p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"strongInktober prompt day 19: sling./strong/p
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p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Set!" Called Nikolai when he spotted Alina, who was busy carrying a tray of sandwiches in the scorching afternoon sun. She stopped as he did, and his fancy tennis tutor, seeing her, shook his head before leaving, Nikolai approaching the fence like a puppy wagging his tail. Alina, who was probably suffering from dehydration, stared. She was 90% sure she was seeing a tail, but maybe it was span style="background-color: rgba(86, 168, 252, 0.5);"a hallucination/span. "Alina, hi! How are you? Come to see me?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"No, madam Yelizarova asked for some finger food, so I'm, you know, doing my job." She replied, staying in place. Nikolai reached through one of the tiny gaps in the fence and grabbed a sandwich for himself. "They're Camembert cheese - do tell me if I said that wrong, that woman is picky with pronunciation - and fig."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanNikolai put it back. The two watched the sandwich sadly deflate, and then Nikolai's eyes turned to Alina./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Why don't you stay and play a game with me, then?" He offered, bright as the sun, and Alina did her best to not cover her eyes. The sun was behind him, shining off his golden hair and blinding her./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"I'm working." A beat. "Listen, let me deliver these gross sandwiches before they're grilled cheese and fig, and I'll deliver you some Gatorade, and I'll even stay and watch for a while. How about that?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanNikolai smiled, the imaginary puppy tail wagging./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Put it on Aleksander's tab and done." He grinned, and Alina nodded. He gripped the metallic fence, uncaring about the sweltering hot metal on his hands. "God, I wish I could kiss you."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanAlina turned her nose at that./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"All sweaty and smelling like Camembert? How brave of you, Nikolai." She joked, and he grinned. "Later. When I'm off my shift."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"It's a promise." He said, and Alina nodded. "Go on, get rid of these foul smelling things that dare themselves sandwiches and come back to me, my love."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanShe laughed, pretending her heart wasn't beating so fast in her chest that she could hear it on her ears. It was the dehydration, she told herself./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Stop reading those bodice-ripper novels, dumbass. Love you!" She told him, before going back, missing Nikolai's in awe look./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanIt was only when she was arriving on madam Yelizarova's tea party that she realized what she had said, and had to avoid screaming /spanemfuck /emspanas loud as possible - mostly because she feared the old woman would get a heart attack and die./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanGod, this would come back to haunt her later. More specifically, whenever she ended up delivering that Gatorade./span/p
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p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Set!" Called Nikolai when he spotted Alina, who was busy carrying a tray of sandwiches in the scorching afternoon sun. She stopped as he did, and his fancy tennis tutor, seeing her, shook his head before leaving, Nikolai approaching the fence like a puppy wagging his tail. Alina, who was probably suffering from dehydration, stared. She was 90% sure she was seeing a tail, but maybe it was span style="background-color: rgba(86, 168, 252, 0.5);"a hallucination/span. "Alina, hi! How are you? Come to see me?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"No, madam Yelizarova asked for some finger food, so I'm, you know, doing my job." She replied, staying in place. Nikolai reached through one of the tiny gaps in the fence and grabbed a sandwich for himself. "They're Camembert cheese - do tell me if I said that wrong, that woman is picky with pronunciation - and fig."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanNikolai put it back. The two watched the sandwich sadly deflate, and then Nikolai's eyes turned to Alina./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Why don't you stay and play a game with me, then?" He offered, bright as the sun, and Alina did her best to not cover her eyes. The sun was behind him, shining off his golden hair and blinding her./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"I'm working." A beat. "Listen, let me deliver these gross sandwiches before they're grilled cheese and fig, and I'll deliver you some Gatorade, and I'll even stay and watch for a while. How about that?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanNikolai smiled, the imaginary puppy tail wagging./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Put it on Aleksander's tab and done." He grinned, and Alina nodded. He gripped the metallic fence, uncaring about the sweltering hot metal on his hands. "God, I wish I could kiss you."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanAlina turned her nose at that./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"All sweaty and smelling like Camembert? How brave of you, Nikolai." She joked, and he grinned. "Later. When I'm off my shift."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"It's a promise." He said, and Alina nodded. "Go on, get rid of these foul smelling things that dare themselves sandwiches and come back to me, my love."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanShe laughed, pretending her heart wasn't beating so fast in her chest that she could hear it on her ears. It was the dehydration, she told herself./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"span"Stop reading those bodice-ripper novels, dumbass. Love you!" She told him, before going back, missing Nikolai's in awe look./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanIt was only when she was arriving on madam Yelizarova's tea party that she realized what she had said, and had to avoid screaming /spanemfuck /emspanas loud as possible - mostly because she feared the old woman would get a heart attack and die./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"spanGod, this would come back to haunt her later. More specifically, whenever she ended up delivering that Gatorade./span/p