#matthias having confusing feelings abt his time as a drüskelle

[ejga-ostja]

DAY 12: Coldplay- Violet Hill

[songzichens]

anyone wanna talk abt how nina and kuwei absolutely remain close friends to this day and visit each other in ravka regularly because i know in my heart this is true

nina gets what it’s like to be on your own in a foreign country trying to accomplish a seemingly-impossible task, and having her check in every so often is a huge help for kuwei settling into his new life there

they’re the most multilingual of all their friends and bond over this.  nina doesn’t get many opportunities to practice shu even though she speaks it fluently, and although kuwei speaks passable ravkan, he improves a lot faster from speaking to nina without the added pressure of having to do anything other than talk.

both of them religiously pick up bits of gossip and remember all of it and have at least an hour sharing all of it every time they meet (mostly nina.  kuwei likes keeping things to himself so he can use it if he ever has to.  but sometimes he’ll tell her something and nina’s eyes go wide because there’s no way kuwei should know that.)  between the two of them, they know what’s going on with everyone at any given time and have also been known to discuss this in earshot of whoever they’re talking about by switching languages so nobody can prove it

when inej comes to visit nina, the three of them go for waffles.  afterwards, inej and nina take turns teaching each other the rowdiest sea shanties they know and kuwei looks on with a mixture of confusion, amusement, and horror, because neither of them can carry a tune and there are some lyrics he wishes he didn’t understand.  (he’s totally memorising them for later, though.)  they’re so happy and enthusiastic about it that after a while it’s hard not to give up and laugh

both of them also know what it’s like to lose someone you care about and to have to move on and make a life for yourself regardless.  it’s not something either of them talks about a lot but sometimes, a good number of years in the future, they will.  nina tells him about matthias, about the future they were going to make together and how they were going to change the world.  the work she’s still trying to do on her own.  the promise she made to try and help the younger drüskelle who could become something more, like matthias did.  kuwei doesn’t need to say a lot to that, mostly just listens, but he’s seen how much nina’s accomplished in the years since the ice court job and matthias’ death and all of the good she’s done.  

he especially doesn’t have a lot to say about his life before fjerda and ketterdam, not a lot of it is things he wants to remember, but he was close with his father even if their relationship wasn’t perfect and sometimes there’s something to say about that.  about how it might have been better for the world if it was his father who survived shu han, how kuwei could have done something to help them escape if it wouldn’t have exposed him as a grisha to the fjerdans.  i could have brought matthias back, nina says quietly.  i almost did.  sometimes letting go is better.  

the potential with these two is honestly so underrated and i feel like we as people need to talk about it more

bonus:

nina: wake up, i have a huuuuge dilemma i need your opinion on!  

kuwei: what?  

nina: am i more beautiful today than i was yesterday?  i mean at first i looked in the mirror and i thought well, yes, definitely, huge improvement--  

kuwei: can i have my pillow back?  

nina: --but then i thought maybe it’s not that i’m more beautiful today, maybe i was just as beautiful yesterday but i lacked the self-esteem to recognise it!  

kuwei: don’t take this personally but get out