I don't own Throne of Glass. The title is the "for a better world" motif that's so prevalent in Kingdom of Ash.

This is literally fluff and I don't know how to deal with the fact that I wrote it. Also, I didn't realize I was Nestaq trash until they were hardly in KoA

"I'm commandeering your floor," Hasar announced, swinging the door open and allowing light from the corridor to stream into the room.

Jerked rudely from sleep, Nesryn squinted against the light. She was curled up against Sartaq, her forehead pressed against the back of neck and her arm thrown over his waist. The bed they were sharing was so narrow that her back was pressed against the stone wall and Sartaq would probably fall off if he rolled over.

Across the room on the other narrow bed, Kashin shifted and groaned. "What the hell, Hasar?"

"Arban snores," Hasar said dropping a heavy bundle on the floor. "I'm going to sleep in here with you."

The royal palace of Orynth was full of soldiers and civilians which made it hard to find a place to sleep. Eventually, Sartaq and Hasar had managed to find a few empty rooms originally intended for lower ranking officers in the army for them and their officers. Nesryn had volunteered to share a bed with Sartaq so someone else could have a bed to sleep in. Hasar had ended up sharing another room with Arban, a high-ranking officer, which apparently hadn't gone well.

"You'd think you'd be tired enough not to care how loud she snores," Sartaq said, his voice heavy with sleep. The fact that he'd been asleep at all was a testament to how exhausted he was. Sartaq liked to be warm when he slept and found the weight of blankets soothing. Under normal circumstances he never would have been able to sleep this heavily with only the wool blanket currently covering them.

"The fact that it woke me should tell you how loud it was," Hasar sniffed. "I'd like to see you try to sleep through it."

Nesryn lifted herself up on her elbows, and saw that the bundle sitting at Hasar's feet was a thin mattress, probably from the bed in the room she'd been sharing with Arban. "Did Arban notice you were gone?" she ventured. She'd mostly gotten used to speaking her mind around Sartaq and Kashin, but Hasar still intimidated her a little, even though she knew she needed to get over that if she was going to be empress.

Empress. She still couldn't think about that without her stomach swooping in panic. Hopefully Sartaq's father would live for a long time so she had plenty of time to get used to the idea before she actually had to do anything.

Hasar snorted. "She didn't even twitch. I threw one of my boots at her and all she did was roll over."

Sartaq snorted. "I would have paid to see that," his voice was still a little blurry, but he seemed a more awake now.

Hasar grinned, she shoved Kashin's legs aside and flopped down onto his bed, leaning back on her hands. The movement was familiar in a way that would have been unheard of when Nesryn had meant them. Duva's Valg possession had changed things between the siblings, and they seemed to have come out of it united against the world instead of warring with each other. It probably helped that Sartaq had decided he wasn't going to secure his position as khagan by killing or sterilizing them. Nesryn hadn't been present for the conversation when the siblings had discussed that before they'd left Antica, but she knew it had eased a lot of tension between them.

When Hasar stayed sitting on the bed without moving, Kashin lifted his head a little and glared tiredly at her. "Are you going to actually spread your mattress out on the floor and sleep or are you just going to sit there?" he asked.

Hasar grinned. "Who knows?" she said. "Maybe I've decided to just sleep with you."

"Please don't," Kashin said letting his head thump back onto the thin pillow.

"What?" Hasar's smile was wicked. "Don't want to cuddle with your big sister?"

"Of course not!" he said. "What if someone finds out? Think how humiliating that would be!"

Sartaq chuckled; Nesryn could feel the vibration of the sound where her chest pressed against his back. "Don't look now, Hasar," he said. "I think you've embarrassed him."

"Oh, how cute," Hasar cooed, with a big smile.

"I am done with you people," Kashin grumbled rolling over to face the wall. "Get off my bed and go to sleep."

"Someone's turned into an old man," Hasar joked.

There was a moment of silence then Hasarand Sartaq roared with laughter. Kashin growled and pulled his blanket over his head, grumbling under his breath.

When they had all calmed down, Hasar slid off the bed and unrolled her mattress on the floor between the two beds. She lay down on her stomach and groaned. "Ah, sleeping on a stone floor with only a thin mattress," she said. "How wonderful."

"I'm not taking pity on you," Kashin grumbled. "When the supplies we left behind to get here in time arrive you can steal some of Sartaq's fifty million blankets."

"No one is putting my blankets on the floor," Sartaq objected and Nesryn snorted with laughter.

"What?" Hasar asked raising an eyebrow.

"You three are arguing like my sister and I used to," Nesryn said. "I've never seen you act like this before."

"We'll probably make much more sense once we've actually slept enough to think straight," Sartaq said.

"Agreed," Hasar nodded.

"Then maybe you should all go to sleep so we can all go back to making sense!" Kashin groaned without lifting his head from the blankets.

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing," Nesryn said. "Actually it's kind of cute. I like seeing you all get along and act normal."

Sartaq laughed again. "I'm glad you approve."

"Yes, who knew this was what we were missing," Hasar said, though her sarcasm wasn't quite biting enough to suggest she was actually annoyed. "But, still Kashin is right; we should sleep. After all, tomorrow is the first day of a better world."

Everyone grumbled in agreement and settled down, curling up under their respective blankets. For a few minutes everything was quiet, then Kashin said, "You know, I can't decide if that 'better world' stuff is profound or just stupidly optimistic."

Nesryn couldn't help it, she buried her face against Sartaq's back and practically sobbed with laughter.

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Emjen