Chapter Text
dream team
nikolai lantsov 🦊, zoya nazyalensky
zoya nazyalensky: is there some sort of party happening this weekend?
nikolai lantsov: yeah i think so
nikolai lantsov: one of the 3Ls is hosting
nikolai lantsov: fedyor maybe?
zoya nazyalensky: are you going?
nikolai lantsov: undecided
nikolai lantsov: why
zoya nazyalensky: my friends have been begging to experience “a real law school party”
nikolai lantsov: have you told them they’re just like regular people parties but worse?
zoya nazyalensky: yes.
zoya nazyalensky: they’re tragically undeterred.
nikolai lantsov: i can respect the stubbornness
nikolai lantsov: in that case yes i’ll be there
Zoya’s already three tequila shots deep by the time the Uber drops her, Alina, Genya, and Nina at Fedyor’s townhouse. She knows the 3L well enough that showing up on her own right to one of his parties wouldn’t be all that strange, but Nikolai still pops out onto the porch to greet them when they arrive.
The alcohol absolutely has something to do with the warmth that the sight of him elicits.
At the same time, however, she can’t deny the fact that having him around right now also makes her nervous. Even with their promise not to bring up anything related to the two of them together, she’s still concerned about letting her friends interact with Nikolai all evening. Not because she has any worries that they won’t get along - rather, it’s the opposite.
She knows all of them well, and accordingly knows how well Nikolai will get on with them. They’ll absolutely take a liking to him on a more personal level than their general nosiness and fascination. But he’s got no permanent place in her life - the very competition that brought them together will end in less than two weeks even if they make it all the way to the end, and after that, she has no clue to what extent he’ll still be around.
Letting them get attached is dangerous.
But there’s nothing that can be done for it at the moment - for now, he’s at her side, directing all of them to the table of drinks and then solemnly informing Zoya that Fedyor’s house also has a pool table.
“Has she wiped the floor with you yet?” Alina asks, overhearing his news. “She got insanely good when we were at university.”
“I’m smart enough to only play with her when she’s on my team,” Nikolai replies, throwing an arm around Zoya collegially.
She shoves the arm off of her and fixes her now-unsettled hair. She opts to pretend not to see Nina’s face lighting up with glee, and turns to Nikolai.
“Who are we destroying today?” she asks.
He grins, blinding and brilliant. “No clue,” he says with a shrug. “We’ll find out.”
Zoya looks to Genya, who waves her off with a, “We can handle ourselves.”
She lets Nikolai take her hand and pull her towards the basement, but not before addressing her friends. “Make sure anyone Nina tries to flirt with understands that she is barely legal and I will personally destroy anyone who continues to entertain her advances with that knowledge.”
Nina lets out an affronted cry and Nikolai snorts.
They spend the better part of an hour playing, but once Zoya’s polished off another two drinks, she decides she’s just a little too drunk to keep up their victory streak.
She’s seen her friends drift in and out of the basement‘s game room, but none of them are down here now - Alina is off getting herself and Nikolai another drink, so for the moment it’s just him and her back against a wall, observing the rest of the party around them.
Nikolai leans down to whisper in her ear, and it’s the first time she really registers just how close he is.
“Any particular reason beyond the usual that Kirigin’s been glancing at you like a kicked puppy all night?”
She follows his gaze to where the man in question is currently looking pointedly to the other side of the room, trying to focus on that rather than on Nikolai’s body pressed to her side.
“He asked me out last week,” she replies. “I turned him down before he could finish the sentence.”
“Oof, brutal,” he says, and she can tell he’s grinning.
“He’ll survive. He’s only into me because he thinks I’m hot.”
“A shame,” Nikolai replies. “You have so much more to offer.”
And then he’s gone from her side, walking away to get his drink from Alina, his hand ghosting over Zoya’s hip in such a nonchalant way that she wonders if he even registered himself doing it.
At the end of the night, Zoya opts to crash at the Airbnb rather than split off Ubers between there and her apartment. Genya’s got a spare set of pajamas and more beauty products than any reasonable person should be bringing along on a weeklong trip, and the bed in her room is plenty large enough for the two of them to share.
She curls up on one side of the bed as Genya flips the lights off, but before she can think about falling asleep, Genya is rolling over to face her.
“Okay, I know you asked us not to bring it up,” she starts, and Zoya is already rolling her eyes, “but can I just say one thing?”
Genya’s stubbornness is of a different flavor than Zoya’s, more smooth than sharp, but no less strong for it, and so Zoya gets the feeling that she’ll be forced to receive this message one way or another.
“Fine,” she acquiesces.
“I just think he’d be good for you,” Genya says. “You seem comfortable with him, which is kind of big for you, honestly. And I think you deserve to have someone like that in your life, especially because the four of us aren’t all in the same place anymore.”
To that, Zoya just hums in response.
“Plus,” Genya adds slyly, “if the way you two look about five seconds from dragging the other to bed at all times is any indication, the sex must have been fantastic.”
To that, Zoya throws a pillow at her.