view forever. She shouldn’t be thinking like this. Zoya has a job to do, which is to keep track of the two lovebirds until their scheduled ruse ends and they break up in full view of the public. The only problem is that Zoya knows that conclusion to something that never should have been real in the first place will kill them just as surely as a blade.

How is it that Zoya is the only one who sees the fact that they’re running headlong towards their own demise? Her knuckles clench around the handle of her mug, and not even the gentle cloud of steam dusting her fingertips can convince Zoya to ever mellow. Zoya has seen countless heartbreaks, even helped them along in the interest of a bigger goal, but this is worse. These are her friends.

Even though Zoya scoffs at Nikolai all she likes, she can’t deny that he’s a good man, and those are hard to come by. He truly cares for Y/N, and Y/N truly cares for him. Y/N, who has been one of the only people to treat Zoya as more than an enemy or a potential pawn. When this ends, it’s going to wreck all of them. Even Zoya, with her habits of keeping her walls as high and insurmountable as possible. There’s no way any of them can let this go.

Someone slides into the seat in front of her. Two someones, actually. Zoya blinks, startled, then realizes that the intruders are hardly worth the barb of a well-timed insult for encroaching on her space. Zoya has already gone to the trouble of tracking down Y/N to make sure she’s doing alright, so she should hardly be surprised that Tolya and Tamar would return the favor for Nikolai.

Tamar’s eyes dart briefly to the street, then return to Zoya again. “You see it too, don’t you?”

Zoya decides that she’ll feign ignorance for the time being. True, the twins haven’t done anything to signify that they’re not to be trusted, but Zoya doesn’t trust anyone. Not even herself.

“See what?” She asks instead.

Tamar scoffs. “You know what I’m talking about. They’re falling in love.”

Zoya exhales slowly. “Are you here to stop it or to commiserate?”

Tolya clears his throat contemplatively. “I believe that not all love is to be stopped. If these two, no matter how unlikely, can find some source of real happiness, perhaps we should let them have it. It will break eventually, why end it before its time? To quote the famous poet–”

Tamar’s eyes widen and she interrupts quickly before Tolya can start another extended poetry monologue. Zoya’s already sat through her fair share. “No poetry right now, I don’t think I can take it. It’s already troublesome enough to see the two of them running around like they’re going to make it through this, I can’t stomach couplets as well.”

Zoya snorts before she can stop herself. “Tell me about it. I can’t get Y/N to focus on anything, she’s too entranced with your golden boy.”

Tamar grins too. “Same with Nikolai. I haven’t seen him like this before, it’s almost funny. They both seemed like such serious performers, and now they’re undone by a schoolyard crush.”

Zoya’s smile fades slightly. “That’s the problem, I don’t think it’s just a crush. This thing has to end, and when that happens, it’ll ruin them both. Saints, this whole ruse was supposed to save their reputations, but the tailspin after they’re separated could leave them even worse off.”

Tolya grimaces. “We’re not there yet, though.”

“No,” Tamar concludes, “but we will be.”

“What do we do about it?” Tolya asks at last.

“Nothing,” Zoya whispers, “we watch it end, just like them. We pick up the pieces. That’s what they hired us to do.”

Tamar’s brow furrows. “Always so pleasant, Zoya. Feel free to hope that they’ll make it out alive.”

Zoya considers saying several things, but in the end she keeps her mouth shut. If she were to dare to voice her thoughts aloud, she would bring up countless stories about how every time someone relies on hope, it lets them down. Zoya knows how this particular love will go, how disastrous its end will be. No, Nikolai and Y/N only have heartbreak ahead of them.

Fleetingly, she wonders if Y/N will despise her for this, for letting her risk her heart after all this time just to break it like a bone. Normally, Zoya would tell herself that it doesn’t matter, that the job is just that, a job, and it will end like everything else.

In the end, Zoya knows that there is nothing to be done. It’s what Tolya and Tamar know. It’s even what Nikolai and Y/N know. The end has always been there, but the middle part is okay. That’s what keeps the heartbreak alive, knowing that even though they cannot avoid the last of their days, the going is good while they still have time.

Zoya’s phone vibrates in her hand and she checks it absentmindedly. It’s Y/N, something about how she’ll be late to an evening meeting. She gives no reason, but Zoya knows it anyway. Zoya dims her screen again, and lets herself wonder how Y/N will react after this is over. It is only a matter of time, but Zoya will fight to give the unlucky couple every moment she can. It’s what a friend would do, and Zoya is just that. A friend, even one that seems to be fighting on the other side of the war. What a cruel coincidence. What an unavoidable truth.

all by design universe tag list: @neelia-ficrecs

grishaverse tag list: @rogueanschel, @deadreaderssociety, @cameronsails, @mxltifxnd0m, @story-scribbler, @retvenkos, @thatfangirl42, @amortensie, @gods-fools-heroes, @bl606dy, @auggie2000

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