Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Joost had two problems: the school paper and his mustache. 

He was supposed to be pulling up that week’s pamphlets and posters on the school’s board, but for the last fifteen minutes, he’d been hovering around the trophy cabinet, trying to find a way to ask Anya to the prom, even if it was too early in the year. 

If only her eyes were blue like the sea or green like an emerald. But they were brown-lovely, dreamy… melted chocolate brown? Rabbit fur brown? 

He checked his four hairs worth of mustache on his reflection. It was pathetic. 

“Just compliment her voice,” Pieter had said. “Girls love that.” 

Except Anya didn’t have a particularly good voice, Joost thought. He had arrived at the school’s board and hanged the first poster. Auditions Opened For This Semester’s Drama Project. HAMILTON. Live auditions next Friday . Joost wasn’t exactly fond of the drama club, that’s why for extra credit he had rather joined the school paper. The only problem was that the school had too many events. Perks of going to one of the best schools of the city. Maybe he should’ve joined the health program, at least that way he’d have an excuse to actually talk to Anya.

He kept on doing his job. Posters for the sports team, other clubs, someone had lost a cat. The poster spam of the first week of classes. 

Once he was done, he made his way back to his room. Joost found his way blocked by another student. The boy looked him straight in the eye and simply said, “Move, now.”

“Right, sorry,” said Joost and quickly let him pass. 

“You can’t let sophomores treat you like that,” said Rutger from his back. “Especially the ones that are on scholarship.”

“He had a cane-”

“And you’re a senior, ask some respect man. Also, Mr Hoede wants you in his office.”

“I just finished this morning's-”
“He’s asking for everyone on the paper’s. Just go.” 

They made their way to the teacher’s office. On the way they passed the school board, which was now filled with students.

“ Hamilton ? I can’t carry a single tune is this a joke?”

“Football season is on people!” 

“Debate club, soccer, school board-”

“Is there anything you’re not joining?”

People talked excitedly over the beginning of the extracurriculars. Joost was just tired. Only three days of class and he already wanted a break. But isn’t that what happens to most students?

Chapter Text

Senior year was no joke. Zoya had worked her ass off to get the best grades and a safe passage to a dream university, and she was not going to screw it up on her last year at Grisha High Boarding School. 

“Are you going to join another thousand clubs this year, Zo?” Asked Nikolai who, despite never seeming to do anything, still had grades as good as Zoya’s.

“Not all of them. Just debate club, soccer, hopefully the school board and-”

“Drama?” Nikolai cut her.

“And mathletes.” She said as she signed her name on the last poster. 

“Come on!” Nikolai took the pencil from her. “You promised me you would do at least one play this year with me,” he said as he signed his name into debate and drama club auditions. 

“I said nothing of the sort.”

“Technically,” Genya said next to her. “You promised you would join a new club this year. You have tried all of them but drama.”

“Well thank you backstabber.”

“There you got it!” Nikolai smiled. “Now you have to at least audition!”

Zoya groaned. “What are you guys even doing? Hamilton? Is that the show of the guy on the-”

“Ten dollar!” Nikolai jumped in excitedly. “Founding father without a father who got a-”

“Shut up, I got it.” Zoya sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it, just because I know I won’t get a part.”

“I didn’t know Zoya Nazyalensky walked into a fight hoping to lose.” 

Sometimes she could really hate Nikolai. She took her pen and wrote down her name. Genya took it next and signed her name below Zoya’s. Genya wasn't as passionate for theater as Nikolai, but she liked to have a laugh with it.

“You are joining us this year, Zoya?” Asked Nina, who had just appeared next to them.

“Yes she is!” Nikolai announced. 

“What a pleasant surprise! What are we doing this year?”

“ Hamilton ,” said Genya. 

“You’re kidding. I can’t hold a tune, this has to be a joke.”

“What is it?” Asked Matthias, Nina’s boyfriend, who just signed his name for the football team. 

“The drama club is doing a musical,” Nina told him. 

“Oh,” Matthias said. “That’s a problem.”

“Just when Zoya finally decided to join!”

“Okay Zenik cut it out,” Zoya said. “Complain to Bagrah, not us.”

Nina shuddered. “You’ll first find me dead. I need to find Inej, see you all around.” Nina left them and Matthias followed along, waving awkwardly. 

Nikolai looked around at her and Genya. “I like Nina and everything, but how did we become friends with her again?”

“Zoya basically adopted her last year,” Genya said with a laugh.

“I did not!”

“You tell yourself that.”

Zoya separated from Nikolai and Genya and made her way to the cafeteria and fetch them a table. The other two would walk by the labs first to find David. 

It was early, so it didn’t take her long to get hold of a table. She took her planner and scanned her day. She had to give homework for economics class by ten, but first she had English with Bagrah from eight to nine thirty. She went on like that. Zoya liked to have control over her time, or at least the illusion of it. She would need to calculate how much time would be wasted on this musical thing.

Chapter Text

Earphones plugged in and hidden behind the gym, Kaz took out his laptop and started his economics paper. At least that’s what he would tell anyone who asked him what he was doing. In reality, he was just hacking the teachers’ answer books. What could he tell you? He was bored. 

He looked up and took one of his earphones out. “Hello Inej,” he greeted the girl who slipped silently next to him. 

“Hi,” she said with that smile that always made the rest of the world fade away. She took something wrapped in tissues from her backpack and left it on the floor for him. “Breakfast?”

He nodded and threw his stuff on his bag. This was their dynamic, one of them always gets the other breakfast. It had started after Inej discovered Kaz almost never ate breakfast. Though it was not a surprise, he was never seen in the school’s dining room. “You don’t have to bring me breakfast you know?” He’d told her. 

“You almost passed out yesterday, just take it.” He hadn’t almost passed out because of nutrient deficiency, but he accepted the food anyways. 

Then he noticed Inej forgot to eat when she was nervous, especially before a performance. So he would go to all her gymnastics showcases with something to eat. And then they were there, eating every morning together behind the school’s gym. 

“Anything interesting this morning?” Kaz asked her and took a bite off his sandwich. 

“Clubs are opening next week,” she said. “The main corridor was flooded with people signing up. And Nina is pissed cause the drama club is doing a musical this year.”

“Pity.” He had heard Nina signing, and she must be thankful she can make up for her lack of voice in acting skills. 

“I’m thinking about joining this year,” Inej commented. 

“Really?”

“As a backup dancer, why not?”

Kaz shrugged. “What musical?”

“ Hamilton .”

“You could be the Bullet,” he said casually.

“What?”

“You know, the person that carries the bu-”

“I know who that is. I meant I didn’t know you knew about it.”

Kaz shrugged. “I know what I need to know, wraith.” A lie. Musicals were his version of comfort movies/shows. Of course, he would never admit it, or that he had learned all the lyrics to Hamilton without even noticing. 

“Ah yes, the great mind of Kaz Brekker,” said Jesper, appearing from a corner. It was unusual for him to join them in the morning, mostly because he always overslept and got late to class. How did that happen when he and Kaz shared a room and Kaz seem to always be up since five am was a mystery. 

“Hey Jes,” Inej greeted him. 

“Hello Inej dear,” he rested himself on the building’s wall. “What are you talking about anyways?”

“The school’s musical.”

“Ah yes, the amazingness of theatrics. I just wrote myself into the audition.”

“You did?” Kaz asked, amused. 

“Who are you going for?” Asked Inej. 

“While I would be an amazing Hamilton, you know I never miss a shot,” he winked “I think my French accent can be polished for this.”

“Lafayette, Jefferson,” Inej smiled. “You know I can see you doing it.”

“Your fast talking can finally pay off,” Kaz said. 

“I know right!” He cheered ignoring Kaz’s sarcasm. “Though I’m scared of Bagrah. Last year she failed me on poetry! Poetry guys.”

“You did write about how you love guns. You should be thankful she didn’t call the cops,” Inej laughed. 

“It was honest emotion! And you wrote about knives don’t mess with me.” Protested Jesper. 

“I,” Inej snapped back, “wrote about my saints.”

“Just a fancier word for knives. Anyways, I better get thinking on what to perform.”

“It’s the drama club,” Kaz said. “How much competition can you have?”

“Oh you’d be surprised,” Inej said. 

“Right, what was it? Kirigan vs Lansov?” 

“You forgot Oretsev,” added Jesper. 

“I feel bad for Alina,” Inej lamented. “Do you think she’ll join the production?”

“I mean, she is an awesome performer, but she’ll want to avoid Kirigan though,” Jesper opinionated. 

“We’ll see,” said Kaz. 

Jesper took out his phone. “Hey, it’s 8:16, shouldn’t we be in- you deactivated the bell again didn’t you?” 

Kaz smirked. “I just want to see how long it takes them to find out.”

Chapter Text

Alina sat on the corner of the homeroom waiting for the bell to ring when the sit next to her got used. “What are you drawing?” Asked Mal.

“A stag,” she showed him her sketchbook. “Does it look nice?”

“It does,” he smiled at her.

“Really? The antlers look a bit exaggerated-”

“Alina, it looks amazing.”

She let the pencil aside and looked at her best friend. “Thanks.” She looked around at the almost empty classroom. Only Matthias was there besides themselves, and he was stuck reading. “Shouldn’t the bell have rung already?”

Mal shrugged. “That thing has been unstable since last year.” He looked back at her. “I signed up for football and noticed you didn’t join the drama team this year.”

Alina shrugged and started shading her sketch. That stag visited her dreams for a reason she couldn’t explain. Maybe it was a memory from her childhood before the orphanage. Or perhaps it was only a stag with no more meaning  than existing, and she was overthinking it. Alina liked to record her dreams on sketches and drawings, whether they were night or daydreams it didn’t matter. 

“I didn’t want to,” she said simply. 

“Right,” said Mal skeptically. “You know they are doing Hamilton , right?”

No. She hadn’t even bothered to check, and had deliberately ignored Nikolai and Tolya, who, along with herself, were requiring members of the drama club. “Of course I knew.” 

“So you’re telling me, that after presenting like a hundred one man shows of that, now you won’t participate?” 

“What can I say? My Hamilton phase has washed away.”

“And I don’t believe you one bit.”

Mal was right, Alina loved that show. It was the spark that had ignited her love for theater. And theater was what got her trapped into her most toxic relationships ever. It was two things that she hated relating, but were connected no matter what she did. 

“Look,” said Mal at last. “I’m just saying I did not listen to that musical at least thirty times when you were obsessed with it just to see you throw away your shot now,” he winked at the reference. 

“I don’t know,” Alina closed her sketchbook, her eye quickly catching a drawing she had done a while ago. It was her looking out to a theater in costume for Eliza Schuyler. It was a childish dream of hers to believe she would be on Broadway one day. “You say I should go for it?”

“Since when does Alina Starkov ask for permission for anything?” Mal joked.

“Fair enough,” in a burst of energy she stood up and took a pen from her pencil case. “Go with me?” 

Mal nodded and followed her out of the classroom. She caught Matthias’ eye, who looked disapprovingly at the two of them. 

“How can that guy be so uptight? No teacher has walked in for 15 minutes,” Mal commented. 

Alina shrugged. “I really wonder how he ended up dating Nina.”

They made their way through the crowds of students up to the school board. Attentively, Alina scanned the drama page. She was surprised to see Zoya’s name written down. Nikolai must’ve been really annoying to manage that, she thought. 

She tightened the grip on her pen and wrote her name down. She let out a breath. “There, no going back now.”

She saw Mal smiled, right before a voice behind her back spoke. 

“Fancy seeing you joining us,” said Aleksander, stepping between her and Mal, to write his own name on the sheet of paper. 

Alina held his eye contact and smiled unamused. “Break a leg, Aleksander.” Before I break them with Brekker’s cane, she added to her insides. 

With nothing to add, she walked away, trusting Mal to follow her. 

Back inside her classroom, Alina took her phone to check the texts she’d missed. 

Nikolai: ZOYA HAS JOINED US!
Zoya: Will you shut up? It’s not a big deal. 

Genya: you joined the drama team, everything is a big deal 

Nikolai: Alina, dear, i didn’t see you name

Nikolai: trust me, i’ll crush kirigan at the audition, if that helps you 

David: Are classes starting anytime soon? 

Mal: no idea, the bell’s break again 

Zoya: broken* 

Mal: oh come on! 

Zoya: It’s not my fault you don’t know how to write shit.

Mal: IT WAS OLD RAVKAN. THAT’S HOW YOUR SUPPOSED TO SPELL IT!
Zoya: you’re*. In this case really *you were. And that's *to write it. We're talking about grammar, not spelling.

Genya: i just thank it was a temporary tattoo 

Nikolai: nooo 

Nikolai: it would’ve been such a good source of bullying 

Nikolai: jk just remembered i still have the photos saved 

Nikolai: ready for all the future post-high school reunions

Mal: I hate you all 

see you all at the auditions :D 

good to see you too @zoya btw

She couldn’t check their answers as the teacher walked in along with all the missing students.

Chapter Text

When finally 20 minutes later a teacher appeared calling everyone to their classes, Inej said goodbye to Kaz and parted with Jesper to the labs for chemistry class. 

There were only two other boys in the class when they walked in, and they didn’t recognize them. “We have chemistry, right?” Jesper asked.

“Yeah, I just checked our schedule,” said Inej while taking her copybook out.

“Then what are those two doing here? I thought we knew everyone in sophmore.” 

“Why do you think I know?” Jesper shot her a look. “One of them should be Kuwei Yul-Bo, the redhead is, I think, Wylan Van Eck. Freshmen both, and in theory both are science prodigies, so they were upgrades to sophomore classes. If they pass I don’t know what exam they’ll be allowed to skip freshmen altogether.”

“Huh, just another pair of geniuses graduating from this school.”

“Basically.” 

“Interesting,” Jesper considered and took his own copybook, which was practically useless, since Inej had never seen Jesper taking notes of anything. 

Eventually, the class started to be filled with other students along with their professor.  Chemistry had to be one of Inej’s least favorite subjects, but Jesper next to her seemed to be thriving. That, she noticed, was especially after their professor paired them up for the next project and Jesper ended up working with one of the new students, Wylan. Inej herself was working with Leoni, who she happened to know was a childhood friend of Jesper. 

The project was long and due in two weeks, so, after the bell rang, she made arrangements with the other girl, who thankfully was a skilled chemist, to work on their project later that week. Inej’s mind was on the gymnastics studio, which was her favorite place in the school. 

She met for lunch with the rest of the crows at one. They never ate in the dining hall, but on the outside tables at the far end of the grounds. 

Kaz was already waiting for them along with Jesper and the new kid Wylan. Nina and Matthias joined shortly after. The conversation revolved mainly around getting to Wylan and the school musical.

“What do you think of it?” Nina asked Wylan. 

“It sounds like fun. Musicals are cool, and Hamilton does an excellent job on musical theory and motives,” the freshmen said excitedly. He stopped on short. “Sorry, I just really like them.” 

“Don’t apologize,” Jesper said. “We all like them.” Kaz shot him a look. “Okay most of us like them.” 

“Matthias and Wyaln should join the production,” Inej joked. 

“I am not doing that,” Matthias said quickly. 

“Oh, Inej you genius,” Nina said. “You totally should. King George maybe? Oh oh! Or Washington!”

“I would be mad at Inej,” Matthias commented. He took a quick look at Kaz. “But I know better than that.”

She gave the older boy an innocent smile. “Most of us would be joining then!”

“It would be amazing!” Nina said. “I’m trying to find a way to participate anyways. In costumes or something.”

“Is Kaz participating too?” Wylan asked. 

“Oh, merchilng,” Jesper hugged the other boy from the side. Wylan blushed furiously and Inej had to choke down a laugh. “You have a lot to learn.”

“Like for example, controlling what you say if you want to keep your tongue,” added Kaz. He took his cane and stood up. 

Nina took her phone. “6 minutes! New record! We see how long it takes us to annoy Kaz until he leaves,” she explained to Wylan. He laughed, and they spent the rest of the lunch period explaining to him how the school and their group worked. Inej considered he looked grateful for being invited to be with them. Still, she couldn’t help but wondered where Kaz had headed out to. 

Chapter Text

Kaz had spent his day in the library and between classes. But saints, when he went back to his room he wondered what god he had made angry to be roommates with Jesper. He seriously considered it might’ve been more than one, he would need to ask Inej about it. But in all honesty, who needs to study with Mario Kart music playing on a speaker? 

“It helps for concentration!” Jesper claimed as Kaz complained when he entered the room. His last clases were finally over, but a single hour of philosophy was enough to get him on his nerves for the rest of the afternoon. 

“How does that infernal sound help?” Kaz took off his backpack and threw it beside him on the side of his bed. 

“First of all, it’s the Rainbow Road soundtrack, not some ‘infernal sound’, though that road can be tricky,” Jesper paused the music. “Secondly, video game soundtracks do help! Something about keeping your head on the game or in this case chemistry homework.” He turned his attention back to his paper. “What was stoichiometry again?” 

“Jesper, it’s seven pm, just go to the library.”

Jesper quickly gathered his stuff and stood up. “Thanks a lot for the help.”

Kaz shot him a glance before the other boy left their room. 

He sighed and rested his eyes. If only they were allowed to take coffee on other periods besides breakfast, maybe then he could survive the year. Kaz took his checklist from his bed stand and put a reminder to buy energetic drinks that weekend. Unless someone checked you out, students were only allowed to leave on weekends, and they needed permission to stay out for the night. 

Kaz could always fake a permission slip, but it wasn’t worth the trouble when Friday was only two day away. 

His phone buzzed. The notification popped out.

@itsyaboiPieter: hey how muxh do you charge for exam ansewrS?

If saints existed they’d know how much Kaz hated people who couldn’t type. 

$12

@itsyaboiPieter: damn youve raised pricez since last year 

And you’re still a senior asking me to get you test answers.

@itstyaboiPieter: fine

@itsyaboiPieter: i need the history exam for next week 

Are these people kidding? 

I don’t have that one saved, it’ll take me more time.

@itsyaboiPieter: just haev it befor next week pls

Kaz left the text on read and stood up. He’d discovered early on his first days at Grisha High how easy it was to hack their so-called “safe servers”. He’s also discovered how desperate were students to pass their exams with the least possible effort. And so he started to smuggle answers. Eventually it extended to permission notes, infirmary passes, fake report cards, and anything a student wanted. It was an easy way to make money. The only inconvenience was the constant buzz of his phone.

That had been Nina’s fault. “No one is coming to ask you for answers. One, you’re a freshman, and two, you scare people off,” she’d told him last year. “Just set up an insta account like any other normal teenager.”

He did, and regretted it at least three times a day.

As he walked outside, he put on his earphones with no music. A cheap trick to eavesdrop on passing students.

“Kirigan can’t be lead with me Zo,” a senior said to his phone. Kaz didn’t see his face but he was sure it was Lantsov. He was the only one who dared to nickname Zoya Nazyalensky. 

“Bagrah failed me again-”

“-you talked to Anya yet?”

“Wait we had homework-”

“Wait, we had physics today?”

Conversations on the hallways weren’t that interesting, but you couldn’t risk missing something out. 

Eventually, Kaz found himself outside the aerial acrobatics studio. Until he heard someone singing, he had thought the place was empty. 

“ How do we rewrite the stars? '' Inej sang softly. “ Say you were made to be mine? ” She took off her headphones and connected her phone to a speaker, where the song began from zero. Inej headed to one of the silks. Kaz left the place before she started her routine. 

Behind the school’s gym, with still an hour or so left of sunlight, Kaz took his laptop and started working on getting the history answers. His ears were now blasting music from one of his playlist, since there was no one near to get information from. “ Nothing can keep us apart .”

The song was from The Greatest Showman , which Kaz happened to know was one of Inej’s favorite musicals. She was, in fact, preparing a new presentation to that particular song. “Are you doing it solo?” Jesper had asked her when she’d told them her idea. 

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, from what I understood it is a couple-like song.”

Inej had shrugged. “I like the song, I can nail the performance. I don’t think I need anything else.”

He tried to get her out of his thoughts as he made a folder for senior-history classes. 

“ 'Cause you are the one I was meant to find. It's up to you, and it's up to me. No one can say what we get to be. And why don't we rewrite the stars? Changing the world to be ours- ”

“Hey Brekker!” A voice cut him off his thoughts.

“What business, Lantsov?” He said looking up. 

“Debate. I need to have a solid base for the start of-”

“Fifteen kruge. Profesor Miller’s computer is a pain.” He just wants to impress Nasyalensky, Kaz thought. That was good, he could charge extra and the other boy wouldn’t even notice. “I can have it for today after dinner.”

Nikolai took his wallet and handed him the money. “Always a pleasure making business with you, Brekker.” He was walking away before turning abruptly. “I almost forgot-”

“What?” The exact point of the instagram account was not having to talk with people who hired him. 

“Why hadn’t I known your voice was good?” The older student said to him, smirking. 

Kaz was puzzled, but didn't show it. “It isn’t.”

“Well I just heard you singing, before I came up to you. You can surely hold a note, you know?”

“I was not singing.”

“Yeah, and Zoya is failing all her classes.” 

Kaz sighed. Stupid songs that made him forget there could be people around him. “What do you want?”

Nikolai sat next to him, and Kaz moved slightly to the other side. “Look, the drama team is missing one of the leads, and I was wondering-”

“Auditions haven’t even started. How do you know you’re missing a lead?”

“While that is true enough, I’ve checked the list and no one seems to be going for Burr specifically.”

“I’m sure Kirigan would be pleased to fill that role, of course only if he doesn’t get Hamilton.”

“Listen Kazzle-”

“Don’t call me that.”

“You have a surprisingly good voice, the people on the drama kind of stan you, but next to Kirigan they basically adore you. I’m just saying you could be a good addition to the production.”

Kaz looked him dead in the eye. “They’ll first find your dead body than me on a stage.”

“You already have the dramatics in your blood!” Nikolai stood up quickly. “Give it a thought, okay? Auditions are next week. If things go my way, you might get to shoot me!” And with that said he parted.

Sometimes Kaz really wondered how he’d fallen into the company he had. 

The latest addition to their group had been Wylan Van Eck, who happened to befriend Jesper in chemistry class, and since then had always joined them during lunch and free periods. The boy was nice enough. Thinking of lunch made him think of Inej. He cursed himself and kept on working.

Chapter Text

Weekend nights were always a mess when they involved the crows. On Fridays they- Kaz, Nina, Jesper, and Matthias- would always have a sleepover at one of their houses. On Saturdays, Inej would usually have lunch and spend the afternoon with her family. On Sundays she would usually perform on either her parents' shows or at gymnastic competitions. Those days were always moved, but Inej always looked forward to them. 

That’s why she couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face when she saw the message pop on her screen. 

Jesper: my house this weekend, right?

Nina: yasss

Matthias: Ok. 

Count on it!

Kaz: Guess I don’t have much of a choice.

Nina: Nope! ;D 

Nina: @Jesper can you ask your dad to buy waffles? 

Jesper: of course gorgeous  

Jesper: guys mind if i invite someone else? 

Nina: UwU wylan? 

Jesper:...maybe 

It’s fine, besides Wylan is nice!

“Hey kid, leave that phone on the box,” said Mr Hoede, the math teacher, not to her. 

Inej saw one of her classmates, Adrik, stand up with his phone. While Inej could be sneaky hiding her stuff, she still thought better and put away her own phone. 

***

Six thirty came around and Inej found herself in her room chatting with Nina. The other girl told her about how she would be helping the theater club co-directing since she couldn’t be part of the production. 

“At least I’m going to get to see my favorite girl on stage,” Nina said as she packed her pijama. 

“Come on, I’m going to be dancer number one,” Inej threw Nina her hair brush. 

“Exactly, number one!” Nina closed her bag. “Seriously, Bagrah looked delighted when she saw your name on the sheet.”

“Can she be delighted?” Inej remarked.

“Inej, love, you delight everyone.”

“Well no need to praise me,” she bowed. 

“There’s always a need.”

“Hey, have you seen my sweater?”

“Here,” Nina took it from her desk and handed it over. “Got everything?”

Inej took a quick overview of her bag. “Yes, let’s go.” They left their room and headed to the school’s entrance. 

Inej handed her permission and Nina’s to Ivan, the senior student who that day was incharge of security. He checked them and let them go with a wave of a hand. “That guy scares me,” said Inej once they were out of his listening range. 

“Same. And you’ve never been in self defense class with him.”

“How is Fedyor dating him?”

“Says the angel who’s crushing on Kaz 'probably-satan-himself’ Brekker.”

“I am not-”

“Hello girls!” Colm interrupted Inej. 

“Hello Mr Fahey!” Nina smiled.

Inej shot Nina a look of ‘this isn’t over’ before greeting Jesper’s father. “I see Jesper hasn’t arrived yet.”

“You know my son,” said the older man while taking the girls’ bags and throwing them on the back of his truck. “When is he ever on time?”

“Wait a minute,” Nina calculated something quickly and then laughed. “Kaz is going to have to go with Matthias.”

“What?” Kaz said as he walked up to the group. Behind him were Matthias, Jesper and Wylan. 

“Only four of us can go on the truck. Jesper and Wylan have to go, and me and Inej already have our bags here. That leaves you to go with Matthias.”

Matthias always was left to drive when they were missing seats, as he was the only one with a drivers licence and a car. Said boy sighed. “Come on demjin.”

“His car smells like dog,” Kaz said as he left to where Matthias parked his car. The rest jumped into Colm’s truck and started their way to Jesper’s farm house. It was a forty minute drive from the school, which left plenty of time to fight over which music to play. The main discourse being between Nina and Jesper. 

“Talyor Swift.”

“No, Harry Styles.”

Inej’s phone buzzed, allowing her to ignore their bickering.

Kaz: Who listens to national anthem’s unironically? 

Don’t you have headphones on? 

Kaz: Yes, but Helvar here seems to be deaf.

Kaz: If we don’t arrive, it was because I made the car crash.

And risk having to listen to national anthems while the ambulance arrives? 

Kaz: Then maybe we’ll get speeding tickets to get there earlier. 

“Inej?” A voice cut her out. 

“What?” She said and put her phone away. 

“I told you she wasn’t paying attention,” Jesper said. 

“Talking to Kaz?” Nina grinned.

“No.”

Nina rolled her eyes. “Anyways, we need to break the tie. Neither Wylan nor Mr Fahey will vote, so, Styles or Swift?”

“Shit. What about Lorde?”

Nina and Jesper looked at each other. “Sure why not.”

In fact Kaz and Matthias were already waiting for them in front of the house once they arrived. Quickly they unloaded their stuff and made their space in Jesper's living room.

“How’s Milo?” Jesper asked his father.

“Who’s Milo?” Wylan asked Inej. 

“Jesper’s pet goat. He won it last year at the town’s fair,” Inej explained.

“That was the same goat that kicked Kirigan on the balls right?” Nina asked. 

“Yes he is,” Jesper walked in carrying his goat. 

“Why do you let animals inside your house?” Matthias inquired. 

“How is this any different from you keeping Trassel in your house?”

“Trassel is a dog, Milo is a goat.”

“So?” 

“So both stink as do you two,” Kaz said, sitting himself on a couch at the far end of the room. “Anyone want to play monopoly?”

“No,” Nina said quickly. “I can’t prove it, but I know you cheated!”

“They always say that,” Kaz turned his attention to his phone. 

“Welcome to your first official, crow chaos sleepover,” Inej said to Wylan with a smile.

***

The crows had a lot of different traditions, from the ‘no-monopoly-or-money-games’ to the fact that they all had something crow-related. Kaz had a tattoo and his cane, Inej had a dagger, Jesper had leather jacket painted with crows on its back, Nina’s phone case had a crow painted eating a waffle, and Matthias- Matthias didn’t want to be included, but it was clear he wasn’t able to escape his faith. 

He took his computer to plug it to Jesper’s TV, where it was extremely visible the stickers of crows Nina and Inej had decided to paste without his permission. He never bothered to take them out, so Inej betted he felt it was nice to be included, regardless of his remarks. 

Another tradition was the reason Matthias took his computer: karaoke and just dance night. Inej wasn’t sure how they had started, but suddenly, every sleepover each one would perform at least one song--including Kaz. Song nights with the crows were a chaos, and that day was no exception. 

“I say Kaz starts today!” Nina said through a handful of waffles and syrup. “I would start, of course, but I’m kind of a sticky situation.”

Matthias handed her a napkin as Kaz said; “And why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” Nina said. “I thought you were practicing for it. Nikolai said he heard you singing the other day.”

“And you trust his word? So naïve, Zenik.”

“I trust his word more than I trust yours.”

“Huh,” Jesper checked his watch. “Took you guys half an hour to start fighting. Almost too long.”

“Hey!” Wylan took his sleeve from Milo, who always found it delightful to eat other people’s clothing. 

“Aw, isn’t he adorable?” Jesper peted Milo, who was sitting between him and Wylan. “Well if no one wants to go, I’d be pleased to debut tonight.” 

“Very well,” said Matthias, who was always the default DJ. “What’s it going to be tonight?” 

“Throw some Mother Mother to the mix,” Jesper said as he grabbed the microphone Nina always brought. 

Shortly after Wylan actually offered himself to sing, who Inej was surprised to notice had quite a soft but singful voice. Matthias, ready to be over with their typical drill, went on next. Inej noticed Nina and Jesper breaking their usual rule of ‘no videos’ a couple of times, but didn’t say anything. It was their funeral. And like that they spent their night. At some point someone had taken beers out of the fridge. Inej sighed, thinking she would be the one most likely to have to help with Nina’s hangover. But it was worth all for the laughs they had on those nights.

Chapter Text

Mal took a cup of tea with honey and handed it to Alina. They were in one of the common rooms of their school. The place was mostly empty, which was no surprise on a Saturday morning. The couch they sat on had a view of a huge picture window. Outside, leaves were falling, showing the first signs of autumn.

Alina thanked him for tea and kept on working on her sketch, a stage view of a theater with a single person in the middle. Unlike other of her sketches, this one lacked color and light. It reminded Mal of the drawings Alina made while her relationship with Kirigan was declining.

“So,” he said at last, opening his computer to check songs, “have you thought on with what song you’ll audition?”

“Not really,” she said softly. 

Mal noticed her arms tense and scooted over to hug her. “You okay?”

Alina nodded, but her face didn’t change. Mal suspected she regretted joining the auditions after all. 

“C’me on, you can talk to me, you know?” 

“I don’t want to work with him, Mal. I don’t even know why I joined in the first place.”

“Maybe cause you always talk about how much you love theater?” 

“Ha, ha,” she said dryly.

“Hey, seriously you talk like, what was her name? The girl from Be More Calm?”

Alina then left out a real laugh. “It’s Be More Chill. And I’m guessing you mean Christine.”

“That girl! She had a whole song about loving rehearsals, right?” 

“Yeah she did.” Alina looked outside and took a sip of her tea. “He almost got you expelled for something you didn’t do, Mal. To get you away from me.” 

“So? Now he is conditional with risk of expulsion. I doubt he’ll do anything.” 

“I don’t know, I’m sure he has half of the administration in his pocket.”

“More than that Brekker boy?”

“Okay, I'll take it back.”

Mal laughed and put his notebook away. “Come on,” he said and pulled Alina to her feet. 

“Where are we going?” 

“You’ll see.”

“It is the meadow?” 

“I am not that predictable.” 

“You tell yourself that.”

Mal ignored her and rolled his eyes. He kept on leading her through the school’s mostly empty hallways. At some point he told her to close her eyes. 

Their school was a big labyrinth of halls and rooms, so Mal hoped Alina wouldn’t guess where he was taking her. 

“Okay, open them,” he said at last. He left her, leaving her standing on her own, as he took a step back.

Alina looked around and took in the view of the school’s stage. Mal never got the appeal of the place. Sure, it was huge and covered in red velvet, another indication of the school’s wealth, but besides that, there wasn't much to it. But Alina looked at it from the stage with an awe that made the whole place light up, and that made any place special for Mal. 

He shook off the thought of his head and walked up to Alina. “You love this place. Don’t let them take it away from you.”

“Thanks Mal,” Alina said, her eyes locked on the spotlights. 

He smiled. “It’s nothing.” 

Chapter Text

If he had to choose a partner to take over the world with, Nikolai would choose Zoya in a heartbeat. They were an unstoppable team. However, if you put them against each other, then you could easily watch the world burn. 

“You cheated on the last debate class!” Zoya claimed as they made their way to the auditorium. 

“There’s nothing you can prove,” Nikolai grinned. 

“Will you two stop bickering about that?” Genya interrupted for the fifth time during that conversation. “It’s getting tiring.”

“I bet it was that rat Brekker,” Zoya scoffed. 

“Probably was,” Nina added. “But in that case then Nikolai is right, you won’t be able to prove anything.” 

Zoya murmured something about giving him detention for once, but was quickly cut short by the auditorium door opening wide in front of the group of students. 

“Aleksander,” Nikolai said pleasantly. “Have you auditioned already? Pity, I thought we were going to share notes.”

“Lantsov,” acknowledged Kirigan. “Nazyalensky, Zenik, Safin, and I’m sorry I’m afraid I never caught your name.”

“Matthias Helvar,” said Matthias.

“Helvar. Answering your question, yes Lantsov, I did just auditioned. Break a leg, you lot. I’m guessing you’ll need luck, Zenik.”

Nina smiled joylessly. “I won’t be auditioning, because unlike others, I know how to pick my battles.”

“Well then to you, Zoya,” Kirigan grinned wickedly. 

Nikolai saw Zoya tensed next to him, her fists clenching. Softly he let himself hold her hand. He caught her sight out of the corner of his eye and hopefully sent an unspoken “do not engage”. 

“See you around, Aleskander,” Nikolai said, and walked past him to the auditorium. 

He heard Zoya whisper to the other student a quick “rot in hell”, and couldn’t help but grin. 

As they sat on the front row, he said to Zoya, “Don’t waste your breath. He is not worth it.” 

“I know,” Zoya whispered back. “Still wish I could punch him in the face.”

“I would pity his nose.” 

Bagrah greeted them without much amusement. Jesper Fahey and a boy Nikolai didn’t recognize were on stage.

“Woohoo!” Nina cheered, moving towards Inej who had already been inside. “Go Wylan!” 

“Go Jesper!” Said Inej, who showed Nina and Matthihas a seat next to her. 

Nikolai overheard Nina telling Zoya they, Nina’s group of friends (or little rats, as Zoya called them), had convinced Wylan to join the drama club. The freshman looked like he was about to pee his pants, if someone asked Nikolai. Regardless, once the music started, Nikolai couldn’t deny both boys had talent. They dueted The Other Side , and Wylan’s confidence seemed to rise once it was his turn to perform.

They both bowed once the music was over. Nina and Inej raced to congratulate them, and only then the absence of a certain trouble maker became noticeable. On the topic of the crows, the next person on stage was Matthias. Nina had told them how much she had bothered the football player to at least try it. Nikolai noticed how, while not being able to reach high notes, Matthias had incredibly strong lungs. 

Bagrah sighed once Matthias was done and took back his seat. Nina was excitedly cheering him as he blushed furiously. “Next on, Nikolai Lanstov,” the drama teacher said. 

“Don’t wish me luck,” he winked at Zoya. 

He took the microphone. “Pleasure to be back, as always,” he greeted everyone. “Hit it, Tolya.”

The other senior, who was incharge of the music, played the track and Nikolai felt the thrill of being on stage. “ Alright, alright, it's a hell of a feeling though. It's a hell of a feeling though. ” Flawlessly, he performed Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time.  

Nikolai noticed he’d broken a sweat as he bowed down to the few people watching. One day he’d bow to a crowd. His work would pay off, he knew so. 

He took his place back next to Zoya. “Not bad Lantsov.” 

“Nazyalenskty? Handing out compliments? Guys it’s going to rain.”

“Don’t rain on my parade just yet,” Genya said as she stood up and took her place with a mic on. 

“Don’t get used to it,” Zoya whispered before Genya started to perform no body, no crime .

Following up were Tolya and other students Nikolai cursed himself for not knowing their names. 

“Next up, Nazyalensky,” called on Baghra. 

Zoya sighed heavily and stood up. Nikolai couldn’t hold back a chuckle.

“Break a leg, dear,” he called. 

“Why don’t I break your nose?” She singsong. 

Despite her threats, Nikolai couldn’t help but awe at her taking over the stage. Zoya had the type of attitude that no matter how out of place she was, she would always make it seem as if she owned it. She was singing Queen’s Killer Queen with all the power she held . “ She's a Killer Queen. Gunpowder, gelatine. Dynamite with a laser beam. Guaranteed to blow your mind. Anytime.”

She is a queen, Nikolai thought, and then hated himself for it. 

“Not bad,” Nikolai told her as she took her seat back. “Almost as if you’d actually wanted a part.”

“Shut up Lantsov. LIke you said, I don’t walk into a fight expecting to lose.”

“Anyone before we go on with the dancers?” Bagrah said while checking the time. 

“Miss Morozova?” Alina stood up. “I would like to go.”

“Starkov, I was wondering when you'd show up. Very well let’s see what you’ve got.”

Nikolai had to admit he too didn’t notice when Alina walked into the auditorium. It probably had been during Zoya’s presentation. Mal was next to Alina, giving her an encouraging look.

Alina walked up to Tolya and whispered into his ear. He nodded and she made her way up to the stage. 

Alina took the microphone in her hands and took in a breath. “ They say times are hard for dreamers, but they won't be hard for me. I've saved up everything I know ,” she started singing. 

“I’m always surprised by her voice,” Zoya whispered to Nikolai. 

“Uh huh,” he agreed. While Alina’s voice was, in fact, admirable, Nikolai wasn’t paying attention to it. His eyes didn’t follow the girl on the stage, but the one sitting next to him.

Chapter Text

Inej tightened her ponytail and made her way to the stage. She wasn’t a great dancer in her opinion, but she couldn’t deny that her talent in gymnastics and acrobatics gave her a huge advantage. 

The stage was now filled with more students, mostly people that needed the extra credits and thought drama was an easy grade. 

“Okay everyone,” Bagrah said to the dancers. “The drill is simple, follow the video projected and I’ll go checking who stays and who’s out, good?”

There was a general murmur of agreement and Bagrah played the video. 

The choreography was simple enough, a solo version of My Shot that Inej followed with no trouble. 

There was something about these types of exercises that made Inej love them. She was connected to her body and had control over it, but it wasn’t like fighting. In times like this, she could let herself go without being afraid. Whether she was dancing, on a tightrope or silk, she was free.

The music stopped as Inej rested, raising her hand high as if to shoot the sky. No wonder Jesper loves Hamilton so damn much , she laughed to herself. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. She thought she’d seen someone at the entrance to the theater, but the door was empty. 

The try out dancers started to clear up the stage as Bagrah dismissed them. Inej took her water bottle and made her way to her friends. 

“That’s my queen!” Nina walked up to Inej and hugged her. “Ew you’re sweating.” 

“I’m not,” Inej laughed and took a sip of her bottle. “You’re exaggerating.”

“Not bad, Wraith,” said Nikolai, who was standing a few steps back. “We should get going, we don’t want to be late to chem,” he said to their group.

“David would kill us,” agreed Genya.

The senior students waved goodbye and left them. 

“We should get going too,” said Matthias. 

“Oh!” Nina gasped. “Wait a second first. We have history anyways, our class is closer.”

“And I’ve got free period,” added Wylan. 

“Well I have biology, which is on the other side of campus. Orestev and Starkov already left to it-”

“Just give me a min,” said Nina, and fast-walked to Bargah. The two exchange a few quick words. Eventually Nina took her phone out and typed something. Nina thanked her, and Bagrah looked like she needed another cup of coffee.

“What did you say to her?” Inej asked as they made their way back to their classes.

“Nothing,” Nina said mischievously. 

“Oh please tell me you didn’t,” Matthias pleaded. 

“I didn’t do what?” Nina smiled. 

“Nina you genius!” Jesper cheered.

Nina laughed and at Inej's lost look she explained what she had done. 

Inej looked at her in disbelief. “You’re so dead.”

Chapter Text

Zoya kicked the ball and successfully scored. She pushed her hair back and trotted to the back of the line. 

“That was horrible,” she said to Nadia and Tamar, who were waiting for their turn. 

“You’re kidding right? That shot was really good. And Nina can stop almost any ball,” said Nadia. 

“The season starts next week and I’m still rusty,” she stretched her arms a bit. 

“You’re too harsh on yourself,” Tamar added. “Oh shoot my turn.” She turned around and started the circuit. 

People who go easy don’t succeed , Zoya thought, and started the circuit once more. 

She met with Genya later at the locker room, home to all people talk.

“Is it true you’re part of the drama club this year?” Nadia asked Zoya. She was sitting in front of her while Tamar braided her hair. 

“I tried out,” corrected Zoya. “No one has confirmed if I’m actually joining or not.”

“Well,” Nina checked her phone, “Nikolai hasn’t spamed the drama chat yet, so they aren’t up yet.” 

“I heard,” Genya fixed her hair, “that Bagrah is putting up the cast list later today.”

“I don’t have time to join the production anyways,” Zoya added. “I need to focus on my presidential campaign. We need a team meeting, by the way,” she focused her last words to Genya. 

“Sure thing,” Genya smirked. “But I’m just saying, you did put effort into the presentation. You sure you don’t wanna join?”

“I’m sure.” Zoya said definitely. She’d only done it to not look like a coward. Theatrics was Nikolai’s skills, not hers. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to be on the play with him, though. She couldn’t deny that it was fun, and exasperating, working with him on anything. 

“I,” Nina said, “am sure Nikolai wouldn’t mind having you around.”

“Shut up Zenik,” Zoya snapped as her phone began to ring. “Nikolai, good-” she answered.

“Speaking of the devil,” Nina said, quite loudly. 

Zoya threw her a middle finger and ignored her. She pretended not to see the glances that passed through the other girls.

“We are meeting with Genya later for the campaign. You need to be there as vice president-” she kept on talking. 

“Zoya you need to get down here now,” Nikolai cut her. 

“Don’t interrupt me.”

“Sorry, but seriously. And tell Genya to come with you. Probably Nina too if she’s there,” he sounded extra energized if that was possible for him. 

Zoya looked around at the other girls. “Where are you?”

“On the school board. The cast list is up!” With that said he hung up.

Zoya sighed and finished packing her things. “If any of you are interested,” she said while pulling her bag to her shoulder, “the cast list has just been posted.”

Nina jumped for excitement and started to head out. “You guys coming or not?” She called behind. 

Nikolai stood next to the school board excitedly. Along with him were Alina and Mal. 

“Who’s funeral is it?” Zoya called. 

“I’m guessing mine,” Nikolai pointed to his name on the board. 

Alexander Hamilton…Nikolai Lantsov

“Congratulations,” Zoya said unamused. “But don’t let this make you ignore your responsibilities as running mate with me.”

“Zoya, read the list,” Genya tried to suppress a laugh. 

Eliza Schuyler…Alina Starkov

Angelica Schuyler…Zoya Nazyalensky 

Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds…Genya Safin

Zoya opened her mouth but couldn’t form words. She couldn’t waste time on a musical! But the school administration would kill her if she left an extra credit project. 

“Congratulations indeed, Schuyler sisters!” Nikolai cheered. “You’ll do amazing.”

“Is Zoya okay?” Asked Mal. 

“Go to hell Orestev,” she said. 

“Oh my saints,” Nina said, taking out her phone. “I need to send the crows this.”

Kirigan arrived as Nina left laughing to herself. Zoya tried to control the urge to kick him as he scanned the names on the board. 

“What in the saints’ name?” Kirigan complained. 

Zoya thought she might puke just for being next to him, but when she noticed what he was looking at, she couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised either. She hadn’t paid much attention to the other names on the list. 

“Who’d say a sophomore bested you, Aleks,” Nikolai joked, resting an elbow on Kirigan’s shoulder. 

Disgusted, Kirigan pushed Nikolai away from him. “Don’t call me ‘Aleks’.” Kirigan turned around and left with his face redden. He muttered something that sounded like: “He wasn’t even on the list.”

But indeed, who could’ve said? 

Aaron Burr… Kaz Brekker

Chapter Text

Kaz’s phone buzzed loudly in the silence of the library. He quickly turned off the notifications and checked what he’d received. 

Nina: [id: a cutted photo of the casting list for the highschool production of Hamilton. The list goes as followed written in dark ink: “Hamilton Cast List: Alexander Hamilton…Nikolai Lanstov; Aaron Burr…Kaz Brekker; Eliza Schuyler…Alina Starkov; Angelica Schuyler…Zoya Nazyalensky; Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds...Genya Safin; Laurens/Philip…Wylan Van Eck; Lafayette/Jefferson…Jesper Fahey; Mulligan/Madison…Tolya Yul-Bataar; King George III…Aleksander Kirigan; The Bulette…Inej Ghafa; Backup dancers”. / id ends] 

Nina: congrats y’all!

I demand explanations, Zenik.

Nina: no <3 

Jesper: OMG THIS IS AWESOME 

Jesper: i admire you nina

Nina: i admire myself too ;) 

Kaz locked his phone and sighed. He was going to kill Nina for whatever she’d done. 

“Saints,” said Inej by his side, leaving her own phone away. “I didn’t want to believe she’d actually do it.”

“What did Nina do?” Kaz inquired as he thought of every possibility to skip the call.

“She and Jesper filmed you on our last fun-friday. When you were singing Dear God ?” She took her phone and handed him an ear bud. 

He took it from her reluctantly and she played the video. There he was singing Dear God by XTC in Jesper’s living room. Wylan looked like he was about to puke (it had not been a good idea to give the new kid a beer). He didn’t enjoy karaoke nights as much as he would admit. Initially he had only agreed to them because of Inej, but eventually they actually started to be fun. He never sang more than one song, and it was strictly off limits to film anyone. He should’ve known better having Nina and Jesper as friends. 

Kaz took the earbud out and left it on the table. “You were on this too?” He asked. 

“She told me after she did it,” Inej tried to plead innocent. She smiled at him and refocused her attention to the math homework she’d been working on. “You’re going to ask out aren’t you?”

“Of course,” he said, not looking up from his computer. “I’m not participating in some dumb school play. I have more important things to do.” 

“Like smuggling answers and finding ways to kill without staining your shirt?” She finished scribbling something on her copybook and put her pencil away. “I’m just saying it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find other hobbies. Everyone needs a creative outlet,” Inej stood up and packed her stuff away. “I’m meeting Leoni for our chemistry project. See you for dinner?” 

Kaz nodded and watched her go. Only when she was out of sight he looked back at his screen.

Once he was done with his economics paper, which didn’t take too long, Kaz made his way to Bagrah’s office. The place was covered with maps, atlases, and a heater that never seemed to be off. “Excuse me, Miss Morozova?” He said as he walked into the room.

“Mister Brekker,” the woman acknowledged. “I must tell you how surprised I was when your friend mentioned you were interested in the school’s production. You have quite a voice.”

“That’s what I came to talk about, in fact,” Kaz gripped his cane and looked at the teacher in the eye. “I won’t be joining the production. There was a misunderstanding, but with all due respect, I’m not interested. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for the consideration.”

“Such a pity, young man.” Bagrah served herself some tea. “It’s always a tragedy to see someone with talent waste it.”

“I assure you I’m wasting no talent.”

Bagrah continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “Whether that talent is singing or avoiding detention.” Kaz took a defensive stance. “You have a clean report, Mister Brekker. Sure, we all know what a trouble maker you are, but you still care about being seen as ‘perfect’ on record, isn’t that right? You have already been added to the theater program, and you know how this school deals with people who quit.” 

Kaz exhaled sharply. Indeed, the school didn’t look well if you quited one of their programs, and he did need a clean record. 

“Is that all?” Bagrah asked. 

Kaz faked a smile. “Yes, Miss Morozova. Thank you for your time.” 

“See you in rehearsals.”

Kaz left without a word. If only he had leverage on Bagrah. He had found information on all of the school’s teachers and even some students before attending, but the drama and english teacher was no one. The prior year he’d even rescourced to ask the older students about it. 

All he got from Zoya was a: “Why do you care?”

Nikolai added that no one knew anything, really. She was just there. 

Quite useful , Kaz had remarked. 

As for his clean record, he wouldn’t risk going back to the government’s public schools. He’d gotten a chance to improve his life, and he was going to use it. Only that way he’d find a way to avenge his brother, after all. And then there were the crows. A group of friends he hadn’t anticipated, but would not admit he was grateful for. Above it all there was Inej. So getting expelled wasn’t an option. 

Kaz made his way back to his room. Apparently, he was going to be a lead after all. 

Lantsov created the group ‘Grishaton’ 

Lantov has added you

Lantsov: HELLO PEOPLE ?

?Where did you get my number

Lantsov: @Nina why? 

Nina: he’s gonna kill me now, thanks 

Nazyalensky: Please change the group name. 

Lantsov: fine ¬-¬ 

Lantsov has changed the group name to ‘Hamilton’

Starkov: hi everyone!

Kirigan has left the chat 

Lantsov: and here i was thinking he was going to use the chance to cause even more drama

Lantsov: anyways

Lantsov: info!

Lantsov: rehearsals start this wednesday at 5! 

Lantsov: be there :)

Finding way to murder people and theater could be coexisting hobbies, Kaz thought.

Chapter Text

“ Why you slummin’ in the city in your fancy heels?” Kaz said. “ You searching for an urchin who can give ideas.”

“ Burr you disgust me,” Zoya answered with a little too much honesty. 

“ Ah, so you’ve discussed me? I’m a trust fund baby you can trust me.”

The scene of Kaz having to flirt with Zoya was unique to watch. Kaz looked like he’d rather kill himself, while Zoya seemed like she would either puke or kill someone. Nikolai suspected from the looks of the people next to him that he wasn’t the only one trying to hold back a laugh. 

“Guys,” Kirigan cutted them. “You know you have to put actual effort to this, right?”

“Shut up, Kirirgan,” said Zoya with an edge to her voice. 

“No one wants to be here anyways,” added Kaz. 

“Even the rat agrees with me,” she threw her head back and the script paper to the side.

They were all seated around on stage reading them. 

“Okay guys,” Nina called out. While she was not part of the ensemble, she had a talent for theater, so Bagrah allowed her to be co-director of the show. “I just know how much you all love this, but Kirirgan is right. We want this to work.”

Nikolai noticed as Zoya rolled her eyes.

“It can’t be that bad,” Nikolai whispered to her. 

“You better put double effort to the campaign,” she snapped back.

“Okay, let’s go back to the beginning,” Nina called. “Kaz, start us off. And try to enjoy it. Just think you’re hacking someone or whatever makes you happy.” She coughed and Nikolai suspected she’d said something resembling ‘Inej’. 

Between constant complaints and death glares from Kirigan, the first rehearsal passed painfully slowly. Nikolai quickly caught up with Zoya as they made their way to the outdoors of the school to get to the common rooms. 

“We’re meeting with David and Genya,” she said as she grabbed her planner from her bag. “The debate is this monday.”

“Do you ever take a second to breathe?” He asked, sitting down in one of the school’s benches. 

“I do,” Zoya said, sitting next to him. “Breaks run for 10 minutes between each class.”

“The fact that you have scheduled breaks does not give points in favor.”

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?” He smirked.

“Be such a pain all the time,” she death glared at him. 

“Oh, dear ruthless Zoya,” he turned to face her. “It’s simple. Have a smile, don’t argue, be always right, and most importantly, be awfully handsome,” he held his chin up high. 

“How did we even become friends?” She stood up again. 

Nikolai followed up, trying to ignore the slight ache at Zoya’s wording. “I believe we both held grudge against Kirigan and built up from there.”

“And to our surprise, we became a good team,” she concluded. 

He hugged her over her shoulder and opened the school’s door. “The best indeed. And speaking of that, got any ideas to destroy Kirigan next week?”

Zoya smiled wickedly at him. “I’ll go get my folder. Meet me at the dining hall. And make sure David and Genya aren’t stuck in the labs?”

“Your wishes are my orders,” he bowed. 

Zoya rolled her eyes and diverted to the girls’ rooms.

Nikolai turned around back to the classrooms smiling. He walked up to the third floor to find Genya and David. As usual, they were in the chemistry lab playing around with different formulas and the whiteboards were filled with scribbling in different colors. Nothing out of the sort except for the two boys that had joined them as well. 

Nikolai recognized one of them as Wylan, a recent member of Kaz's gang and Laurens/Philip in the production. The other boy he’d only recognized from the school’s hallways. 

“How is my favorite scientist couple doing?” Nikolai asked as he walked into the class. “And two guys I have yet to know your names.” He pointed at the redhead. “Wylan and, “ he pointed at the other boy. “Sorry I haven’t caught your name.”

“Kuwei,” he said and turned his attention back to his copybook. 

“Kuwei, pleasure to meet you.” 

“I just got here,” Genya said as she wrote something down on the board. “As well as Wylan.”

“I’ve been here all afternoon,” said David. 

“We’ll, while I’d usually ask you what advances in human knowledge you’re working on, but,” Nikolai took a pencil and added some notes, “your honorable soon-to-be president is waiting for us at the dining hall.”

Genya got hold of her phone and took a picture of the white board. “Let’s get going then, wouldn’t want to leave her waiting.”

David closed his books grudgingly and looked up. “How did you get me to agree with this?” He asked Genya. 

“I think you were distracted, Zoya asked you to be treasury, you didn’t pay attention and nodded and Zoya turned in the list before you realized,” Genya fixed her stuff. 

“I remember it quite similar,” added Nikolai.

“I’ll be heading out too,” said Wylan. “See you in the dorms, Kuwei?” The other boy nodded. “Nice meeting you all,” he waved bye and left the room. 

Kuwei stood up shortly after and made his way out with a low “bye”. 

“Nice kids,” commented Genya as they finally left the lab. “Wylan blushes easily, good blood flow,” she considered. Genya was interested in human anatomy as much as chemistry. She could join any science area easily once she graduated. “Kuwei is sweet, but I don’t think he even liked being there. He spent half the time drawing.”

“His father is known in the area,” David commented. “Bo Yul-Bayur. Probably thinks he needs to be in the labs.”

“Family pressure,” Nikolai considered. He knew about that enough.

Chapter Text

Nikolai: GO TO SLEEP

How do you know I wasn’t sleeping? You would have woken me up.

Nikolai: cause you always stay up late before a big event 

Nikolai: and we need to be awake tomorrow for the debate

Nikolai: also genya texted that she hasn’t been able to sleep cause of your typing

Why aren’t you sleeping?

Nikolai: someone has to make sure you don’t overwork yourself 

Bye. 

Nikolai: genya will tell me if you don’t go to sleep!!1!

Nikolai: night zo <3

Goodnight. 

Zoya smiled at herself and then quickly turned off her phone. “Sorry Gen,” she said to her roommate. 

“Just shut up and go to sleep already. It’s three a. m.,” the other girl mumbled and dozed off again. 

Zoya stared at her bedroom ceiling. Nikolai had a point. Anxiety gave her insomnia. She shouldn’t even be nervous. For the last two weeks she and her crew had worked hard for the debate. Nikolai and Genya had done an excellent job for the campaign, but the crucial moment was the next day’s debate. There it would only be her versus Kirigan and saints knew how much she wanted to crush him. On Tuesday the elections would be done and on the Wednesday announcements the school president would be said. 

Things had gone so bad in her mind, Genya had pointed out Zoya was getting anxiety zits. 

Zoya tossed and turned in her bed unable to sleep. Finally, she stood up as quietly as she could and left her room. 

She made her way through the dark hallway up to the common room. She had taken her planner, folder, and dragon plush. It had been a gift from her aunt when she was very young. Zoya called her aunt and Lada everyday to make sure they were okay. Not so long ago there had been a tsunami in their town and few people had survived. Zoya had feared the worst, but the moment she got a call from her aunt she started to cry and thank her saints. Still the fear of those moments lived vividly in her. 

Hearing her aunt's voice always helped her calm down, but she wouldn’t call her so late at night, so she did the second closest thing there was, and hugged her plush and allowed some tears of exhaustion to fall. 

“Zoya?” A voice called her. 

“What are you doing here, Nikolai?” The boy took a seat next to her on the couch as she quickly dried her tears. “I told you to go to sleep.”

“I could say the same thing about you.” He looked odd in his sleepwear, so unarranged and much less of his egocentric self. 

“You said it yourself, I couldn’t sleep.” She hugged herself along with her plush. “What is your excuse?”

“Had a hunch you’d be here.”

“Ha, ha,” Zoya laughed unamused. 

“You put too much pressure on yourself, you know?” He ruffled his hair. “I would tell you to relax, but I like my teeth as they are.”

“Is it too much to ask for everything to go according to plan? I just have too many things to do and way too little time.”

“I can understand that feeling, but even you make it ten times worse.”

“You love theater so much,” Zoya tried to reason. “You must understand what wanting to play many parts means.”

“ The whole world is a stage, and all the men and women merely actors, ” Nikolai said wisely. “ They have their exits and their entrances, and in his lifetime a man will play many parts .”

"Another great Nikolai quote?" Zoya asked sarcastically.

"No, it's Shakespeare, Nazyalensky. Do your homework," he laughed. "Want a Nikolai quote, though?"

"Please, do enlighten me," she rolled her eyes. 

He took her hands and made her look into his eyes. "People like Zoya Nazyalensky always achieve what they set their minds to." He gave her an honest smile.

Zoya felt her cheeks warm. "Thanks, nerd," she added the last word to keep her posture, and let his hand go.

"I'm just saying plain facts. Remember? ‘Always be right’'."

"Only you can self quote yourself."

“Okay, I see you’re back on your ruthless self. So, instead of directing it to me, why don’t you go out there tomorrow and kick ass?”

“I would if I could get some sleep,” she yawed. 

Nikolai yawned next. “Hey you gave me the yawn.”

“Go and cry about it.” 

“Want a sleeping pill?” Nikolai asked. 

“You’ve got?” Zoya’s pills had run out a few days ago. Just another reason she was moodier than usual. 

“Yeah, you’re not the only one with troubling sleep,” Nikolai stood up. “I’ll go get them.”

He came back with a pill and a glass of water. Zoya took it gratefully. “What does the great Nikolai Lantsov have troubles with anyways?”

“Nightmares, anxiety, being too damnly handsome. You know, the usual.” 

Zoya took her stuff and stood up. “Of course.” She started to go back to the girls’ dorms. “Thanks.”

“Anytime. G’night, Zo.”

“Night, Nikolai.”

Chapter Text

Mal headout to the school auditorium with the rest of the students to witness the pre-election debate that was to be made. He wore his ‘NazyalenskyForPresident’ that Zoya had gifted everyone in their group of friends. 

Matthias, who was his roommate, had left earlier to meet up with Nina and their gang before the debate. Mal had waited up and made his way talking to Mikheal and Dubvrov. 

“Wait, who’s running up again?” Asked Dubvrov. 

“For the last time,” answered Mikheal, “Nazyalensky versus Kirigan.”

“Why do we have to go to these things anyways?” Dubvrov insisted. “It’s not like the student council ever does anything.”

“Don’t say that next to Zoya, she’ll kill you,” Mal said. “I’ll see you guys inside?” He asked as he caught sight of Alina. 

Mikheal was able to follow his eye line. “Take you time,” he said. 

“For what?” Dubvrov inquired. 

“He’s going after the girl,” Mikheal bothered. 

“Who?”

“Alina, man.”

“Oh, I thought Zoya.”

“Please don’t,” Mal cutted quickly. “That was two years ago.”

“And Alina has been forever,” Mikheal insisted. 

Mal denied it with his head. “Just shut up.”

Mal left them and laughed as he could still hear his friends bickering. “Hello there,” he greeted Alina. “Miss soon-to-be president,” he greeted Zoya. 

“Ah Oretsev,” Nikolai said. “Good to see you’re doing your part.” He pointed to his pin. 

“Of course,” he rolled his eyes. “Everything going well?”
“You doubt our commitment?” Zoya said skeptically. 

“Not at all,” Mal answered as quickly as he could. 

“We better get going,” Zoya said to Nikolai. “Make a stance already, you know?”

Nikolai nodded. They waved their goodbyes and entered the auditorium. 

“Weren’t you talking to Mikheal and Dubrov?” Asked Alina. 

“Well maybe I just rather be with my best friend,” he pleaded his case. “Is that too bad?”

Alina smiled, “Not at all. Should we be getting seats?” 

“Sure thing.” 

“If it wasn’t for Zoya,” Mal said once they sat down inside. “I would bail on this thing already.”

“I could break your leg?” Alina suggested.

“Hey! Football season started last week and we won our first game! I need my leg.”

“Well I don’t see what you expect me to do then,” Alina rested her head on Mal’s shoulder. “I’m sleepy. There were people moving in the hallways yesterday.”

“You were always a light sleeper,” Mal laughed. 

“True,” she rested her eyes for a bit. 

“You want me to wake you up when Zoya beats Kirigan’s ass?”

Alina gave a jump and cleared her head. “I am not missing that.” 

Shortly after the debate began. Zoya and Kirigan took their places, their respective crews behind them. Standing between them stood Jesper Fahey, who had been chosen to lead the debate, despite being a sophomore. 

“Okay, before we start we need to try the microphones,” the boy said cheerly. “Kirigan, could you speak?” 

“Hello?”

“Perfect. Nazyalensky?”

“Good morning?”

“Perfect. Now could everyone named Michael stand up?”

A few boys stood up. A couple of rows in front of them Mal saw Mikheal stand up. 

“Perfect, that concludes the Mike check,” Jesper said. There was a general chuckle. “Yes, yes. Thank you random internet stranger that gave me the idea.”

Zoya and Kirigan looked unamused, but behind them Nikolai and Genya were noticeably quietly laughing. 

“Okay for real now, we are all united for one crucial event: the pre-election debate. Now everyone remember to vote tomorrow for your favorite representative, not the cutest one,” he added as if it was a secret with a wink. “We’d have a tie if you ask me. Alright, apologize for stalling, but what is life without a laugh am I right? Might need to ask Kaz. Let’s start with you, Aleksander, if I may?”

“Maybe this won’t be so unbearable,” Mal whispered to Alina.

“Shh,” she silenced him. “I wanna listen. If you pay close attention you can hear Zoya’s sanity slowly dying.” 

“Okay bets, who punches Jesper first?”

“Don’t be mean,” Alina gasped. “Besides, Zoya learned to deal with Nikolai, it’s not a fair fight.”

“Fair point.” 

The debate went without much to add. Both Kirigan and Zoya were quite strong, but Zoya had definitely been more prepared. Kirigan had been too self confident. From time to time Nikolai would stand up to whisper something to Zoya. Mal suspected from a closer view, Nikolai was able to notice when Zoya was about to explode. On their side, Mal and Alina just kept on joking, only stopping when things on stage were getting out of hand. 

“I just hope they don’t kill each other in rehearsal,” Alina said at one point. “We are already late doing props and the stage. And Brekker still looks like he wants to kill himself in every scene.”

“Can’t Bagrah cut him out?”

“I honestly believe at this point they are both looking who chickens out first.”

“Is this how world war three starts?”

“Maybe,” she chuckled on his side. 

“Could I help out on with the props?” He asked suddenly.

“Do you want to?” 

Mal shrugged. “Why not? You guys are late, and I always helped with the repairs at the orphanage. How different can it be?” 

“Thanks Mal-”

“With all due respect, after the last survey we did, which was yesterday night, we can confirm your data is incorrect,” Zoya interrupted. 

“ Zoya correcting misinformation checked on the debate bingo,” Alina laughed.

Chapter Text

Alina, Mal, Zoya, Nikolai, Genya, and David sat together during lunch, everyone with their ears ready. The morning announcements were late, and with the election results on the top news, it was hard not to be anxious. 

“We were on the lead on the last survey,” Nikolai tried to calm Zoya down, who looked like she was about to break her plate. 

“Yes, but the ballot counting is clearly taking longer than expected,” Zoya kept on refreshing her email. 

“Relax a bit,” said Tamar from the table next to them. “You lot are a hundred times better than Kirigan.”

“Agreed,” said Leoni. Everyone on the other table nodded along. 

“You need to trust yourself better,” added Mal. 

“I trust myself enough, Oretsev,” Zoya snapped. “What I don’t trust are the idiots-”

“How do we treat students?” Nikolai cutted.

Zoya sighed. “I don’t trust our respectful voters.”

“I can’t say anything to her,” Mal whispered to Alina. 

“Afraid you lost your touch?” She joked back. 

Before Mal could answer a voice resounded through the speakers. “Students of Grisha High,” said their headmaster. Silence fell upon the usual loud dining hall. “First of all, I owe you all an apology for taking longer than expected on today’s news. Thank you all for voting yesterday, and congratulations to both parties, who did an amazing job on their campaigns, and the close call proves it well.” 

Alina pulled herself closer to Mal as they listened carefully. She noticed Zoya taking Nikolai’s hand, probably without realizing it. 

“Without further notice, I would like to congratulate your new student council, list B! With Zoya Nasyalensky as your leading president! Miss Nazyalensky and company please make your way to my office at six thirty this afternoon. That would be all, thank you for your attention.”

Cheers erupted from their table and the one next to them. Instinctively Alina hugged Mal, before pulling away a little blushed. 

“Congratulations you guys!” He said to the group of seniors. 

“We did it!” Zoya smiled. “We actually did it. Oh this is amazing! Well played Kirigan,” she yelled to the other student who was sitting a few tables away. 

“Wait, we’ll be in the middle of theater practice at six thrity,” said Genya as their excitement cooled down. 

“You think I care?” Zoya said. “We can skip this one time.”

“But today Mal here was going to join us,” Nikolai laughed. “Just kidding. I mean we’re thrilled you’re going but this is kind of more important.”

“Well of course,” Mal said. “No resentments.”

“And I’m sure Bagrah will understand,” Alina said. 

Before heading out to class, they all decided to celebrate buying extra dessert for themselves. 

***

Bagrah was, surprise to no one, annoyed by the absence of the council, but decided to leave the topic. She decided they would dedicate themselves to making props and stage, and received Mal’s help reluctantly. 

The group known as crows was secluded to a corner where they all tried to sew their costumes. Nina had tried to help Aleksander out with his, but he waved her off and took his stuff to one of the seats in the auditorium. Mal and Alina had offered themselves to start sketching the scenery. They were seated on the edge of the stage. 

“So this is supposed to be an office, house, battlefield, bar, and I don’t know how many other stuff all at once?” Mal asked.

“You watched the bootleg with me,” Alina erased the staircase to redo it. “Yes, it is.”
“Uh huh. Are you doing the moving stairs too?”

“No, only one on the left side. Jefferson’s entrance will be much less dramatic, but there’s not much to do about it.” 

“Oh, Non Stop was one of my favorite songs.” 

“Hey, it’ll still be great, The fact that you’re alive is a miracle, just stay alive that would be enough, ” Alina started to sing. “ And if your wife could share a fraction of your time. If I could grant you a piece of mind? Would that be enough? ”

“I don’t doubt you’ll blow this place off the roof.”

“Thanks,” she smiled. She turned her attention back to her designs. “Do you think this looks good?” She showed them to him.  

“Wow, that looks perfect,” he looked behind, to the stage. “And it can fit here perfectly.”

“Is Bagrah around?” Alina quickly scanned the place. “I want to show it to her. Perhaps today we can start building it?”

“You think Nikolai wants to miss building this place?” Mal joked. “She’s probably in her office. I’ll go get her.” He jumped to the floor. 

“Thanks Mal,” Alina called after him. 

“No problem, Miss Schuyler,” he bowed to her and turned around to leave. 

Alina was left alone with her drawings. She opened one of her older sketches. In it there was her with Mal running through a meadow hand in hand. She smiled to herself. The idea that he might feel anything for her as she did for him was just another childish dream. As she traced the meadow’s horizon, she noticed she had never painted the drawing.  

She looked around for her color pencils, when she noticed a figure handing them to her. “Hello Alina,” Aleksander smiled.

“Thanks,” she took her pencil case from him. “What do you want?”

“Can’t I just wonder how you’ve been?” He sat next to her a little too closely.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” she said, bitterly.

“Are you happy? With the football player?”

“We’re not together.” She tried to ignore him, to focus on the colors. 

“Oh? I thought you had left me for him?” 

Alina threw her pencils aside and locked eyes with the boy next to her. “I left you because you used me. Because you were merely playing around as if I  was a doll. And don’t there you deny me, I know it hasn’t been the first time you do this.” Her heart hurted a bit as she thought of Genya and Zoya. “I wish I had never met you.”

“You were nothing, Alina,” he said. “Nothing until I saw you. Until I started loving you.” He leaned in closer. 

“Don’t you dare touch me!” Alina noticed her voice amplifying on the echo. She stood up. “You aren’t even sorry. You care for no one but yourself. Go cry Aleksander, I left you for myself, not for another man.” 

She turned around and left the auditorium. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the crows had stood up from their place and were approaching Aleksander. Good , Alina thought. She didn’t know how, when, or why she had earned their trust, but if you were allies with them, then you could count on them having your back. 

Alina found herself in the school’s meadow. She laughed and wished she had taken her things with her. It was starting to get dark and her skin was cold. 

“Alina!” Mal’s voice called her. She turned around and saw him speed walking to her. “I brought your stuff,” he handed her bag. “Are you okay?” 

“Men are real idiots,” she scoffed as she put on her sweater. “No offense.”

“None taken. If it makes you feel better, I think I’ve never seen Kirigan as terrified as he was when Bagrah and I walked in.” 

“You two are just so intimidating,” Alina rolled her eyes. She was thankful for the laughs. Mal could always pick her up whenever she was feeling down.

“Not us, Nina and Inej are scary when they pair up,” he said. “Nina was the one who hacked Kirigan’s account last year, wasn’t she?”

“No, that was Kaz,” Alina smiled at the memory. “Nina was the one who started to post there.”

“‘Oh i’m an eboy who can only simp over the girls that broke up with me’,” Mal quoted one of Nina’s posts.

“#DramaticAss #CryBaby,” Alina added. A breeze of air passed that gave her chills.

“Need a hug?” 

Alina nodded and let Mal hug her. They stood like that for a while. “You don’t have to waste your time looking for me everytime,” Alina broke their silence.

“I don’t waste my time when it comes to you, Alina.”

Chapter Text

Nina: [id: a selfie of Nina holding Burr’s purple costume. /id ends]

Nina: look what Genya and I finished today in our free period @Kaz

Jesper: omg Kaz not wearing black is going to be so weird sahdjgfxdlZG

Do you have a death wish, Zenik?

Nina: no, but i do have a wish to see you in color ;) 

Kaz started to type as someone bumped into him. Kaz flinched slightly before regaining his posture. He knew he shouldn’t have taken the main hallway, but it was a shorter way to the common-rooms, and he needed his computer. Kaz was about to say something to the person who had touched him, but he stopped as he realized they were already far into the hallway. And that it was Wylan who was running off. 

Kaz quickly debated with himself whether to follow the boy or not. He hated himself for the decision, but gripped his cane and started to see where he was going. Kaz noticed Wylan was taking the way to their crow spot. 

Wylan took a seat at their table and covered his head with his hands. Kaz took quick notice at his unpatterned breathing. Shit , Kaz thought. Panic attack. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he knew those well enough. 

“Wylan?” He called out reluctantly. Why was he caring for the boy? “Hey.”

Wylan flinched when he noticed Kaz. His eyes were puffed red. 

“What’s going on?” Kaz asked. He took a seat on the other side of the table. The colder climate was coming closer and Kaz regretted not having his jacket with him.

“Nothing, nothing really,” Wylan tried to dry his tears. 

“You think I am a fool then?” 

“No, not at all. I just, I don’t what’s going and I don't what to bother you and Ghezen I hate our spanish teacher and i’m exaggerating things-”

Kaz was already getting tired. “Wylan.”

The other boy stopped short. He gulped and breathed rapidly. 

“Take a breath, calm the hell down, and tell me.”

Wylan did as he told him and took in a couple of slow breaths. From his backpack, Kaz took the bottle Inej had insisted on him having, and handed it over to Wylan. The freshmen thanked him and started to calm down. 

“Anyone we need to threaten?” Kaz asked after Wylan’s breath had steadied. 

“No!” He answered quickly. “I just-”

“We won’t be here all day. So you spit it out or I can take my bottle and leave.”

“Our spanish teacher made us read in class,” Wylan said almost too quickly to understand. 

“Oh wow. That sure is a problem.” Kaz should’ve just kept his way to his room. 

“It is if you don’t know how to read,” Wylan added quietly. 

“What now?” 

“I can’t read,” Wylan gave a clear forced smile. “I have dyslexia, I can’t read, like, at all.” 

“And you had a panic attack because of that?”

“Why do you even care?” 

“I don’t,” Kaz said dead serious. “But it is a chance to death threat a teacher, and I don’t miss those.”

“Please don’t threaten anyone,” Wylan stopped. “He must’ve forgotten, all of the faculty knows.”

“I didn’t. And I know everything.”

“Yeah, it was said over a call as to not keep record.”

Kaz considered it. “Smart, but unnecessary. Why would anyone do that?”

“Because my father thinks of me as a disgrace and a moron, and he doesn’t feel like announcing it to the world.”

Kaz knew when people were lying to him, and Wylan seemed a little too honest. “So Jan Van Eck, yes I know who your father is, thinks that his son who might skip freshmen next semester, is an idiot?”

“Yeah.” 

“While I don’t believe you one bit,” even though he almost did, “I won’t let you go to class looking a mess. It will stain our crow reputation, obviously.” Kaz took his phone out. He couldn’t deal with this by himself. 

“That’s why I like musicals,” Wylan blurted out as Kaz typed on his phone.

“Huh?” 

“They are easier to memorise. Like music. The music within the words makes it easier to remember. It’s like reading, but not quite.”

Kaz nodded and sent his text. He couldn’t keep up with the conversation much longer.

Meet me at the tables now. @Nina @Inej grab waffles from the kitchen on your way here.

Nina: umpopted mission, and skip class?!

Nina: im in.

Inej: See you in the kitchens

Inej: And what do we say, Kaz? 

Please, darling Inej, will you get waffles? And @Jesper grab my coat and computer from our room. 

Jesper: on it boss! 

Matthias: Wait you all are not skipping class

Matthias: Too late isn’t it? 

Nina: we’re already on the gardens 

“We’re here!” Nina called as they made their way to the table.

“You called everyone?” Wylan asked. 

“You want to go back to class or eat waffles?” Kaz asked back. “Nice to see you both,” he greatted Inej and Nina. 

“So, what are we doing?” Inej asked as she set the plate of waffles in the middle of the table. 

“Yeah,” agreed Jesper who had just arrived. He handed Kaz his stuff and took a seat next to Wylan. “What’s all this about?”

“Nothing,” Kaz said. “Just checking if you all would leave class unprompted or not. Surprisingly, Wylan here was the first to arrive.” He saw as the mentioned boy mouthed the word thanks but ignored it. 

Kaz opened his computer and started drafting skip passes to everyone on the table, along with another little project he'd been working on since the incident on the last rehearsal. 

“Kaz,” Nina called. “Hey!”

“What do you want, Zenik?” 

“Your turn, fuck, marry, kill. Inej, Jesper and me.”

“No,” he opened another tab. 

“Boring,” Nina rolled her eyes. 

“What are you looking at?” Inej asked as she moved closer to see his screen. 

“Remember on wednesday, when Kirigan was taken to Bagrah’s office?” 

“Yeah, you followed them,” Jesper answered. 

“Well, I think I might’ve found something interesting.”

“Care to share with the class?” Nina asked. 

“Maybe later, for now, you’ll be glad to know we might have a way to make Wednesdays a lot less insufferable.” 

“Are you changing your attitude?”

“Why do I even talk to you, Zenik?”

Chapter Text

The cold weather had set in the school to stay. With shorter time until the musical, barely three weeks, rehearsals had increased to three a week. Still, Inej always found time to sneak to the gymnastic studio. She played her song and headed out to the silks she worked on. 

She didn’t raise herself to them until the voice in her speaker started singing. She took her time climbing onto it, twirling around the silks to give herself stability. At some point she let go of both of her hands, standing supported only by the cloth, pointing her hands upwards, and free. 

Her mother had once said that she had wings that revealed themselves every time she took on the highwire or silks. She could feel them now, as with every turn and every change in her position, she did not feel afraid of falling. 

Inej tried to paint the scene she was performing to. She could see herself, along with the singer, and whom he was singing about. 

The music started to fade into a lower beat, and with it Inej lowered her body. She was now holding onto the silks only by her arms, her feet at barely a few centimeters from the floor. She took harder hold of the cloth around her and lifted herself up for a few final movements. Her circuit ended with her wrapped around the silks becoming her wings, but her body on the floor, as a fallen angel. 

She took a breath and smiled.

“Not bad, wraith,” Kaz, who was sitting on the gym’s benches, called out to her. “You sure enjoy this, don’t you?”

Inej sat down next to him and took her bottle. “I love it. I just feel free, you know?”

“Uh huh,” Kaz shrugged and turned his attention back to his computer. “It’s done,” he said, and closed the computer. 

“You did not just threatened Kirigan,” she said in disbelief. 

“We found leverage on both him and Bagrah, of course I was going to use it to our benefit.” 

When Kaz had followed Kirigan and Bagrah to her office, he had told Inej he believed there was something else going on. After a lot of digging, Kaz had been able to hack Bagrah’s computer. 

“Was a real pain,” he’d said to her as he showed her his archives. “Too much security.”

“It might surprise you,” Inej had answered, “that some people don’t want to be hacked.”

In fact, Kirigan was not Aleksander’s actual last name. He was Aleksander Morozova, son of Bagrah, but who had been signed into the school with another name. Likely his father’s, Kaz had theorized. Apparently the only reason Bagrah had been working at the school was because her son had been expelled from all previous schools, and the only thing that was keeping him in school was having his mother as part of the administration. Inej and Kaz deduced Morozova had rather kept their paths apart for both of their reputations. Still, if six people knew about it, beside themselves, it would make a good enough threat. Surprisingly enough, Morozova had more chances of getting expelled than Kaz, and surely the PTA would not appreciate a student with that kind of privilege. They were already skeptical of having students on scholarships, so Kaz had concluded they would raise hell if they found out all the things Morozova had done to get expelled for.

“I could send it to Bagrah too, maybe get myself out of the musical,” Kaz commented just as Inej was about to stand up to practice once more. 

“You want to quit?” 

“I thought someone as observative as you would’ve noticed,” he remarked. 

“I know how to look at things, Kaz,” Inej put on her hoodie, as the warmth of the training started to wear off, deciding she'd rather have that conversation. “When you practice and think no one is watching. That’s what I mean when I say this,” she showed the aerobics studio, “makes me free. You do enjoy it.” 

“I do not,” Kaz scoffed. 

Inej groaned, frustrated. “I don’t know why you don’t let yourself admit it. Is it too bad to have a normal hobby?”

Kaz stood silent. He didn’t meet her eyes when he spoke again. “My brother, he liked theater.”

Inej couldn’t hide her surprise. “I didn’t know you have-”

“Had.” Kaz cutted.

“Oh,” Inej was taken aback. “Sorry. I will pray for him.”

“I don’t need your prayers,” he said. “He was the one who liked plays and musicals. Not me.”

“Then why do you act like you do?” Inej didn’t want to push the subject, but if he would let her know something about himself, then she would hear it. 

“I never liked musicals,” Kaz paraphrased himself. 

“Until?” 

Kaz took a deep breath. “I found new ones that didn’t relate to my brother.”

“Is Hamilton your favorite one?” 

“No,” he stood up to leave. Inej thought he wasn’t going to answer that question, but before heading out he turned around. “ Hadestown , if you’re wondering which one.” He left without another word. 

Inej remembered when she had spoken to him about that musical. The conversation had taken place a few days after they started talking. They’d been in the library, and Kaz had asked her what she was listening to. She took off one earbud and handed it over to him. The cord was tense as he sat away from her. Wait for Me played. 

Wait for me, I'm coming. Wait, I'm coming with you. Wait for me, I'm coming too. I'm coming too. 

He’d asked her what it was once more. She’d said Hadestown , her favorite musical.

“What’s it about?”

“The story of Orpheus and Eurydice.”

“One of the greatest greek tragedies.”

“Yeah.”

“Do all of your tastes have to do with myths and religion?”

“If you don’t like it, you can just keep it to yourself.” 

But it had become his favorite musical, so he’d liked it. Only one boy will bring you your favorite flowers . Inej allowed herself to smile. She took her phone and played once more the song she had been practicing. 

The smell of the flowers she held in her hand, and the pollen that fell from her fingertips. And suddenly Hades was only a man with a taste of nectar upon his lips, singing

And Inej sang along, as she pictured once more the garden where Hades and Persephone had met. “ La la la la la la… ”

She pictured as well Orpheus, singing in hell to get Euridice back. “ La la la la la la…”

And she didn’t know Kaz stood outside the gym door, whispering, “ La la la la la la …”

Chapter Text

Nikolai checked out Sunday from his calendar. His eyes darted to Friday. Hamilton Night!!! He’d written and circled. He hadn’t noticed when time had passed so quickly that the next day would start tech week. In all fairness, the last two weeks had gone by easily. Kirigan had left everyone alone for once, with Mal helping out with the sets they had been able to be on schedule with no problem, and Zoya looked like she was actually enjoying herself for once. 

Nikolai took his phone and opened the Hamilton chat. 

alright alright people!

tech week is starting tomorrow!

make sure to get good sleep tonight

Nina: make sure to have coffee tomorrow

Alina: And rehearsals everyday until friday!

Kaz: It’s too late to back out, isn’t it? 

Jesper: yep! 

Kaz’s act didn’t fool anyone. Everyone on the drama club knew he would have left a long time ago if it wasn’t for a certain cast member. 

“Young love,” Genya had joked a few weeks ago, when, at the sight of Kaz walking into the auditorium, Inej had quickly looked up in surprise and smiled. 

“Hey, we’re only two years younger!” Nina had said next to her. 

“Exactly,” Zoya said, “you’re children.”

Nina rolled her eyes and left them to meet her friends. She’d been helping Matthias sew his Washington costume for the past twenty minutes before she hopped into their conversation.

“She didn’t deny the ‘love part’,” Nikolai commented. 

“Everyone knows those two are head over heels about each other. Just like other people I know,” Genya said, giving a meaningful glance to him and Zoya, and parted. 

Nikolai shrugged off the memory, yawned, and made his way to his bed. 

***

The rest of the week went by relatively quickly. There was too much stuff to be done and little free time. He’d made sure to leave all of his homework and projects ready during the weekend. Nikolai spent all of his time between classes, the auditorium, making tea with honey, and council meetings with Zoya, Genya and David. 

Zoya had managed to contact different colleges to come see the school’s events. That week they had dedicated themselves to make the most of the hockey team, who’s season would start over the weekend, the soccer team, and for the drama club. 

Nikolai, Nina and Jesper also planned out the show’s after party, which would be celebrated at Jesper’s house.

Zoya had complained all week on how the tech week was the same week as the final of the soccer team. She, Nina, and Genya would have to work extra to manage time between both activities. Tamar and Nadia too as they had joined the ensemble not so long ago. Another recent addition had been Leoni, who took charge of the light and sound panel with Adrik helping along. Leoni had also accepted gladly to work as karaoke organizer for the after party,

“Finally regretted joining so many things?” He’d asked Zoya on Monday, after she almost fell asleep on her dinner.

“They’ll find Kirigan’s body before I admit that,” she’d answered. Nikolai thought better than pointing out her eye bags. “Even if he’s keeping to himself for once. That can’t mean good.”

On Wednesday night, curiosity won over Nikolai. He saw Kaz by the props table and approached the boy. “May I ask, Kaz.”

“No.”

“Okay, how did you get Kirigan to shut up for once?” Everyone in the close circle was wondering what happened, but if no one knew, there was only one group of people left for answers. 

“Oh, that thing?” Kaz looked up after fidgeting with the prop guns. “It’s simple, you need to use the right leverage.”

“I don’t assume you’ll tell me what it is?”

Kaz didn’t even bat an eye before leaving. 

“Hey!” Nikolai called out. “Leave the props where they were!” 

“Rule one of backstage?” Zoya asked behind him.

“Rule one of backstage, indeed. You learn quickly, Nazyalensky.” He commented with a weak smile. Tech week was killing him. He’d fallen asleep more than once in his classes. Which was a problem when you were managing chemicals that might very well cause a fire in the labs.  

“I have to,” she said, and handed him a cup. “The weaklings are the ones that don’t survive, after all.” 

“Actually it’s the ones best adapted, but I guess it works here too. What is this?” He asked, showing the cup.

“Coffee,” she started to walk to one of the stands. “I heard Nina say we were going to be here for a while, and you’re insufferable when you’re sleepy,” she said and sat down. 

“Look who’s talking,” he commented and rolled his eyes. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he took a sip. It was exactly the same coffee he made himself, always with a touch of cinnamon and a cube of sugar, even if Zoya said that took out the idea of drink. She liked it bitter black, for a reason Nikolai couldn’t understand. He shouldn’t be surprised that Zoya knew how he made his coffee. As much as they tried to care for their sleeping schedules, more than once they had to stay up late trying to study. “Thank you.”

They sat together in one of the middle rows of the school’s auditorium. On stage stood Matthias, Jesper, Bagrah and Nina. The two boys had been practicing Guns and Ships for the last 20 minutes. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Bagrah said to Jesper, “but can you put less effort into it?” 

Beside her Nina added: “Basically calm down. Guns and Ships is fast, but not that much!”

Nikolai chuckled and took another sip of his drink. 

“Ugh, love birds,” Zoya said, pointing to Mal and Alina, who had fallen asleep a few seats in front of them. 

“I know right?”

“Are you still pissed off Alina friendzoned you?” Zoya asked. 

“Nah,” Nikolai said with all honesty. He had liked Alina for sometime, that bit was true, but after she rejected him he forgot about it with little effort. Unlike others , Nikolai laughed for himself. “Besides,” he hugged Zoya, “it’s better not to have a distraction while being full time vice-president and lead.”

Zoya yawned and cuddled next to him. “True,” she said. “Thanks for helping out with everything. You make it quite less tedious.” 

Nikolai laughed. “You are way too sleepy. You passed the ‘incredibly mean’ stage to the ‘overly nice’ one.”

Zoya rolled her eyes and rested them. “Learn to take a compliment, Lantsov. With all your bragging, one would think you know who to,” she yawned again, “how to do it.” 

“Well then thank you,” he smiled. 

“Shut up, I’m trying to rest,” she mumbled. 

Nikolai actually kept quiet and watched the girl next to him rest. It was true he was glad Alina wasn’t distracting him from his senior duties, but that didn’t mean someone else didn’t do the job. 

He didn’t know at what point he had dozed off to sleep too, but he was awoken by Genya’s camera flash. 

“What on-” Zoya said, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing Gen?”

“Just taking pictures of my favorite cast,” she smiled. “Also you too look adorable cuddling.” 

Zoya noticed she was resting her head on Nikolai’s shoulder and immediately jumped out. “What time is it?” 

Nikolai took his phone out. “Twelve thirty,” he groaned. 

“Yeah, everyone left already,” Genya said. “But it’s my job to record everything, so I couldn’t just wake you up.”

“Are you doing an album again?” Nikolai asked as they stood up.

“Obviously. Surely, videos are more important,” Genya explained as they made their way out of the auditorium. “But it's good to have pictures and laugh at them later.”

“Be careful or Brekker may delete all of the pictures,” Zoya commented. 

“That’s why I’m not saying anything about them until after the show,” Genya winked.

The three of them made their way through the school’s empty hallways. Luckily they didn’t cross their way with anyone from security. 

After saying his goodbyes, Nikolai found himself in his room. He made a mental check for the rest of the week. The next day would be their final rehearsal, the day after was the show. On Saturday he’d probably waste his time trying to recharge batteries from the hell of a week that was going on. And Sunday he would have to run from the hockey and soccer team back and forth. Just his thoughts were enough to exhaust him and send him to sleep. And for once, he didn’t wake up from nightmares.

Chapter Text

As the official “not-part-of-the-drama-club-support-friend”, Mal spent all his week walking around with thermoses with coffee and tea, along with extra hair pins, and a medical kit. He would pop onto their rehearsals after training or studying to find everyone running around and fixing last minute mistakes. He also made sure to walk by the labs and make sure David was eating as Genya and Nikolai were trapped in the auditorium. 

Friday morning came along with an over energized Nikolai at breakfast.
“What time is it?” He greeted him and Alina as they sat down at the table.

“ Show time! Show time! ” Alina answered, equally enthusiastically. 

“Please just shut up,” Zoya said. “I’ve heard that thing enough times in my lifetime.”

Nikolai grinned. “You can’t just be satisfied of Hamilton. ”

Alina, Nikolai and Genya kept on making jokes Mal didn’t fully get, but understood they were theater related. At some point Nina passed by to greet them, but quickly left to go to the crow table. 

Friday itself went almost unnoticed. Mal almost fell asleep during physics, which was no surprise. And he gave in all of his missing assignments before lunch time. At around six in the afternoon he scooped by the auditorium one last time before the hour of the show. 

Nina was walking nearby with Jesper, asking who had moved the guns from their places. He saw the staircase Alina had designed and he, Nikolai, Tamar, and Matthias had built. He wasn’t going to lie, it looked great. It wouldn’t be as impressive as the mechanisms the club had used for Wicked a few years ago to make their Elphaba fly, but it would do the trick. 

“Mal?” Inej asked as he walked by the mirrors. She was sitting down as Brekker did her hair. Mal decided better not to question it. “You’ve got extra hair spray?”

“Yeah, one sec,” he took his backpack and handed Brekker a can. “You rather I leave this here?” He said, showing all the hair products he had on hand.

“Yes please.”

He left the bag on a table next to Brekker, who was finishing with the girl’s braid. “Have you seen Alina?”

“She was with Genya and Zoya on the left wing, the last time I saw her.”

“Thanks Inej.” 

“No problem.”

“Break a leg you two,” Mal said. “Shit sorry, Kaz-” Mal quickly tried to apologize. 

“You can leave now, Orestev,” said the other boy. 

“Right, sorry.” 

Mal found Alina hugging herself on the left wing of the stage. She still hadn’t changed into her cyan dress, but her hair was already done as well as her makeup. 

“You okay?” Mal asked. 

She nodded quickly. “Of course I am.” She looked out to the still empty chairs.

“C’me on, I know you, you’re always nervous before a presentation.”

“It's the first time I’m lead,” she said. “I hadn’t actually processed it until, well, now.”

“Come on, you’re not going to miss a note or anything.”

“I know I won’t,” she teased. “But still-”

“Alina,” Mal made her look at him. “You’re going to blow this place away. You always get cold feet but at the end steal the stage with no problem.” Anyone can see how amazing you’re and-” Mal stopped short, regretting what he was going to say. “And you’ve got this.”

Alina nodded. “I do got this.”

“That’s the Alina I know.”

“Now be ready for the best performance ever,” she smiled. 

“I have no doubt of it.”

“Mal!” Nina called out behind them. “While we are all thankful for your help, we’ve got to have a cast discussion, and you’re not included. Alina get in costume. And find the letters, someone moved them, again. Again, Mal, thanks for everything, but we need to get moving.”

“Wouldn’t want to intervene,” he said with a small bow. “Break a leg?” He said with little doubt.

“Thanks!” Both girls called out and ran to the changing rooms.

Mal headed out and found Mikeal and Dubrov. He and his friends decided to kill time studying for the end of semester exams. 

Seven thirty came along and the three boys made their way to the auditorium. Mal took his seat next to Mikeal and Dubrov. Few minutes later, the lights went out, and the show began.

Chapter Text

“You look like a five-year-old at Christmas,” Zoya said to Nikolai. They were waiting on the side wings of the stage for Kirigan to finish asking everyone to turn off their phones. 

“It’s the excitement of the show!” He claimed back. 

“I have zero excitement for this. Just want to get out of this pink thing already,” she showed her dress. 

“I think you look gorgeous.”
“Oh, I always do. But I rather do it in something other than an eighteenth century dress.”

Before Nikolai could answer, Nina called out everyone to their places. Zoya left with Genya to the staircase where they would enter from. Nikolai stood behind the stage, and everyone else waited from their respective wing. Kaz stood in the middle of the stage when the curtains opened and the music began. The sophomore wasn’t using his usual cane, but one Nina and Jesper had made so it fit better the era aesthetic. 

“ How does a bastard, ” Kaz opened the show, “orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

Wylan walked up to the stage next. Nikolai hoped he would stay calm, during the last rehearsals Wylan would lose track of lines when under too much pressure. Nikolai could only wish the confidence he’d seen during the auditions would come back. 

Jesper and Tolya walked onto the stage next. And after them, came Nikolai’s cue. 

“ What’s your name man?”

“ Alexander Hamilton ,” Nikolai said, walking onto the stage. “ My name is Alexander Hamilton. And there’s a million things I haven’t done. But just you wait, just you wait.”

Alina stood on the stage after him. “ When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden. Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden, half-dead sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick-” A chorus of voices but his own joined her. “ And Alex got better but his mother left quick. ”

Nikolai moved through the stage as he had practiced many times before. It was fun to see the way everyone was in their own little world when they sang, but still self conscious, careful not to commit any errors. A contradiction. But that always happened when you had to do something you loved in front of other people. There would always be someone watching, Nikolai had learned, which was why he didn’t allow himself to self doubt. As much as possible. 

“Planning for the future,” Kaz narrated to the audience, “see him now as he stands on the bow of a ship headed for a new land. In New York you can be a new man.”

“ Just you wait,” Nikolai stood in the center as the ensemble walked around. 

“ In New York you can be a new man .”

“Just you wait .” This was what Nikolai loved about the show. He wanted to be something else, and this show gave him the confidence that he could. 

“ In New York you can be a new man.”

“In New York!”

“ In New York!”

“ Just you wait!”  

Nikolai loved performing. The eyes on him and reflectors in his eyes. All the ensemble moving in almost perfect harmony. Seeing how close some people were to breaking their characters on just the first song.  The rush of adrenaline in his veins. And knowing that, if he did it right, he might change lifes some day. Maybe it was a stretch, but books and theater had saved Nikolai more than once. Who says he can’t do the same for others? 

“ Will they know you rewrote your game? The world will never be the same, oh.”

Because he wanted to make a difference. 

“The ship is in the harbor now. See if you can spot him (just you wait).”

Because his parents weren’t there that day and that never made a difference. 

“Another immigrant comin' up from the bottom (just you wait).”

Because, though no one said so, Nikolai was the family's disgrace, and theater was the only place where he felt like he truly belonged. 

“His enemies destroyed his rep America forgot him”

“ We fought with him. ”

“ Me? I died for him.”

“Me? I trusted him.”

“Me? I loved him.”

“And me? I’m the damn fool that shot him.”

“There’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait!”

“What’s your name man?”

And because he was Nikolai Lantsov. He would give his best performance yet. 

“ Alexander Hamilton!” He joined voices with the whole cast. 

First song done, a whole show to go. Nikolai grinned as the specters appudded, and the next song began.

Chapter Text

My Shot was finishing behind the stage. More than one person was humming along to the words of the song, not singing exclusively because they knew it could be heard from the seats. Some incidents during rehearsals had confirmed that. 

Nina was helping out Matthias reviewing his lines one last time. Kirigan was somewhere in that ridiculous King George III costume. 

Zoya took a deep breath. She was standing behind the stage waiting for The Story of Tonight to be over. After that, Alina, Genya, and her would steal the stage from the boys.“Ready?” Alina asked. 

“Please,” Genya said. “We were born ready.” 

“Couldn’t agree more,” Zoya said and took Alina’s hand. Alina took with her other hand Genay’s and they waited for their cue. 

“ They’ll tell the story of tonight…”

Tolya, Matthias, Jesper and Nikolai quickly ran off the stage. The music on the speakers quickly changed from nostalgic to upbeat. Kaz walked onto stage and Nikolai passed next to the three girls. “Break a leg, Misses Schuyler.”

They didn’t have time to respond when Kaz said, “ That his daughters, Peggy,” Genya walked to the stage, “ Angelica ,” Zoya followed, “ Eliza, sneak into the city just to watch all the guys at-”

“ Work work ,” the ensemble cutted in. 

“ Angelica ,” Zoya sang. 

“ Work work. ”

“ Eliza .”

“ And Peggy!”

Zoya felt odd walking around the stage, casually talking scripted words with her friends. She was aware of the eyes following her, as she was the one who led the song. 

“ But- look around, look around, the revolution is happening in New York!”

Points to Nikolai, Zoya was actually enjoying theater. Or maybe just playing Angelica. Kaz joined them on the stage. She couldn’t tell who hated this part more. 

“ Why you slummin' in the city in your fancy heels? You searchin for an urchin who can give you ideals ?”

Zoya rolled her eyes. “ Burr, you disgust me. ”

Kaz faked a smile. “ Ah, so you’ve discussed me? I’m a trust fund, baby, you can trust me! ”

Behind her, Zoya heard Genya breaking her character and laughing. She tried to make it work by pretending to be talking with Alina. Zoya suppressed a smile and tried to keep on going. 

“ I’ve been reading common sense by Thomas Paine. So men say I’m intense or I’m insane ,” Zoya sang decidedly. More than once she’d been called out for “acting out”. It was not her fault people saw basic communication as an attack. And this song was perfect to call out everyone. “ You want a revolution? I want a revelation! So listen to my declaration ,” Alina and Genya joined with her. “ ‘’We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’’. ” Zoya once more sang alone. “ And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel! ”

“ Work! ”

While Zoya could not actually meet Jefferson, she could make sure he would twist in his grave. What better way to take revenge on the people that founded the country than by leading it herself? Zoya would not apologize for her ambition. She knew in her veins she could be something great in her life, and she would put good effort to it. 

Zoya’s mind snapped itself back to reality with the last line of the song. “ In the greatest city in the world! ” Like at the beginning, she joined hands with Genya and Alina and they made their way down stage. 

It wouldn’t be the last time Zoya would be on a stage talking about women’s impact in history. And she knew that for a fact. 

She was surprised by Nina hugging the three of them and nearly knocking them out. “You three were amazing!” She whispered. 

“Thanks dear,” Genya smiled. “Now my hair nearly fell over my face, where's Mal’s hair product bag?” 

“Think it was back there,” Alina said. “Let me help you.” 

The two girls gave a short hand wave and ran to help out Genya’s hair.

Nina smiled at Zoya.

“What?” Asked the senior. 

“You’re actually enjoying yourself,” Nina mocked. “How come everyone realizes that the moment we get on stage.”

“I am not,” Zoya lied. She hated when Nina was right. Or Genya. Especially Nikolai. When everyone but her was right. 

“Yeah right, and I’m heir to the throne.”

“There’s no throne in the country.”

“Well then in another country, I don’t care.”

Zoya laughed it off. “You’re the most annoying kid ever, Zenik.”

“Hey, why would you attack our director?” A voice behind them asked. Neither Zoya nor Nina had seemed to notice when Farmer Refuted had finished. 

“She won’t admit she actually loves me,” Nina said to Nikolai. 

“Well that makes two of us,” the boy joked. 

Nina laughed before leaving them at Bagrah’s call.

Neither Nikolai nor Zoya had to do anything before the next song. Nikolai, in fact, had to stay close to the stage, so the two made their way to the wings to see Kirigan’s performance. 

“Is it just me,” Zoya began asking, “or do the lyrics resemble a little too well?”

Nikolai faked a gasp. “Why? Just because he’ll send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love ?” He sang perfectly on cue. 

Zoya had to choke down a laugh if she didn’t want to ruin the presentation. “Were you counting down on that?”

“No, how dare you say our love is draining and you can’t go on -”

“Cut it out Lantsov, repeated jokes aren’t funny.” 

“Then how come we can laugh of Mal’s tattoo literally everyday?”

“That,” Zoya tried to think of a point, “is cause we’re horrible friends.” 

They went the rest of the song whispering the lyrics and jokes back and forth. As the music started to fade, Zoya called out one last thing to Nikolai. “Make me proud, right hand man.”

Nikolai had to be on stage before he could answer, but Zoya was left amused at his reaction to him after her reference. She turned around and saw Genya, Alina, and Nina with their eyes sparkling. “I don’t want to hear a word of it?”

“A word?”

“About what exactly?” 

“You guys noticed something?”

“I hate you all.”

“No you don’t,” Alina smiled. 

Genya rushed to give her a hug. “You just hate how we know what you won’t admit.”

Zoya pushed them away with a smile she wished she could suppress. 

***

Before she knew it, she was on stage once more. 

“ I toast to the groom! ” She cheered, raising her cup. “ To the bride! From your sister, who’s always by your side. To your union. And the hope that you provide. May you always be satisfied! ”

The music fell apart as the ensemble around Zoya started walking backwards. 

Zoya started singing and thought on how to murder Alina, Genya, and Nina. If they hadn’t mentioned it, then Zoya was sure she wouldn’t be thinking of Nikolai. 

“ But Alexander, I’ll never forget the first time I saw your face. I have never been the same. Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame. And when you said ‘hi’ I forgot my dang name. Set my heart aflame, every part aflame. This is not a game.”

Nikolai walked up to her with his stupid, confident grin. “ You strike me as a woman who’s never been satisfied. ”

Zoya rolled eyes, but kept on smiling for her character. “ I’m sure I don’t know what you mean you forget yourself. ”

“ You’re like me, ” Nikolai bowed down and grabbed her hand. “I’m never satisfied .”

“ Is that right?”

“I’ve never been satisfied,” Nikolai sang and kissed her hand. 

“ My name is Angelica Schuyler. ”

“ Alexander Hamilton .”

“ Where’s your family from? ”

“ Unimportant there’s a million things I haven’t done, ” Nikolai turned around to leave her in the middle of the stage. “ But just you wait, just you wait. ”

Ironically, thought Zoya, it had been the other way around the first time they met. Nikolai had approached Zoya to introduce himself, and the moment he had asked where her family was from, she shrugged him off. 

“ So, so, so, so this is what it feels like to match wits with someone at your level, what the hell is the catch? It's the feeling of freedom, of seein' the light. It's Ben Franklin with a key and a kite. You see it, right? ”

Damn those three. As much as she tried to push the thought away, Zoya couldn’t help but remember the way she many times felt for Nikolai. They were a team like no other, and he was the only person Zoya felt equals with. For all his infuriating flirting and idiotic smiles, he was Nikolai. And yet, why didn’t she go for it? 

That’s when she decided it was time to stop being so closed off, and move her piece in the game. But first she had to get through this musical. 

Chapter Text

Kaz didn’t know when he had decided not to leave the production. It might’ve been his conversation with Inej, when he’d finally let someone in, or after it, when he heard her sing, and regretted opening up. It might have been the nostalgia of his brother singing him to sleep or when he was anxious. Kaz didn’t know why, but he didn’t need to give explanations anyways. 

Regardless, he didn’t feel like admitting that he didn’t feel it like the torture it had been at the beginning. Sure, tech week had been hell, but he was used to not sleeping, and now, half of the first act had gone by without him noticing. 

Kaz stood in the middle of the stage with Wylan, Tolya, Nikolai, and Jesper, the last two gave a way too convincing performance of being incredibly drunk. 

“ Now be sensible. From what I hear, you’ve made yourself indispensable, ” Kaz half sung half spoke. 

“ Well, well I heard ,” Wylan answered, a little too amused. “ You’ve got a special someone on the side, Burr. ”

“ Is that so?” Nikolai smiled widely. 

“ What are you trying to hide, Burr?”

“ I should go,” Kaz turned to leave. 

“ No, these guys should go ,” Nikolai intervened. 

“ What?”

“ No! ”

“ Leave us alone!”

“ Man!”

Nikolai took a short breath and kept on going as it was the two of them alone. “ It’s alright, Burr. I wish you’d bought this girl with you tonight, Burr .”

“You’re very kind, but I’m afraid it’s unlawful, sir .”   

“What do you mean?”

“She’s married.”

“I see.”

“She’s married to a british officer.”

“Oh shit.” 

Kaz suspected a lot of people’s favorite parts of school theater was that they were allowed to swear in front of teachers. Nikolai sure seems to enjoy it. “ Congrats again, Alexander. Smile more. ” Kaz thought it was ironic how many times his character had to say that. According to Jesper and Nina, he never smiled. 

“ I will never understand you, ” Nikolai said, with a curious glance. “If you love this woman, go get her! What are you waiting for?”

“I’ll see you on the other side of the war.”

“I’ll see you on the other side of war.”

Nikolai left the stage. Now it was only Kaz in the middle of it. For some reason, he felt awfully lonely. There were people all around, on the seats, and on the wings-- he met for a moment eyes with the crows, just as the music began.

“ Theodosia writes me a letter every day. I'm keeping the bed warm while her husband is away. He's on the British side in Georgia. He's trying to keep the colonies inline. But he can keep all of Georgia. Theodosia, she's mine.”

Kaz took in a breath. This song was impossibly long. And it wasn’t his only solo.

“Love doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes. ” For some reason, Kaz thought of Inej. 

“And we keep loving anyway. We laugh and we cry and we break, and we make our mistakes.” He tried to shake the thought of her away. He thought of how, since they met, they had always been there for eachother. How, no matter how broken he was, he always tried to make himself better when she was by his side. He tried to shake the thought of her away, and as always, he failed. He thought of her love for flowers. The way she looked free when performing, and how afraid he always was that she would fall. And her laugh sweeter than any song ever sung ringed in his head. 

“ And if there's a reason I'm by her side when so many have tried, then I'm willing to wait for it. I'm willing to wait for it. ”

Kaz kept on singing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Inej and the rest of the ensemble walk onto stage, echoing the lyrics. 

“When they died they left no instructions, just a legacy to protect. ” Kaz’s family hadn’t left any legacy behind for him to protect, but it left a motive. Anger. Vengeance. Need for closure. 

“ Death doesn't discriminate. Between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes .” Death had taken everything away from Kaz. His parents, who had barely any memories left of. His brother. His foolish, naïve brother who should’ve taken care of him. Who, sainst , he missed and would avenge. 

“ And we keep living anyway. We rise and we fall and we break. And we make our mistakes .” Kaz would keep on walking. A limp wouldn’t stop him. The stupid government service either. He would live, and he would make it count. For Jordie. 

“And if there's a reason I'm still alive, when everyone who loves me has died. I'm willing to wait for it. I'm willing to wait for it. ”

At some point, Kaz had forgotten where he was. He was singing and belting, and hating himself for almost crying. But he was not on stage. He was in the mediocre hospital room where his brother had died, after Kaz had called and called upon nurses. All his cries never answered until it was too late. He was in his shared room filled with, he hadn’t been able to count how many, other orphans left to the pity of the government protection. He was falling off a building. 

“ And if there’s a reason I’m still alive, when everyone who loves me has died. Then I’m willing to wait for it. ”

But at some point he found himself at the table where he spent all his lunches. In a car, with Jesper singing annoyingly loud. In the library, or was it the aerobics studio?, with Inej, and her smile that made everything worth it. Kaz was in so many places at once, he thought he might drown again. 

“ And if there's a reason I'm still alive, when so many have died, then I'm willin' to- Wait for it. Wait for it. ”

Kaz wasn’t even close to drowning when he opened his as the ensemble echoed the last words. Like Nikolai and Nina indicated, he waited a second for the applause before leaving the stage. 

As he left to the wings, he passed Nikolai, who amazed worded a quick “that was amazing”. 

The crows were gathered a few feet away from the stage, Matthias waiting up to go up next. They all looked with their eyes wide. Kaz thought they amazed themselves too easily. 

“If you’d only sang like that during rehearsals-” Nina commented as Matthias quickly walked to stage. 

“Not another word, Zenik,” he snapped quickly. 

He caught Inej’s eye. She gave him a proud smile. 

Kaz thought it through. He definitely didn’t regret staying in the production. 

Chapter Text

Inej loved being The Bullet in the production. She could participate in almost all the numbers, thus never getting bored, and the eyes were not fully focused on her. She could just have a good time. 

In that moment, for instance, she was simply an american soldier struggling to stay alive while Matthias and Nikolai, as Washington and Hamilton, fought about what to do about Charles Lee.  She caught Nina’s eyes from the wings. The girl mouthed something about “proud”, which Inej guessed referred to Matthias’ role as Washington, and had to restrain a laugh. 

Inej, along with the rest of the members on stage, ran out of the stage to leave the attention to Nikolai, Wylan, Kaz, and the senior playing Charles Lee, Emil, for their duel. The good thing was that after that scene, Inej wouldn’t go back to the stage for three songs, which gave her time to breathe. 

Inej stood on the wings, and was quickly joined by Nina and Jesper. 

“Gotta say, for a freshman almost killing a senior, Wylan really nailed it,” Nina commented, as the boy left the stage through the opposite wing, followed by Kaz and Emil. 

“Well, wasn’t Lee twice Lauren’s age at the time of the duel?” Jesper asked. 

Nina and Inej turned to look at him in curiosity. “You did your homework on the show?” Inej asked. 

“Hey, I’m not just a pretty face,” he defended himself.

“Then stop playing that card,” Nina said.

“I’m not helping you get extra samples next time we go out.”

Nina gasped. “But if we join forces then we get double!”

“Your loss,” Jesper shrugged, but added a wink so it was clear he was joking. “No one uses Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette just to get free stuff.”

“Can’t believe you actually learned the whole name,” Nina said. 

“And say that to the US on act two,” Inej added.

As if on cue, That Would Be Enough started to finish. Inej took the coat she had to use from a chair and took her stance next to Jesper so that they could make their entrance. 

From the other side of the stage, Kaz walked in, giving off the start to Guns and Ships . Inej and Jesper rushed onto the stage. 

Jesper, still slightly accelerated, totally rocked the song. They rushed out and barely had any seconds to breathe before they had to make their way back to the stage. It was exhausting, but the rush of adrenaline in Inej’s body made up for it. 

Yorktown had to be one of Inej’s favorite songs. Sure, she did kind of foreshadow Lauren’s death, meaning she was basically killing Wylan, but the choreography was still incredibly fun. 

After Kirigan’s intervention as King George, Kaz took over the stage. Inej was surprised as to how soft his voice could sound as he sang what was basically a lullaby. He didn’t sound as nearly as passionate as he had been during Wait for It , but he still seemed to enjoy being on stage.

“What was that?” A voice asked behind her back. “‘I don’t have a crush on him’?”

“Shut up Nina,” Inej whispered to her friend. 

“Hey, men are idiots, but you’ve seemed to find yours,” she joked. “And he does your hair.” 

“I’ll stay with the ‘idiots’ part.”

“The hair is true though.”

“And here I thought you were jealous.”

“Me? Of Brekker? No, but I better still be your number one makeup artist.”

Inej shrugged. “Maybe I’ll ask Genya next time.”

Nina faked a gasp.

She joked about it, but Inej actually liked it when Kaz braided her hair. It was comforting, in its own way. Kaz never seemed to hug or even touch anyone at all. Inej didn’t know why, but his way of saying he was there for her had always been by doing her hair. That, or, of course, the usual slight show of concern between crows, which usually included hacking or threatening someone. 

Inej saw as Wylan left the stage after Lauren’s Interlude, and made her way up stage of the final song of the act. She went from pretending to pay attention to Nikolai’s speech to the voices of Hamilton’s head in what seemed to be a fraction of a second. However, by far her favorite part was when everyone started to sing at the same time. 

Because as Matthias sang, “ History has it’s eyes on you. ”

She and the rest of the ensemble repeated. “ Non-stop! ”

And Alina added, “ Look around, look around. Isn’t this enough? What would be enough?” ”

And Zoya seemed to scream and accuse, “ He’ll never be satisfied. ”

Next to Inej, Kaz questioned Nikolai. “ Why do you assume you’re the smartest in the room? Soon that attitude may be your doom. Why do you fight like you’re running out of time? ”

Zoya, Alina, and Kaz united voices. “ Why do you fight like -”

And Inej added herself along with the ensemble. “ History as it’s eyes on you .”

Nikolai cutted them, as he started to make his way up the stairs. “ I’m not throwing away my shot. I’m not throwing away my shot. I am-”

“Alexander Hamilton! Hamilton! Just you wait!”

“I am not throwing away my shot! ”

The lights were cutted along with the music, and the curtain fell. 

Behind it, everyone took a second to breathe before breaking their characters. Inej broke down laughing. Half the show had gone by and she felt exhausted and amazing. 

“You all hear that?” Nikolai asked, still with a low voice. There were cheers coming out of the theater. “They love us!”

“Hell yeah,” Alina agreed. 

They left the stage to grab water and run to the bathroom.

Chapter Text

“Final call for the second act let’s go,” Alina heard Nina and Bagrah shouting from behind the stage. She was standing on it, peeking outside the curtain as everyone went back to their seats. 

She caught Mal’s eyes for a brief second. He didn’t even have time to wave at her because someone had pushed back. 

“Eliza does not participate in What'd I Miss , Alina,” Bagrah said. “Come on, let's go before the show starts.”

“Why so stressed?”

“I’m not. But the first act went unusually well, and I want to keep our strike.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Excuse me ladies,” said Jesper as he rushed by them. 

“You’re kidding right?” Bagrah called after him. “You were supposed to be upstairs already!”

Alina ignored them and went to meet with Zoya, Nikolai, and Genya, who was already in her red dress. The two theater nerds were trying to convince Zoya to sing something in the karaoke that night. 

“Oh come on Zoya!” Nikolai insiste. “Choose a song, we’ll sing.”

“Shouldn’t you be waiting for your cue?” Zoya said as the music started to play. 

From the stage, they could hear Kaz giving the introduction once more. “How does a bastard, orphan, immigrant, decorated war vet. Unite the colonies through more debt?”

Nikolai jumped from his seat and ran to the stage, making all the girls laugh. He sure did love drama. The girls stood up and watched the performance from the wings. 

“ But someone’s gotta keep the American promise! You simply must meet Thomas! Thomas! ”

As the ensemble responded and Jesper made his appearance through the staircase, Genya commented, “I think I’ll never get used to Brekker pretending to be cheery.”

“He looks like a cat forced to dress in a Christmas costume,” Zoya added. 

“Is there any chance he’s actually having a good time?” Alina asked. “This song is amazing.” She added with a small dance.

“No way,” Zoya said. 

However, Genya seemed to agree as she joined Alina whispering the chorus of the song so they wouldn’t be heard.

“ So what’d I miss? What did I miss? Virginia my home sweet home I wanna give you a kiss,” Alina and Genya threw a kiss to Zoya as Jesper threw one to the audience. 

“You’re all ridiculous,” Zoya went back to sit down. 

“If anyone is ridiculous,” Genya said as they followed along, “it is the two of you.”

“What did I do?” Alina tried to defend herself. 

“Been pinning after the same guy for like, ever. In Zoya’s case ever since, like last year.”

“ Now that you mention that sexual tension is easy to see! ” Nina jumped into the conversation. 

“ In the Heights ,” Alina identified quickly. “Nice one.”

“Well thank you,” Nina said. “Everything is going smoothly so I’m taking a minute to breathe with my favorite stars here.”

“Nikolai will be offended that he's not your favorite,” Genya joked. 

“He can suck it. Sis before dicks,” she concluded. 

“Cheers to that Nina,” Zoya agreed. 

“Oh you’re still not saved. You and Nikolai? Just kiss already.”

“I will kill you, Zenik.”

That’s when an idea popped into Alina’s head. “Hey, I know which song we could all sing for karaoke! We’ll need Inej and Tamar too though.”

“Starkov you genius!” Nina cheered as if she could read her mind. “I’m doing a group chat with organized characters. I call Boleyn!”

“Hey! I should choose first, it was my idea!”

“I’m so confused,” Zoya said.

“That’s your fault for not paying attention when I talk about musicals,” Genya said with a smile.

***

They didn’t have enough time to plan everything as Alina had to be on stage shortly after. 

She stood next to Wylan and, as they weren’t able to have a piano on stage, teached him out loud the numbers in french. 

“ Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf.”

“Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf.”

“Good,” she smiled. It was fun performing with the boy. He wasn’t too talkative, but when given the chance he did know how to put on a show. Too bad his characters died twice during the play. 

They left the stage to give cue to Nikolai. Not long after, he and Zoya gave the cue back to Alina. “ And I cannot put the notion away .”

“ Take a break, ” she said as she walked up to Nikolai. 

“ I am on my way. ”

“ There’s a little surprise supper and it can not wait. ”

“I'll be there in just a minute, save my plate.”

“Alexander,” she said in a tone of voice that was apparently way too scary.

“ Okay, okay. ”

“ You son is nine years old today. And he has something he’d like to say. He’s been practicing all day. Philip take it away.”

Wylan walked onto stage nervously, fidgeting with his sleeves. His general anxiousness actually helped for this scene. “ Daddy, daddy, look. My name is Philip, I am a poet, I wrote this poem just to show it. And I just turned nine. You can write rhymes but you can't write mine. ”

“ What?” Nikolai acted surprised. 

“I practice french and play piano with my mother. I have a sister but I want a little brother.”

“Okay ,” Nikolai said, taking away a few chuckles from the audience. 

“ My daddy is trying to start America’s bank! Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq!”

“Bravo! ” 

Wylan hugged Nikolai and ran out of the stage, leaving only her and Nikolai. 

“ Take a break, ” she insisted. 

“ Hey our kid is pretty great, ” Nikolai sang as he took her arm. 

“ Run away with us for the summer, let’s go upstate.”

“Eliza I’ve got so much on my plate.”

“We can all stay with my father. There’s a lake I know…”

“I know…”

Nikolai had to be one of the people Alina had the most fun performing with. They both seemed to understand each other's wish to put on a great show while also having genuine fun. That was why songs like this were so amazing to do. And Zoya’s interference only added to the internal laughs Alina had. 

“ In a letter I received from you two weeks ago, I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase. ” She sang as she walked down the stairs. Which was ‘impossible’ with the long dress according to her.

“When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable." Nikolai reminded her. Alina was sure Zoya was going to punch him. Which only made the scene better. 

“It changed the meaning, did you intend this? One stroke and you've consumed my waking days. It says: ” at the same time, Nikolai joined in, “ "My dearest, Angelica.” With a comma after dearest. You've written: "My dearest, Angelica" .”

It was painful to watch. Genya had a point, those two so clearly liked each other, but they didn’t do anything about it.

***

“ The Reynold Pamphlets ,” the ensemble sang. “ Have you read this?!”

Alina and Nina were holding each other trying not to break down laughing at the scene. This was why Alina hated Burn . How could she sing a sad ballad after watching everyone on stage have such a good time? Inej and Wylan were breaking character at the far end of the stage as Jesper danced singing, “ Well he’s never goin’ to be President now. That’s one less thing to worry about! That’s one less thing to worry about.”

“I came as soon as I heard ,” Zoya exclaimed. 

“ What? ” Said the chorus of Jesper, Tolya, and Kaz. 

“ Angelica,” Nikolai vocalized. 

“ All the way from london? Damn.”

“Angelica thank god someone who understands what I’m struggling to do.”
“I’m not here for you,” Zoya answered. Alina was quick to catch her smirk of satisfaction. She could bet this was Zoya’s favorite part of the musical. “I know my sister like I know my own mind. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind. I love my sister more than anything in this life. I will choose her happiness over mine every time. Put what we had aside, I’m standing at her side. You could never be satisfied, God I hope you're satisfied!”

Zoya ran out of the stage where Alina stood. 

“You were amazing!” Alina claimed as the chaos erupted once more on stage.

“You go there and nail it, Starkov,” Zoya said with a wink, and went to get a bottle of water. 

That’s when Alina’s cue sounded. “His poor wife. ”

Alina walked to the stage with her candle and letters up to a bench. She sat down as the slow music began gaining volume. She knew exactly how to nail that song. 

“ I saved every letter you wrote me. From the moment I read them, I knew you were mine. You said you were mine. I thought you were mine.” Turns out it had been the other way around. She belonged to him. And saints knew she was not letting that happen again.

“Do you know what Angelica said, when we saw your first letter arrive? She said, ‘Be careful with that one, love. He will do what it takes to survive. ” She had ignored Genya’s warnings, thankful that someone was finally seeing her. She had been so naïve. 

“ You and your words flooded my senses. Your sentences left me defenseless. YOu build me palaces out of paragraphs, you built cathedrals. I’m re-reading the letters you wrote me. I’m searching and scanning for answers, in every line, for some kind of sign, and when you were mine, the world seemed to burn. Burn.”

Alina knew how to nail that song. And that was fueling it with every emotion, with all the anger and tears Aleksander had left her. She was perfectly over it, but tracing the scars he left her, she could make it work to her advantage. That's how you made a performance work. Find a place that hits too close home, and sing from there. 

“ I’m burning the memories, burning the letters that might have redeemed you, ” she said, and setting a flame on the fake letters. “ You forfeit all rights to my heart. You forfeit the place in our bed. You sleep in your office instead. With only the memories of when you were mine. I hope that you burn.”

She stared blindly at the audience for one, two seconds, and left the stage. She dried a tear that had fallen as Nikolai, Zoya and Genya received her and congratulated her on the song. Aleksander was suspiciously out of sight, and Alina smiled to herself. He could surely burn for all she cared. She was done holding onto the past. It was time to move forward, and perhaps face her fears once and for all.

Chapter Text

Nikolai was waiting on the wings when Alina left the stage. They stayed nearby after Genya and Zoya greeted her. 

“That was one hell of a song,” he said to her. 

“Well thank you, I learned from the best.”

“Aw, thanks!”

“By that I mean watching slime tutorials, obviously.”

“You hurt me, Starkov.”

“Aw, did I hurt the poor puppy?”

Nikolai rolled his eyes, a move he ended up adopting from Zoya. At that moment he heard his cue and made his way to the stage. He swiftly grabbed the prop guns, that for a miracle weren’t lost, and handed them over to Wylan. “ Come back when you’re done. Take my guns. Be smart. Make me proud, son. ”

Nikolai left the stage and met with Alina once more.  “Ready to mourn the loss of our dear child?” He asked.

“It was your fault he died,” she answered back. “‘Fire your weapon in the air’?”

“It’s no wonder women live longer than men,” said Zoya. She was already dressed with her black cape for It’s Quiet Uptown.  

Along with the gunshot, Alina said, “Agreed.”

Nikolai had to run to the stage at that moment. He moved frantically, arriving trembling to the table where Wylan was “dying”. The kid was a damn good actor. Perhaps Nina had intervened, as all of the crows were doing a great job.

Alina arrived crying shortly after. As she and Wylan sang the numbers in french once more, he forced himself to cry. 

Inej and Tamar took Wylan from the stage as Zoya walked onto it. She was surprisingly sad, and Nikolai feared what she was thinking about while singing that song. Then again, who didn’t get at least a bit teary with it? 

Nikolai walked around the stage, singing Hamilton’s grieve. And maybe a bit of his own too. Because he knew his parents probably wouldn’t mourn him at all. Maybe his mother would shed a few tears, but his father? He wouldn’t care about a son that wasn’t his. And Vasily would celebrate. Well, he was never close to his brother, so he couldn’t blame him. Maybe he just sang for the family that was on his reach, but never had. 

As the song ended, he walked away from the stage with Alina hand in hand. 

“You okay?” She asked. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You aren’t bragging about how well that song went.”

“Just because I don’t want to make you feel bad.”

“We’ll see about that, Lantsov. Remember I have the final line,” Alina concluded, and left to look for Genya, most likely. 

Nikolai walked backstage to the other side, where the staircase was positioned. He could hear Jesper and Tolya as he met with Zoya. 

“I must say you sure nailed it,” he said to her. 

“Ha, ha,” she faked a laugh. “Save your compliments.”

“But why? I only spit facts.” 

“You’re insufferable, Lantsov. Go on, ruin Burr's campaign.”

“At least I didn’t ruin ours!” He called out after her as he climbed the stairs. He turned a blind eye to the ensemble who kept on asking who he would vote for. Nikolai thought about how scary it was that modern democracy could be rigged by one person that easily. In two hundred years that still didn't change. No wonder this country is so ruined, he thought. Luckily, he also considered, Zoya would probably be running for president in the future. Then he wondered why he started to think of Zoya in the middle of a song about an election. 

He walked down stairs to meet up with Kaz, which thankfully took his mind off things. 

“ Well, if it isn’t Aaron Burr. Sir! ”

“ Alexander! ” The other boy said. Kaz that happy looking had to be illegal or something, Zoya would say. 

“You’ve created quite a stir, sir! ”

“ I’m going door to door! ”

“You’re openly campaigning?”

“Sure!”

“That 's new.”

“Honestly, it’s kind of draining.”

“Burr-”

“Sir!”

“Is there anything you wouldn't do?”

“No, I’m chasing what I want. And you know what?”

“What?”
“I learned that from you.”

Nikolai left Kaz behind and climbed the stairs once more. Below, the ensemble, Tolya, and Jesper asked repeatedly who Hamilton would choose. 

For some reason, Nikolai loved saing the following part. “ Jefferson had my vote! I never agreed with Jefferson once.  We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts! But when all it’s said and all is done. Jefferson had beliefs. Burr has none.”

Nikolai left the stage, appreciating the chaos his character caused in the moment. He didn’t have much time to enjoy himself before he was rushing to the stage again. 

“ I have the honor to be your obedient servant, A dot Burr ,” Kaz concluded his part of the song.

 “ Mr. Vice President, ” he started to sing and pretend to write with the quill Tamar had given him. “ I am not the reason no one trusts you. No one knows what you believe, I will not equivocate on my opinion. I have always worn it on my sleeve. Even if I said what you think I waisd, you would need to cite a more specific grievance, here’s an itemized list of thirty years of disagreement.”

“Sweet jesus.”

Nikolai laughed to himself considering that the modern equivalent was taking screenshots. He had won a fair number of debates thanks to that. One has to work with what they have in front of themselves, after all. 

“ Then stand, Alexander, ” Kaz claimed. “Weehawken. Dawn. Guns. Drawn.”

“You’re on.”

“I have the honor to be your obedient servant,” they sang together. 

“ A dot Ham.”

“A dot Burr.”

Alina joined Nikolai on the stage for a short time, as they said what would become their final goodbyes. 

As Kaz introduced the song, Nikolai thought what a pity it would be for someone to cross the boy’s path. The boy’s voice had a tone extremely driven by vengeance. 

“ Fire! ” The company yelled. 

Nikolai smirked for a short second before starting his monologue. “ I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. ” Nikolai knew that feeling well enough. More than once he had woken up, after drowning, falling through the air, consumed by darkness. Nikolai didn’t want to believe he feared death, but it still haunted his dreams.  

“If I throw away my shot, is this how you’ll remember me? What if this bullet was my legacy? Legacy. What is a legacy? ” More than once Nikolai and Zoya had talked about what they wanted the future to look like. Both of them wanted to live to make changes worth remembering. “ It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me. America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference. ” Luckily, both had enough ambition to make it true.

 “Wise up. Eyes up. I catch a glimpse of the other side.” Nikolai admired as his cast members joined him on stage. “ Teach me how to say goodbye. Rise up, rise up, rise up, Eliza,” Alina finally walked in, “My love take your time. I’ll see you on the other side. Raise a glass to freedom… ” He raised his arm, ready to be shot dead. 

“ He aims his pistol at the sky,” the ensemble sang. 

“ Wait! ”Kaz cried. Nikolai fell dead as Kaz finished the song. 

Back on the wings, he met up with Zoya. “No tears for my death?”

“No one made you aim at the sky,” she said.

“Come on guys,” Nina called behind them. “Last song, you can continue flirting later.”

“We are not-” 

“You fool no one Zoya.”

“Let’s go Nazyalensky,” he said, trying to ease her. “Let’s end this show properly.”

Chapter Text

Last song to go, Alina thought as Matthias walked onto the stage. 

“ Let me tell you what I wish I’d known, when I was young and dreamed of glory. You have no control ,” the whole company joined him afterwards; “ Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? ”

As each president went on admitting stuff about Hamilton, Alina considered why this song always felt closer to home than any other in the musical. By the way everyone sang, it seemed to be she wasn’t the only one who thought that way. 

“ Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? ”

Was it because that was just the way life was? An uncontrollable storm of arbitrariness? Whether you would be remembered or forgotten, however your story might be seen after it is written, it was never left up to you. 

“ Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? ”

Zoya walked onto stage. Alina remembered all the times she spoke about the school elections and applying to colleges. Brekker, who had been on stage all that time, always seemed to have a plan in his mind. Nikolai never stopped talking about how he wanted to be remembered. Mal, who never mentioned any of it, and just wanted to enjoy his life while it lasted. All their stories, Alina thought, were up to whoever was narrating them, and whoever was listening. 

“ Who tells your story? ” The men sang. “Who tells your story?”

“ Who tells your story? ” Continued the women, and Alina walked onto the stage. “Your story? Eliza.”

“I put myself back in the narrative, ” she sang. 

“Eliza.”

“I stop wasting time on tears, I live another fifty years, it’s not enough.”

“Eliza.”

“I interview every soldier who fought by your side.”

“She tells our story.”

“I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings, you really do write like you’re running out of-”

“Time.”

As Zoya joined her, Alina focused on the audience for the first time during the show. She tended to ignore them, but now, there was no story to show, just one to tell. Nikolai’s family was noticeably missing, but she wasn’t surprised. Zoya’s aunt was seated near to Inej’s parents. Mal was seated next to Mikeahl and Dubrov close to the stage.

What must feel like having so many people appreciating your story? Would it feel good? Would it be a burden? Alina wondered what it was like being remembered by so many people.

As she walked around the stage, caughting the eye of everyone on it, she also thought that maybe, you didn’t need to be remembered by everyone. Only by the right people. That could be enough. 

“ And when my time is up, have I done enough? Will they tell our story?”

“Will they tell your story?”

“Oh. Can I show you what I’m proudest of?”

“The orphanage.”

Alina smiled, remembering the orphanage where she herself grew up. “ I established the first private orphanage in New York City. I help to raise hundreds of children, I get to see them growing up. ” 

Orphans, like herself. They each had their own story. And at that moment, Alina was enjoying her own story like she had never done before.

“ Oh, I can’t wait to see you again, it’s only a matter of-” She met with Nikolai at the center of the stage as the company kept on singing. “ Time.”

“ Will they tell your story?”

“Time…”

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”

“Time…”

 “Will they tell your story?...”

“Time….”

 “Who lives, who dies-”

“Who tells your story?”

Alina ended up standing in the middle of the stage. She gasped, as this time she admired the audience not as herself, but as Eliza.

The audience started clapping and she was finally allowed to break character. Hoping they were all coordinated, she bowed. Nikolai was the first to stand by her side and take her hand, next to her stood Zoya. After everyone was lined up, they bowed once more, and left the stage.

***

“That was amazing!” Alina cheered once they were all backstage. 

“Best show yet,” Nikolai claimed next to her. 

“Maybe it was a little fun,” Zoya said. 

“Zoya admitted it everyone! It’s going to rain,” Nikolai joked. 

“I’ll take that bet if Kaz says so,” Nina said. 

“When there’s a tree for money, maybe,” was all the boy said.

“Bills are paper,” Jesper considered. “Paper comes from trees. I’ll take that as a yes!”

“I hate you all.”

“No you don’t,” said Inej, as she handed water bottles to everyone. 

“Too bad we’re only allowed to present once,” Alina said to Genya and Zoya as they walked to change out of their costumes. 

“Yeah, but the band needs the auditorium tomorrow,” Genya. 

“And the debate club is hosting on monday,” added Zoya. 

“It was fun while it lasted,” Alina concluded. “Any idea what next semester's show will be?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Heathers would be fun,” Genya proposed.

“Give me a break, both of you,” Zoya said. She was already wearing her blue jacket, and had moved on to remaking her makeup and hair. “Besides, like hell they’ll allow you to sing that thing in a school.”

“You admitted you had fun,” Genya bothered. “There’s no going back now. Besides, we live in the same room, you can’t lie to me about your music tastes.”

Alina laughed with her friends. She checked the notifications on her cellphone and only smiled wider. That night’s afterparty was going to be fun.

Chapter Text

Mal stood up from his seat still applauding. Without his obvious bias, he could still admit the show had gone incredibly well. Nikolai, Kaz, and Alina had done an amazing job as leads. Which reminded him he had to run. 

After the curtain fell, with help from Mikhael and Dubrov, they runned to their lockers and got an order Genya and Nina had asked them. 

“Why don’t we get flowers?” Dubrov asked after sneezing. 

“Do you want flowers after football games?” Mikhael asked. 

“When you have allergies?” Mal added. 

“I can wish for pretty things,” Dubrov shrugged. 

“There you are guys!” Nina runned to them. “You got all buques?” 

“Orange tulips for Nikolai,” Mal pointed to Dubrov, “and purple ones for Kaz.” Pointing to Mikhael he added, “Roses for Bagrah. Lilies for Alina.” He took one of the buques he was holding and handed it to Nina, “and orchids for the youngest director yet.”

“Aw, thanks!

“Genya added it to the list.”

“She’s smart. What are the blue ones for?”

“Oh, this ones-”

“He wanted to give Alina his own gift,” Mikhael added for him. 

“You’re adorable,” Nina said to Mal. “Okay then, let’s get going. The guys should be ready by now.”
A few days ago, Mal remembered, Genya and Nina were talking about how sad it was that neither of the leads’ family would be coming to see them. They were discussing perhaps making something for them when Mal offered himself, and Mikhael and Dubrov in the process, to buy flowers for them. In that moment, he was thankful he had.

Zoya had met with her aunt already, and Inej was chatting with her parents. Tolya and Tamar were both congratulated by their father. Wylan and his mother were both speaking with Jesper and his father. Even Matthias’ family, who Mal knew had a tense relationship with, had gone to see him. 

Nikolai and Alina were chatting in a corner when he and Nina found them. 

“Zenik what did you do now?” Nikolai asked. 

“Well I couldn’t just allow our leads to leave without a little detail,” she smiled. 

Mikhael and Dubvor handed the flowers and then excused themselves. 

“Where’s Kaz now?” Nina asked.

“I saw him talking with Inej’s parents, give me a second,” said Alina. She came back with both Kaz and Inej. Nina handed Kaz his buque, and Mal was thankful it wasn’t his job, since the boy seemed to want to murder her. 

“What do you say?” Inej asked.

“Thank you, Nina dear,” Kaz said grudgingly, before excusing himself. Inej and Nina both followed along, and Nikolai left to chat with Zoya.

“So, you can’t have too many flowers now, can you?” Mal said as he handed his flowers to Alina. 

“You know what my favorite flowers are?” She asked with a smile, taking the flowers. 

“Maybe so,” he said. “Wasn’t Inej talking the other day on the importance of those or something like that.”

“Was she?”

“No idea, just trying to find excuses.”

“Well it’s something she would do,” Alina paused for a second. “I’ll miss the spotlight during the break.”
“You’re always in the spotlight to me,” Mal said softly. 

Mal couldn’t help but chuckle when Alina’s face became red. 

Alina said something extremely quickly Mal didn’t understand at all. 

“What?”

“I said,” she started again, breathing well this time. “If you want to go out one of these days.”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. 

“I mean date wise,” she added, not meeting his eyes. 

“Wait, like, date, date wise?”

Alina nodded. “If you don’t want to it’s okay I just-”

“It would be perfect,” he said, and held her hand. 

“Cool,” she answered. 

“Hey lovebirds!” Zoya called them. “Glad to see you’re finally doing something, but if you still need me to take you to Jesper’s house you better hurry up.”

Alina laughed, and it felt as if even at night the sun had come out.

“Let’s go then,” he said. 

“Promise me a song in karaoke?” Alina asked. 

“Sure, but you know I’ll embarrass myself.”
“Maybe that’s my objective.”

Mal laughed, and they walked together hand in hand.

Chapter Text

After the show, they rode in different cars to Jesper’s house. Inej and the crows, at least, would also stay to sleepover. Everyone else was invited too. As most people had anticipated, the night had to kick off with a good karaoke, which Nikolai gladly hosted.

“Just let Leoni know which track you want,” he explained, “And we’ll sing until our voices die!”

“Good! That way we don’t have to listen to you talk anymore!” Zoya cheered.

“Oh, come on Zoya, wouldn’t you like to go first?” Nikolai asked, “I would gladly sing along too-”

The girl grinned and walked up to the center. “In fact, I would like to go first. Just not with you.”

Inej heard Jesper whisper next to her. “That should’ve hurt.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Ladies?” Zoya said. “Will you join?”

Nina jumped onto stage. “Move it Lantsov, us girls got it covered.”

Inej followed up with Tamar, Genya, and Alina. They set into the positions they had assigned each other a few minutes before. 

The music started with Zoya. “ Divorced.”

The mic was passed to Nina. “ Beheaded. ”

Alina stood next. “ Died .”

Tamar took the lead. “Divorced .”

Genya rolled her eyes as she said: “ Beheaded .”

And finally Inej got her turn. “ Survive. ”

Zoya took hold of the stage. “ And tonight, Hamilton after party, we are-”

All the girls then sang at the same time: “Live!!!”

It had been Alina’s idea for all of them to sing Six songs. Nina had clearly stated to Inej that she would use the after party to sing everything she hadn’t been able to during the semester. That night was not to sing well, but to enjoy themselves. 

Inej had to admit she was certinaily having fun. She hadn’t heard of Six until NIna mentioned it when the Hamilton rehearsals had started. As she sang, Inej made a mental note to check the rest of the musical in detail. Maybe she could find a track to make a new silk performance. 

Inej heard Nadia cheering for Tamar as they all finished their second chorus. 

“ Everybody knows that we used to be six wives, but now we are ex-wives. ”

Instead of following with the song, thanks to an arrangement Leoni did, the music changed from Ex-Wives to Six . 

“ We’re one of a kind! No category! ” Nina had somehow convinced them all to learn the choreography of at least that part. Inej was laughing so bad at their failed coordination she didn’t know how she would keep on singing. “ Too many years lost in history! We’re free to take our crowning glory! For five more minutes! We’re six! ”

“ It's the end of the show of the historemix. We switched up the flow and we changed the prefix. Everybody knows that we used to be six wives. But we want to say before we drop the curtain. Nothing is for sure. Nothing is for certain. All that we know is that we used to be six wives. ”

Surprisingly, it was Alina who cutted in at that moment, “If you know the lyrics, sing along!”

Nikolai, Mal, and Leoni joined the song without thinking about it from their places. “ But now we’re one of a kind! No category! ” Jesper and Wylan tried to sing along following the karaoke, they were incredibly lost, but had the spirit. “ Too many years lost in history! We’re free to take our crowning glory! For five more minutes! ” By that point, everyone had decided to jump along. Except Kaz, who Inej didn’t see anywhere. “ We’re one of a kind! No category! Too many years lost in history! We’re free to take our crowning glory! For five more minutes! We’re six! Woah, woah! We're six! Woooah, we're six! Woah, woah! For five, four, three, two, one more minute. We're six! ”

“That’s what I’m talking about people!” Cheered Jesper. Everyone else was clapping along. 

Quickly, the six girls bowed and made their way down. 

Inej heard Zoya say to Nikolai, “Try topping that up, Lantsov.”

She grinned, and as Jesper and Wylan took the microphones next, she slipped into the shadows to look for the missing person at the party.

She wasn’t surprised to find Kaz in the gardens, and neither when he asked, “Shouldn’t you be inside?” without turning around to face her.

“I could say the same thing about you,” Inej answered. “Everyone is having a blast. Wylan and Jesper are singing I Don’t Dance and it’s hilarious. Wylan’s face looked like a tomato,” Inej laughed. “I think he would rather play the flute right now.”

“Please no. Jesper would end up taking his guitar too. Anyways, too many people inside,” Kaz said. “Besides, knowing Nina she’ll film everything.” Inej couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic or not.

She took a seat next to him and noticed he was wearing his earphones. “Want to ignore the karaoke?”

“You would think being roommates with Jesper prepares you to ignore anything, but sometimes I need more help.”

“What are you listening to?”

Kaz handed her one earbud. 

La la la la la la… La la la la la la… La la la la la la…

Inej smiled. “ Hadestown ,” she answered to herself as Epic III (“They Danced…”) started to play. She looked up to the sky. The night was clear and as warm as it could be during that time of the year. “Imagine wasting eternity without being able to look at the stars.”

“I don’t see the use of it if you’ll be mining. Besides, aren’t they the same every night?”

Inej rolled her eyes. “And thanks to that they are a map. Sailors use them at sea all the time.”

Kaz almost laughed. “You love the sea and yet you’ve never been next to it. How come?”

“Maybe in another world I’m a sailor.”

“Is that Jesper’s and Nina’s theory of alternate realities?”

“Maybe so.”

Kaz stayed silent for a while. He turned to her and handed her a few flowers she hadn’t noticed he was holding. “Eternity without flowers, I’m guessing, is also a waste for you.”

Inej took the bouquet of small lilac flowers. “Geraniums,” she looked at Kaz. “I love these flowers.”

“You love a lot of things, Inej. I just listen,” Kaz shrugged it off. It might've been a trick of the low light, but Inej could bet the boy was blushing at least a little bit. Tentatively, she stretched out her hand to his. Kaz took her hand and smiled at her.

“Thanks, Kaz,” Inej said, shifting her focus back to the flowers. “But how did you get them? These don’t grow during this time of the year.”

“A magician never reveals his secrets.”

“Did you sing a song to them?”

Before Kaz could answer Jesper appeared through the door. “Guys, Nina convinced Matthias to sing! Oh shit, am I interrupting something?”

Kaz shot Jesper a look. 

“Okay okay sorry,” he left. Inej thought she was able to hear him say something along the lines of “I owe Nina five bucks now.” 

“They’re the worst,” Kaz commented. 

“You still care for them though,” Inej said. 

Kaz stayed silent. Inej took it as she had won the argument. 

They stayed silent looking at the sky. Hands clasped together listening to what remained of the album. Inej thought they would have to eventually join everyone inside again, but for now she was thankful for this little bubble where it was only him and her.

Chapter Text

Zoya was sitting on a couch with Genya and Alina by her side. They were deciding which characters they would play in their song. On “stage” was Nikolai singing Broadway, Here I Come. Surprisingly calm song for him, Zoya considered.

“So, to summarize,” Genya said. “Zoya as Heather Chandler, Alina goes as Heather McNamara, and I go with Duke.”

“I still don’t know how you two keep convincing me to do these things,” Zoya said. 

“Maybe cause you depend on us to have a good time?” Alina added.

“I do not.”

“Zoya, honey,” Genya took her hand. “If it weren’t for us you would be in a library at this moment.”

“I,” Zoya defended herself, taking her hand away, “know perfectly how to have fun by myself.” 

“Right,” nodded Alina. 

Nikolai finished his song and took the list that was next to Leoni’s side. “Up next we have Zoya, Alina, and Genya, with Candy Store . Everyone give it up to them!” 

The girls took their position on stage and started to sing. Zoya started off the song, because according to Alina and Genya she “gave off Chandler vibes”. 

“Are we gonna have a problem? You got a bone to pick? You’re come so far, why now are you pulling on my dick?” Zoya smirked. Maybe they were right. “I’d normally slap your face off, and everyone here could watch. But I’m feeling nice. Here’s some advice, listen up, biotch!”

Zoya felt much more comfortable singing when she was around Alina and Genya. It had taken long enough for the three of them to become friends, but Zoya could never explain how thankful she was to be able to share her senior year with them.

After finishing their song, Zoya stopped for a brief moment and wrote down on the next karaoke list. Afterwards, she announced Nina and Matthias would be taking over the stage. 

The pair sang Bad Idea from, what Genya informed her, the Waitress musical. The chaotic energy of Nina’s unableness-to-sing and Matthias’ not-knowing-what-he-was-singing was over the top. 

“Is it just me,” Nikolai asked, “or is Matthias even more blushed than Wylan?”

“Looks like it,” Zoya laughed. 

“Are we gonna sing together anytime soon, Zo?”

“Don’t call me ‘Zo’,” she said. “And I don’t know, guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Zoya Nazyalensky leaving things up to fate? I don’t buy it.”

Zoya shrugged.

“Let’s see who goes next,” Nina said, taking the sheet after they finished singing. If it was possible.“Guys! Let’s hear it for our favorite official-but-won’t-admit-it couple that will not kill me for saying it, look at you, ejem, Kaz, ejem, Inej, ejem. Where are they by the way? Anyways, our president and vice-president, Zoya and Nikolai! With, you guys sure you’re not dating?, You’re the One That I Want !”

“Wait what,” said Nikolai.

“Shape up, Lantsov,” Zoya grinned. “You wanted to duet, right?”

“Well of course,” he said. 

They walked up to the stage and grabbed their microphones. 

“And,” Leoni said, playing the track, “here you go!”

“ I got chills, they’re multiplying ,” started singing Nikolai, “And I’m losing control. ‘Cause the power you’re supplying, it’s electrifying!”

“You better shape up,” sang Zoya, “‘cause I need a man. And my heart is set on you. You better shape up, you better understand, to my heart I must be true.”

“Nothing left, nothing left for me to do.”

“ You’re the one that I want,” they sang together.

“ You’re the one I want, ” Nina, Jesper, Wylan, Genya, and Alina, sang as a chorus. 

As the chorus progressed, Nikolai took Zoya’s hand and insisted they dance. Problem was, they were both terrible dances. However, Zoya being Zoya, and Nikolai being Nikolai, that didn’t stop them. 

Zoya spotted Genya with her phone and broke the song for two seconds. “ Meditate in my direction, feel your way, I’m gonna kill you Safin!”

“No you won’t!” Genya called back.

They kept on singing and having fun, cause that's what all that night was about. Not worrying about Monday's debate or Sunday's game. Just having simple, nonsense fun. 

“ The one that I want. Oo-oo-oo, the one I need, oh, yes indeed,” they finished the song together. 

“Not bad, Zo,” Nikolai winked. 

“I told you," she answered with a smile, “don’t call me Zo.”

They made their way down stage as Nina and Jesper took hold of it. 

“And you two said I couldn’t have fun,” Zoya said to Alina and Genya. 

“Proved wrong,” Genya said with a wicked smile.

“Noted,” said Alina. 

“I’ll go get something to drink,” Zoya concluded, and headed out to the kitchen.

Nikolai followed along, but didn’t say anything. 

“If I’d known all I needed to do for you to shut up was sing one song,” Zoya said, while stealing a couple of beers from Jesper’s fridge, “I would have agreed to join this drama club long ago.”

“Oh, but you’re having fun!” Nikolai said, accepting the drink Zoya handed him. “Or I’m just that delighting.”

“I can assure you you’re not.”

“Oh really?” He raised a brow.

“Of course,” Zoya said. “Who would find all your jokes and snarky remarks and insufferable grins delighting?”

“I thought you did.”

“Maybe I do,” whispered Zoya. 

“What was that?” 

“Nothing.”

“You do find me delightful and handsome,” Nikolai said. 

“I never said handsome.”

“Ha, you admitted it. As for handsome, you can’t deny solid facts-”

“Will you shut up?” Zoya said, and kissed Nikolai before he could answer. He kissed her back and held her softly. The kiss was short, but it felt like something they’d been waiting for way too long. Zoya saw as Nikolai struggled to talk once more, and laughed. “Now this seems even more effective.”

“Like I said, you can’t deny solid facts,” he answered, smiling. 

They walked back to the living room to find everyone gone. Laughters came from the garden, where the whole party, including Kaz and Inej, who had disappeared for a while, gathered around a fireplace. 

“Marshmallows?” Asked Nina.

“Sure,” said Nikolai, and took one from a bag Nina held up. He quickly found a stick to roast the candy in.

“Zoya?”

“No thanks,” she said. “It’s chilling out here.” She said, hugging herself.

Nikolai took his jacket and wrapped her on it. 

Genya raised a brow. “Anything worth sharing?”

“No,” Zoya smiled. 

A few seats away, Jesper and Inej sang together as the boy played guitar. Wylan was accompanied with a flute, which Zoya was surprised she didn’t find insufferable. Even Brekker seemed to be humming the tune. 

After a semester of running around and being stressed out, Zoya found this moment quite peaceful. Sure, there was still a week of classes to go and her toes were freezing, but her mind was for once at ease. She looked around at the people surrounding her. Somewhere her life long friends, others the last people she thought she would work along. Crazy how life worked. Was it all written? Meant to be? Dumb luck? A domino of her decision bringing her to that moment? For once, she found she didn’t care. She breathed in the smell of the fireplace and listened.

“ Life is not the things that we do ,” the group was singing. “It’s who we’re doing them with .”

She exhaled, and thus, the act was over.