Even the portals felt slower than normal today. Genya gritted her teeth trying to keep her emotions at bay as she passed through one to another closest to the DOA. And she was failing miserably. She knew her eyes were still red because she had started crying the second she realized it was her David on the network and she hadn’t stopped, not even long enough to text Nikolai to check the network. She managed to send him a “HE IS HERE, COME QUIKVLY”, without bothering to fix her typos and mention where exactly she meant by “here”.
When she approached the building and she spotted him sitting there, fresh tears sprung up and a new sob hit her as she took in what he was wearing. He really had been just in the lab, possibly minutes or even seconds before the palace had collapsed on him, before her heart had been shattered into a million pieces, and she hadn’t been sure she’d ever be able to breathe again. When he was still in his wedding attire.
She meanwhile, had worn her simplest and lightest kefta and a pair of shoes that almost fell off her feet as she sprinted the rest of the way to him.
“David,” she managed to get out between the sobs before she flung her arms around his neck.
As was sometimes the case, David didn’t know why Genya was crying. He’d meticulously catalogued a number of reasons she might cry and how to prevent them, but there were still a few he’d yet to document. He had a working theory (Genya was plucked out of time earlier than him and thus had missed him for a year and was happy to see him), but it was based on incomplete information. He didn’t know what was coming to the Little Palace on the eve of his formal wedding.
He did know the appropriate response, however: hold her tight until her respiration rate went back to normal. He’d written it down on page 11 of the red notebook where he had all his notes on Genya. “There, there, my love,” David murmured. “I’m sorry you’ve been here alone so long. If I’d known, I would have found a way here much more quickly.”
It wasn’t possible for her to cry harder. He couldn’t have found his way to her when he was buried, taken away from her far too soon in their officially married life. Even before she’d received those memories, she sat around hoping he would make it here. After all, Alina, Nikolai, Zoya, and Mal all had, and it would only be a matter of time, right? When the memories came through though, she had given up hope, even knowing some people did indeed come through here minutes before their deaths. She just hadn’t given herself the chance to even wish for it.
But, now he was here. Actually here! And a part of her was so scared of letting him go, thinking he would disappear again.
Eventually, her respiratory rate did indeed go down, and she leaned back just enough to bring her hands up to David’s face, staring at him as if he was the most exquisite sight she had ever seen since dropping back in Vallo. Probably was. She gave him a smile despite the tears and said, “You’re really here.”
“It appears so,” he agreed, though David wasn’t entirely sure where “here” was or why or how they had arrived. If he was with Genya and Ravka was taken care of, then he could take his time sorting the other business out.
With Genya looking less overwrought, David tipped his head down to kiss her forehead; that almost never failed to make her smile. “I’ll have to watch that video about what’s happening here again—I wasn’t really paying attention the first time. Otherwise you get stuck answering all my questions.”
It did make her smile. And it also reminded her of that notebook that she found David had kept. It tugged at her heart strings again that she thought she’d cry again. But she needed to explain a whole lot to him because there was a high chance he’d find out. Nobody who knew her in Vallo was a stranger to her grief last year. While she didn’t really expect anyone to spill the beans, she felt David still had the right to know.
So, she took a deep breath to relax herself further, then wiped at her cheeks with both hands. “You know I would never mind answering any questions you have. There is a great deal I have to tell you. Of what happened after the wedding. Shall we go… to my apartment? Provided by the government here.”
“What do they ask in return?” David asked as he followed her hands with his, gently tracing over the dampness and faint swelling around her eyes. It seemed a reasonable question to him; he and she and all their friends had grown up in housing provided by the government, but it had come at the cost of going to war for Ravka whenever they were called upon. Nothing in their experience came for free.
“Nothing!” That felt far too good to be true but after close to four years of living in other worlds than her own, she’d realized that was the case. Almost. “Well, I suppose, the deal is to be exposed to the whims of the universe you fall into, like. Giant bugs.” It sounded absolutely ridiculous when she said it, but he would eventually learn about the craziness. She hoped. Please let him stay here with her.
Genya reached up and took his hands in hers. “It’s not that bad. There’s… no war here. At least not with the Fjerdans. It’s usually with supernatural elements and we have more than enough people working to help. There is nobody who will look at us and call us witches for our powers. Not a complete paradise but… a different life for us. Together.”
It sounded like a dream world, put that way. David had never experienced a life where Grisha were anything but, at best, grudgingly respected. He’d never really even experienced a world without war either actively being waged or looming on the horizon. There was always trouble in Ravka. The idea of a place where he could pursue his interests without having to turn them to blowing up the enemy was an exciting one. Most important of all, though–
“You’re happy here?” He’d live anywhere and not worry too much about it if it made Genya happy. He’d need to write that down as soon as he picked up a new notebook.
Happy was debatable. It was tolerable, really. She had made friends among other people but it would never be her family in Ravka. She had Alina and Mal for a short time, then they disappeared, then Zoya and Nikolai and the same thing happened to them. Now she was back (after a few months of being gone) and so was Nikolai. And this time, David as well. She couldn’t really be fully happy in a place where someone’s presence in that universe was always unpredictable.
“I am now,” she answered honestly. “I must tell you everything that happened here. And… and what happened back in Ravka. They are not all good things.”
“Well, it’s Ravka,” David said with a shrug. It was never all good things in Ravka. Genya wasn’t speaking with standard Ravkan pessimism, though; she was talking like she knew things about what was still a nebulous future to David. How long ago had she said their formal wedding was for her? A year? Saints only knew what could happen in that much time.
David gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “Take me to your apartment. You look like you’ll need a cup of tea before you start trying to tell me everything.”
Genya’s smile grew brighter at that, because she definitely needed some tea, but she was going to need something else entirely from him before they talked. It had been far too long. “Tea eventually,” she said, stepping back but keeping her hands in his as she guided him toward the portal back to Morningside. “First I request to be properly ravished.”
Ravishment had not been the first thing on David’s list, but Genya mentioning it quickly realigned his priorities. Yes, they had hopped dimensions and his entire concept of the universe had been turned on its head. Yes, there was apparently an extensive list of important events that he’d missed in both his own world and in this one and possibly a few others. Yes, they’d actually been quite legally married a few years back by a ship’s captain. Nonetheless–
“I suppose it is our wedding night,” David noted, letting Genya (as usual) drag him anywhere she liked. One of his rare smiles appeared as he stepped in a little closer. “Ravishment, then tea and explanations?”
“Yes, exactly,” Genya said with a nod before pausing again. The portal was only a few steps away but before they could step through it, she was turning to face him and pulling him closer to give him a deep kiss. Her heart could have just burst then, because he was here. He was really here, and her brain was going to be repeating those words for a good while. “Sorry, I couldn’t wait.”
David didn’t have all the months and months of frustrated longing and grief that Genya did, but he never objected to kisses from his wife. “No need to wait for that,” he said, then paused and tilted his head. “Depending on how far you intend to proceed, that is. You’ll be mad later if you drop your kefta in the dirt now, and there are rather a lot of people on this street.”
As much as the idea was tantalizing, Genya laughed and shook her head. “I’m going to drop it alright but that’s for your own private viewing.” She tugged at his hands then, in the direction of the portal. “Come on, time to get you out of yours the proper night-of-the-wedding ways!”