It’s my birthday. This was in my drafts. So here it is. No one requested this. Just me. Based on the song, “Lighting in a Bottle” by The Summer Set. Modern Zoyalai au
We're catching lightning in a bottle Don't give a fuck about tomorrow
The rumble of skies made the sky feel like a living beast. The growl of the gray clouds that hung over them rattled the air, shaking Nikolai’s truck bed pleasantly. Not two seconds later a snap of light split illuminated capturing the silver skies perfectly before melting back to dreary night.
Five seconds later the same rattling thunder was back.
Nikolai tipped his head back in an almost prayer for the sky to break and for the gentle coolness of rain to fall onto his skin.
Everything was too much lately. The heat. His parents. His brother.
He felt like he was being choked by a humid heat. The warm air filling his lungs and baking him from the inside out. If it wasn’t his parents not-so-subtely still trying to get him to go to their alma mater where he’d have a cozy, new, private dorm room waiting for him and a degree that was basically paid for; it was his brother using every last moment to remind him of just how stupid it was to join the Navy instead of doing something more useful with his life (apparently, to Vasily, that meant getting a Business degree and spend his days drinking).
Nikolai needed to get away. An escape away from the stupid heat. So when he woke up this morning with the sky cast in gray shadow, he couldn’t have been happier.
A hand landed in his, and a smile curled over his mouth as he turned to Zoya who wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze fixed on the crackling horizon.
He rescinded his earlier statement. He could be happier. And that was all thanks to the girl that had finally said yes to him after years of having to hide his feelings under the familiar rhythm of their snarks.
“It’s gonna start raining soon.” She said as she took a deep breath. She could probably taste the rain in the air just as he could.
Nikolai let go of her hand briefly to throw his arm across her shoulders and draw her closer to him. Her head dropped automatically to his shoulder and he couldn’t help the smattering of butterflies that flapped in his stomach.
Some days he still couldn’t believe that Zoya Nazyalensky had decided to go out with him. Fair enough, he didn’t usually have trouble getting anyone to go on a date with him. But it had always been different with Zoya. She was the girl that had transferred into his Russian Lit class with a sardonic kind of voice that always left you guessing if she was mocking you or actually offering advice. She was an enigma that refused to let him take the easy way out of anything. She was one of the few people he would have called a friend. And despite sharp sense of loss that came with being apart from her for months at a time, he knew the last thing she wanted him to do was throw away his life for her--he only knew that because the last time he brought up not going to bootcamp she scoffed in his face and told him, “to stop being a lovesick fool.”
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, brilliant Zoya was starting her new job at the capital of the country, and hopefully change the world like she always wanted. It was going to be a season of long distance, and Nikolai tried his best to shove those thoughts aside.
“Are you brooding again?” Zoya murmured, her hands firm against his.
“Only for you, Nazyalensky. I hear I look my best while brooding.” He laughed into her hair.
“Shut up.”
The wind was picking up now, the air around them getting heavy with drizzle. They should be take some cover, or at least move to the safety of his truck. Lightning cracked again and Nikolai smiled at the coming rain.
“It’ll be a hell of a storm.” Nikolai yelled over the thunder.
“What other kind is there?” He could hear the smile in her voice. He felt her hand on his cheek and Nikolai turned to face her. Her eyes were dark. Another lightning strike and for a brief moment he saw a flash of a future in her eyes. “We’ll be okay, you know? We’ve been through worse. For now, it’s just you and me.”
He raised their joined hands to his lips and kissed the rain off of the back of her hand.
“You and me.”