He was about to tell Ios off for snapping at Slav (hypocrite but he defended that only he was allowed to do that). Thankfully, his twin cooled down on his own. Nothing was going to happen to the magazine as long as Slav behaved himself. That was how he worked. He tried to say what he meant and mean what he said.
Very little made Nikolai smile but Ios's impression of their mother actually pulled one out of him along with a bit of laughter. Holy crap, it was a miracle. Somewhere in that icy interior, a warm speck and been pulled out on display. When he realized it, he cleared his throat and the smile vanished as quickly as it appeared, "Never do that again."