For the first time in his life, Nikolai willingly accepted help from a grown up. It was unlike him as he didn't trust them but there was just something about Kiro's father that made one want to spill their guts.
He stopped himself more than once wanting to tell him about the actual reason he hated his father, the abduction, the way his mother died, being sold to slavery, killing a man, everything.
But every time, he managed to stop himself. He was still contemplating, trying to calm himself down. Everything that was coming to him overwhelmed him now, he wasn't used to it.
Nikolai wasn't used to himself feeling so many emotions, it made him vulnerable. He felt like that ten year old who snuck into an enemy's camp, a trap. He would be lying to himself if he said that didn't scare him.
'I really thought I'd locked these kind of things away. I didn't know I could still feel, I hate it if I'm being honest.'
