A Nicol Interlude

For the first time in months, Nicol Ascart was having fun.

He wasn't ashamed to admit that ever since he'd graduated from the academy and begun working as his father's assistant—and eventual replacement, should his best friend do what everyone had assumed he'd do since they were children and ascend to the throne when King Artorias retired—he'd been lonely. For most of a year he'd been busy working, and everyone had been busy studying at the Academy, to see his friends. Oh, he'd seen Sophia whenever she'd visited on weekends, but after years of spending their days together, and spending a year with everyone else at the Academy, another year of being separated from them had been very lonesome.

Oh, he'd gotten letters—Sirius-but-really-Rafael had written him weekly once they'd met again and Nicol had made clear he still considered the other man a good friend, he got letters from Sophia practically every day, and of course his best friend had kept up their correspondence, telling him about how Sophia was doing—just like when he'd been studying during his first year in the Academy, but just like then, it hadn't been the same.

When everyone had graduated, he had hoped—foolishly, it turned out—that things would go back to how they'd been before the Academy. That they'd go back to spending time together, having fun, helping Lady Katarina with her farming…

Sadly, it hadn't been to be. Things had changed and continued to change. It was not only he who had moved to from childish things to adult responsibilities. Sophia, who h had always imagined who spend her adulthood reading novels, had partnered with Maria to start a company that made beautiful things… and deadly weapons, but that was probably a matter of aesthetics. Sophia had fawned her revolvers like they were new books when she'd shown them to him, and he had to admit that the scrollwork and engravings were quite artistic.

His best friend and Alan had returned to living in the castle, and like their older brothers had slowly begun to take on more responsibilities, even if Alan as still spending a lot of time composing and practicing music. Keith had also begun to assist his father more in the running of their duchy, while Mary…

Well, he hadn't really heard what Mary was doing, but she was surely doing something with her time.

The biggest surprise had been hearing that Lady Katarina had gone on to squire herself to Maria— Lady Maria, he should say. She had certainly earned the title.

All of them were growing up, and leaving behind childish things…

Well, probably not Lady Katarina. She had always been a child at heart.

Still, the few times he'd seen his friends in the past year had seemed to emphasize how they'd all seemed to start drifting apart. Even now, with so many of them together, it felt incomplete without his sister and the other ladies.

Despite that, he was having fun. Even if he didn't really know Keith's cousin vey well.

He wore a small smile on his face—though only Sophia would be able to tell— as they all walked together again, having just finished meeting with Rafael's Xiarmen knight, who had bemusedly agreed to a contract to sell Sophia, through Nicol, a large amount of saltpeter. "Thank you for the introduction, Rafael," he praised his friend effusively. "I'm sure Sophia will be very happy!"

Rafael shrugged. "It's fine. It helps Maria too, unless Sophia is secretly setting up a rival company on the side."

Nicol nearly chuckled at the thought, but managed to hold it in. Trying to walk over the unconscious gets annoying very quickly. "From how much she complains about all the paperwork she does, it's unlikely." A part of him found some guilty pleasure in how cute Sophia was when she was hexing the paperwork she had to do to the abyss and back. It was probably unbrotherly on his part to take such enjoyment in her frustration, but as someone who'd been doing paperwork for longer than her, that unbrotherly part took smug satisfaction in how Sophia was finally appreciating how difficult it all was.

Everyone took a moment to sigh about all the paperwork they had to deal with nowadays.

"Well," Nicol said once everyone was done sighing, "shall we look for the chocolate everyone else needs?"

"Don't you need iron and steel?" Keith asked.

Nicol nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, but I've already managed to remove something from my list. I can hold off on the rest."

"Then can you help me find some chocolate for Katrina?" Keith said, and Nicol was barely able to hold in his blush at the mention of her name. He pointedly kept his gaze away from his best friend as he felt like his treacherous feelings must be so obvious on his face. For all that Frey encouraged him to pursue the woman he loved, for all that Sophia encouraged him to 'steal' Katarina away… he couldn't do that. Not to his best friend. Not to one of the few people who looked at him and only saw him and not his alleged good looks.

Of course, if Katarina came to him, he wasn't going to say no. He was only a man, after all. He had limits.

But as that was unlikely to happen any time soon…

"Of course, Keith," Nicol said cheerfully, causing Keith to make a strangled sound, blush and look away.

The rest of the afternoon passed happily for Nicol as he and his friends went around the room trying to complete their shopping lists. The chocolate was, predictably, the hard thing to find, but they'd eventually managed to find a lord from Hallig who had severely underestimated how much he'd been negotiating for. Even better, Rafael knew the man from his meetings with the Fundamentalist Institute. Lord Oswald had been willing to act as an intermediary and negotiate the order for chocolate with the Tasmerian lord he'd spoken to.

While Nicol had met Keith's cousin Watson in passing before, this was the first time they'd really interacted. Beyond looking pointedly over Nicol's head—something he was used to but always made him wonder if he needed to comb his hair—the man had been perfectly pleasant, though there seemed to be certain coolness between him and Nicol's best friend. He'd have to ask Sophia about that later, perhaps she'd know what that was about.

Rafael's friend Lord Hart was a bit harder to read. The man had been resigned to being neglected, but seem to draw vicarious enjoyment at from just being near them. He seemed absolutely ecstatic that Nicol was talking to him, and not for the usual reasons people were happy when he did that. Nicol knew what it was like to occasionally be overlooked in conversation with his friends. Everyone was so much louder and excitable than him when talking, and of course Lady Katarina was always drawing everyone's attention to her.

Not that the minded that last. After all, it was Katarina.

Eventually, the tea party began to wind down, the monarchs and various representatives exiting gracefully. Only the Lord Presider of La Sable remained, growing increasingly loud and drunk as he seemed determined to finish all the alcohol that remained while twittering on about what was on his mind, which was how everyone's tariffs were too high and that they should bring them down so that La Sable could become wealthy.

"Well, that's the signal to leave," his best friend said with an uncharacteristic lack of subtlety. "Come on, let's go before that man sees Nicol and mistakes him for a lady."

"It doesn't happen that often," Nicol whined.

"Nicol, it happened five times today, and those men were stone cold sober," Rafael said. "Come on, let us use protecting your virtue as an excuse to leave."

"But you haven't filled your shopping list yet," Nicol tried one last time.

"It'll be fine. Larna can take having to stay on budget," Rafael said, waving the issue away.

The group headed for the doors as Nicol sighed. Well, the fun had to end eventually. They'd all have to split up for what else they had planned for the day. He knew that the princes had a round of late afternoon negotiations to attend, while Rafael would have other duties, and Keith and his cousin probably had other plans…

"Ah, Alan. There you are," his best friend said as the approached the doors to find Alan standing there. "We were looking for you."

"Sorry," Alan said, and he actually looked like he was. "I was talking to Lord Xiaolan about the music at the McSweeney opera house and lost track of time. You ready to go?"

"Yes, yes. Once more through the fog wall it is," his best friend said before turning towards Nicol. "I'll see you later at dinner, Nicol. Rafael, it's been a pleasure as usual. Lord Keith, Lord Watson… give my regards to Katarina."

"We'll see," Keith teased with a smile, as he always did. Ah, those two. They got along so well. "Come on Watson, let's go find father an uncle. Hopefully we all managed to get enough chocolate for everyone…"

Rafael sighed as the two also wandered off. "Well, it's been fun, Nicol, but duty calls. Come on Nathan, let's check on Sora, then you can compile reports back in our room." Rafael nodded to him. "See you later, Nicol. Maybe we can have dinner together after the Assembly, catch up properly."

Nicol smiled eagerly at the thought. "I'd like that," he said, pointedly ignoring the nobleman across the hallway who'd just crumpled to the ground. He'd long since stopped trying to keep track of such things, and was glad the servants were always ready to help them to their feet.

And then Rafael also left, and Nicol was alone again.

For a moment, he just stood there, keeping a smile on his face until Rafael was gone—and causing many people who happened to glance in his general direction to collapse—hoping his friend would look back… but no. Rafael had somewhere to be, somewhere to go.

Sighing, Nicol began to walk.

He thought of going to see Sophia, but it was a vague thought. Besides, no doubt his sister as off having fun with Katarina and Mary and maybe Maria, doing girl things involving books and food.

His feet walked like had a mind of their own, traversing a path he'd walked in recent days, and he found himself standing outside a certain room long the hallway where the Hallig delegation were quartered. Hesitantly, he stared at the door one hand partially raised.

She probably wasn't in. No doubt Hyetta was with Sophia and Katarina, happily discussing books and things. He should go.

His knuckle treacherously knocked on the door.

After a moment, the door opened, releasing the sound of happy voices as Hyetta's maid Mildred opened the door and immediately blushed, swaying slightly. "L-lord Ascart!" she exclaimed. "Y-you're here!"

Nicol sighed at the familiar reaction. "I see that Lady H—Carim has visitors," he said. "I'll come back later—"

"Oh, no, you can come in!" Mildred said, flustered. "That is, Lady Hyetta has left standing orders that you are always welcome, Lord Ascart. Please, come in!"

Nicol hesitated. "I wouldn't want to cause a disturbance with Lady Carim's guests," he said.

"Mildred?" Hyetta's voice called. "Who is at the door?"

"It's Lord Ascart, Lady Hyetta!"

"BIG BROTHER!"

The familiar voice was all the warning Nicol had before there were thundering steps and a familiar weight crashed into him, wrapping arms around his torso.

"S-sophia?" Nicol exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"What, you didn't think we'd just leave Hyetta all alone after what happened to her this morning, did you?" Sophia said in a tone that said he was being silly. Then she winked at him. "Ooh, or were you hopping for a private rendezvous, just you and her, all alone in her rooms—"

Nicol would never, ever hurt Sophia. Thus, he was thankful that Mary interrupted her with the chop to the head he could never, ever give her himself. "Sophia, don't be embarrassing," Mary said. She gave Nicol a smile. It was a little-known fact that Mary Hunt was among the handful of people in the entire kingdom that would meet Nicol's eyes without so much as a blink. Nicol loved that about her. "Hello, Nicol. The men's party has let up, I presume?"

"Yes. Hello, Mary."

Mary nodded. "Well, don't just stand in the open door like you're too big to fit through, come in so we can close the door."

Chagrined at the reminder, Nicol did just that. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"Nope! You're just in time!" Sophia proclaimed, having recovered from Mary's chastisement. "Hyetta, Katarina, big brother is here!"

"Yes, Lady Sophia," Maria's sardonic tones said, "so we have managed to deduce, subtle as the clues were. Greetings, Lord Nicol. I trust you are well?"

Oh. Nicol supposed he wouldn't be spending his afternoon alone after all. "Yes, Lady Maria. I am very well," he said with a smile.

It was a wonderfully pleasant afternoon.