[ and there — that smile he didn't know he was waiting to see. something loosens in his chest and he breathes a little easier. alina is so much like the sun herself that sometimes the irony of her being the sun summoner is too much to bear. she lights up any space she occupies by being unabashedly alina, and he thinks, perhaps, that mal would agree with him on that. it might be the only thing they'd ever agree upon. ]

There's something about a beautiful woman trying to maim me that is really quite enchanting. All of my favorite people have wished ill upon me at some point, I believe. It's almost like a rite of passage.

[ i think of you quickens his pulse, an unexpected combination of words. he wants to ask if she only thinks of him, but he's taken her previous sentiment to heart, that jealousy does not suit him, so he lets the words die on his tongue and washes their corpses down with a mouthful of brandy.

perhaps he has made all of this sound overly clinical, but there's such a fine line between fantasy and reality that sometimes he doesn't know which one he's toeing. ]

I wonder the same thing, Alina. Whether you'll regret this or not. Neither of us can know. [ that's part of the risk of an arrangement like this, when he doesn't have the luxury of waiting to fall in passionate love with a stranger.

but alina still could, in theory. it might cause a national spectacle even without her being queen, but she still has a better chance than he does. ]

I don't want you to feel like you've been led here under false pretenses. I'm being overly cautious, which quite frankly isn't an easy thing to get me to do. But I mean everything I say to you. [ a small pause here, before he plunges doggedly forward. ] I do believe I could be happy choosing someone like you. I think, with time, I could certainly fall in love with you.