IGNORANTIA (Dark Academia!Wesper AU)

twintig

The walls in Nikolai's ship are thin — much thinner than I'd prefer — so all I can hear is Matthias and Nina shouting at each other from the top of their lungs. They've been fighting in Fjerdan, a thick and harsh language that's only amplified by their anger. It had started almost immediately after we landed on the deck of Nikolai's ship. We all stumbled out of the tiny rowboat slightly green, but Matthias went out swinging. He spat something even I knew to be a slur against the Grisha as he tried to hit Nina. The poor girl was so shocked that she just stood there gaping. If it wasn't for Zoya and Genya's quick reflexes to pull him away from her, I think he might have killed her right then and there.

This is the man Nina loves. It was all so shocking that I couldn't do anything but watch. So scared was I to intervene — to do something that could have endangered Nina or Matthias or myself — that I stood frozen to the spot, too. Jesper was the one to pull me out of my stupor. His hand gently but firmly gripped my shoulder as he turned me away from the fight.

"Go," he said. "We've got it from here."

So off I was again, banished from the fight and sent to my room like an overreacting teenager. Everyone had been assigned rooms on the expansive boat for emergencies except for Matthias and Jesper. I think that's why Matthias was first put in Nina's cabin. I'm sure they're regretting it now. They've been shouting at each other long enough for the sun to fall and rise again. I watch it from the small porthole beside my bed. I don't think I've ever been up early enough to watch it rise before, and yet here I am now on a stranger's ship watching the sky burn red and orange. Now I get why sunsets are deemed so romantic. It's too bad Nina and Matthias' fighting is ruining the mood.

I try to get some sleep, but it's impossible to with my noisy neighbors. I lay over the neat (though thin) bed sheets staring at the ceiling as Nina's screaming turns into guttural sobs. Matthias continues to argue with the crying Nina until there's a heavy thud, and the talking stops completely. A muffled Jesper speaks to Nina, though it's too quiet for me to comprehend. Nina continues to cry until that too softens and comes to an end.

The door to my room opens, letting in soft light from the hallway. Jesper looks more tired now than ever. He pushes his hair back, sighs, and closes the door behind him. I sit up in bed expectantly.

"Is everything—"

"Yeah," answers Jesper. "Nina finally gave in and dropped his heart rate. Hopefully he'll have a change of heart after some sleep. I think we should just throw him back into the ocean where he belongs, but I don't think Nina'd agree with me."

Jesper moves to lay down beside me on the bed, so I lay down with him. I watch his chest rise and fall, and listen to the soft life in his breathing. I wrap an arm around him because I want to, then rest my head on his chest for the very same reason. He smells terrible, like a zoo in the summer heat, but I don't mind it right now. Surely I don't smell any better.

"Saints, I'm tired," Jesper says. "I don't think I've slept in days."

"Me neither," I admit. It really is nice just laying here beside him. It's so mundanely simply it's almost funny. "What happened, by the way? I mean, I'm assuming things didn't go as planned with the running and screaming back to the boat, and all."

He laughs. "No, I suppose not. What was supposed to happen?"

"We were going to bribe the warden into letting you guys go free," I explain. "Hush money and all that. You're both guilty of unspeakable crimes against the Ravkan crown, or something like that, and we were to take you back to Ravka for the King. Did the warden not take the money?"

"Oh no, he took it alright," says Jesper sourly. "As that blonde guy had asked, we were brought into the room so he could make sure it was really us. I was terrified. I mean, I didn't know any of those people beside Nina, but she had changed completely, too. I thought I was being bought out for experimenting or something, you know? But then I saw the way Nina was looking at Matthias, and suddenly it hit me. Only she could be that soft towards a man as terrifying as him."