Work Text:
-Nikolai-
Nikolai hung up the phone with his mother and heaved a massive sigh.
“That bad, huh?” asked Alina, coming up behind him to wipe down a table. They were at the coffee shop where Alina worked, him to study (and get sidetracked by calls from his mother), Alina on shift.
“It’s just so oppressive, you know?” Nikolai responded. “I just want to concentrate on school, but she’s so intent on getting me married off as soon as possible that she’s trying to set up dates with basically every eligible girl she knows.”
“What about Zoya, they’re not satisfied that you’re dating her?”
Nikolai winced. “They don’t know about Zoya, and it needs to stay that way, for both our sakes. My parents are not… open minded. At all. Their idea of who I should be dating is some rich heiress. With Zoya’s family background, if they knew we were together, if they knew I was serious about her, they’d make her life hell, just to get her away from me. I can’t put her through that.”
Alina gaped at him. “Yikes, what do they think this is, Crazy Rich Asians or something? Or Crazy Rich Russians, I suppose, in this case.”
Nikolai grimaced weakly. “Something like that.” He scrubbed his face with his hands as if to wipe away the blatant classism in the family, and got his books back out to continue studying.
“You know…” interjected Alina, “Have you considered telling them you’re dating somebody… worse? In their eyes I mean, someone they’d approve of even less than Zoya. Then, Zoya would seem like a compromise.”
“Like, fake dating?” he asked, incredulous, “I’m not sure…”
Alina sat down across from him and laced her fingers together, a mischievous look on her face. “They’d disapprove of Zoya because she grew up in a trailer park, right? What’s ‘worse’ than a poor family? Wouldn’t a girl like me with no family at all be worse in their eyes?”
Now the look in Nikolai’s eye had an evil glint in it. “You know, that just might work. Would you be OK with that, pretending we were dating?”
Alina shrugged. “It’s not like anyone else has expressed an interest.”
Nikolai picked up on the mournful tone of her voice, and the way her eyes tracked over to Mal behind the counter. This’ll be a win-win, he thought. Seeing Alina with Nikolai should be just the prodding Mal needs to get off his ass and get his girl.
-Alina-
Alina checked and rechecked her hair in the mirror, tucking and adjusting for the umpteenth time.
Genya grinned at her. “Y’know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you really were into Nikolai, the way you’re primping for this date.”
Alina made a face at her. “I just want it to be believable, ok? For the ‘gram and all.”
“Aren’t you worried Mal will see the pictures and think you’re off limits?”
Alina sighed and picked some invisible lint off her dress. “He’s off hiking in the mountains with Mikhael and Dubrov again, probably doesn’t have any cell service. Anyway, he’s not on instagram to see the pictures. I’ll talk to him when he gets back in a couple weeks. And Nikolai will probably tell him first anyway, since they’re roommates and all.”
There was a knock on the door, which Genya went to answer, then Nikolai appeared in her doorway.
“Your carriage awaits, madam,” he said, bowing gallantly.
-Mal-
“YES! I got a signal!” Dubrov pumped his fist in the air, and then wobbled and nearly fell out of the tree he was halfway up.
Mal rolled his eyes and continued poking at their campfire. The whole point of this trip was to disconnect and just enjoy nature. Not spend every night climbing trees just to look at social media. Mal’s phone was at the bottom of his backpack, off, as it should be.
“Oh shit, Mal. Looks like you’ve missed your chance with Alina.”
Mal looked up at him. “What? Why?”
Dubrov finished climbing down from his tree and brought his phone over to show Mal an instagram post of Nikolai’s. A post showing Nikolai and Alina at some fancy restaurant, Nikolai’s arm around her as she smiled.
Mal’s breath caught in his throat, but he schooled his thoughts and tried to think calmly.
“Nah, Nikolai just likes to treat his friends. Anyway, he knows how I feel about her, he wouldn’t do that to me.”
Mikhael and Dubrov eyed him doubtfully, but let him be.
It continued like this the rest of the week, with Dubrov or Mikhael managing to load instagram every couple of days, and each time finding more posts from Nikolai of him and Alina. Mal kept denying anything could be going on, getting snippier and snippier as the days went by, until they finally showed him a post that was the final blow.
It was another selfie of Nikolai and Alina, but this one showed her with her arms around his neck, standing up on her toes, kissing him. Kissing Nikolai. His roommate. The girl of his dreams, kissing… somebody else.
Mal felt like his heart might beat right out of his chest, he couldn’t breathe.
“I… I need a minute,” he said, and disappeared off into the woods, leaving his friends by the fire.
As he stalked off, he heard Dubrov mutter loudly “I knew it! I knew they looked too cozy to be just friends,” before Mikhael cut him off, shushing.
-Alina-
It had been two weeks now since Mal had left with Mikhael and Dubrov, and she hadn’t heard a word from him. She was staring at a post from Mikhael’s instagram the day before, a picture of the three boys looking dirty and tired but happy, with the caption “The mighty hunters return!”.
He had gotten home the night before, but he hadn’t texted her. He always texted her when he got home. Always.
She tried to brush it off and not read too much into it, telling herself he was probably too tired and just passed out when he got home, but it niggled at her anyway.
She and Mal were both on shift at the coffee shop the next morning. She perked up when he came in, and he greeted her like nothing had happened. She followed him to the back room as he went to change into his uniform, telling her a story about some of Mikhael and Dubrov’s hijinks in the woods.
“Mal,” she caught his arm, “I need to talk to you about something.”
He looked at her for a moment but looked away, not meeting her eye.
“Nikolai and I,” she started, but Mal interrupted before she could go further. “I know, I heard from Dubrov and Mikhael, and Nikolai. I’m happy for you. For both of you”
“Mal…” she continued, worried he might have misunderstood.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Alina. I just want you to be happy.” He smiled then, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “C’mon, we gotta get back before the manager gets antsy.”
Alina told herself it was just her imagination. If he’d talked to Nikolai, Nikolai would have explained the situation. And it’s not like Mal was interested in her anyway. He was probably just tired after his trip.
-Mal-
Mal arrived home after an evening shift exhausted and cranky. He heard somebody in the living room, and assumed it was Nikolai and Alina. He had no desire to subject his already aching heart to that, so tried to sneak by without seeing or being seen, but on the way by something caught the corner of his eye and he stopped dead in his tracks. That didn’t look like Alina on the couch. He whirled around and his fists clenched unconsciously.
That was Zoya on the couch with Nikolai. Under Nikolai. His shirt off and her skirt rucked up, kissing rather passionately.
Rage surged in his chest and burned all thoughts from his head.
“Nikolai!” he roared, and stalked over to the couch. Nikolai looked up and scrambled off of Zoya, only now realizing that they weren’t the only ones in the apartment.
“Mal, wait, I can explain,” he said, before Mal reached him and punched him in the face.
“Try explaining with my fist in your mouth,” Mal retorted, and stood there, fuming and practically throwing sparks. “How dare you. It’s not bad enough that you’re with Alina when you know how I feel about her, you had to cheat on her as well? She deserves better than that, she deserves better than you, you two-timing prat.”
It took a while, but eventually Nikolai and Zoya managed to calm him down and actually listen. Mal was incredulous as Nikolai explained, but finally Zoya cut in.
“She’s in love with you, Mal. It’s always been you.”
Nikolai nodded in agreement, and Mal looked between the two of them, not entirely believing his ears.
His mind raced, but then settled on what he needed to do. He turned and grabbed his coat, and raced out the door.
-Alina-
Alina and Genya were curled up on the couch watching a movie in their pajamas when there was a knock on the door. Yawning, Alina got up and went over to the door, peering through the peephole to see who it was. Seeing it was Mal, she brightened and opened the door, smiling up at him.
Before she even had a chance to say hello, he cupped her face and kissed her.
She froze in surprise for a moment, before melting into him and kissing him back, returning his intensity with her own.
Finally they parted to breathe, and she looked up at him, unsure of what to say.
Mal blushed and rubbed the back of his head, abashed. “Nikolai explained what you guys were doing. Or not doing, really. He said it wasn’t really him that you were into. And, uh, I like you, Alina. I really like you.”
She smiled and kissed him again. “I like you too,” she whispered in his ear.
“Oh my god,” came Genya’s voice from the couch, “somebody beat up Nikolai!”