#Ivan sab | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lassieposting · 1 year ago

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Anyway, fucking obsessed with the implied Kirigan/Ivan friendship, so have some headcanons

- So Ivan is one of a relatively small group of survivors old enough to remember the previous Darkling - Aleksander's last identity. He's a military brat and the only Grisha in an all-otkazat'sya family, so he lost a lot of family members very young. Aleksander has always refused to have First Army emissaries coming onto Little Palace property with hostile attitudes and condescension to traumatise baby Grisha, so when a student loses a First Army family member, he tends to break the news himself; it's the least he can do given none of them asked to be forcibly enlisted in a war they didn't start. Ivan, whose family were virtually all First Army, got pulled out of classes for a sombre talk with "Kirigan Sr" a few times, and developed a lot of respect for him.

- At some point, while Ivan is still young, the old Darkling retires to the family estate, citing age-related health concerns; even Grisha get old eventually. He completes the rest of his service via correspondence, and sends "his son" Aleksander into the Second Army to train to replace him.

- This is a habit of Aleksander's - when he changes identity, he starts back at the bottom and works his way back up through the ranks. A General needs a lot of things to do his job effectively: a network of loyal, trustworthy lieutenants to delegate to, a history of proven military experience, and the trust of the monarch he serves. Changing identities essentially means he loses all that, and the best way to build it back is to rejoin the army. His old guard - who not only remain loyal to his old way of doing things but also could potentially figure out his ruse - can be respectfully grandfathered out to less strenuous positions, replaced with new underlings loyal to his new self, who served with or under him on the front lines. By the time he takes over at court again, he's gained a whole new military history, and the king has met him several times already, to pin medals on a very promising young officer. It's easier to just have a new military career than to come in unproven and deal with the consequences at court.

- When Ivan is old enough to fight, he ends up serving under then-Captain Aleksander Kirigan. He has no idea that his new CO is the same old man who patted his shoulder while he bawled into his kefta over his dead father and brothers, but Aleksander remembers Ivan, and earmarks him for future leadership roles. There's always a superior/underling professional boundary there, but over the years Ivan and Kirigan become quite close, and eventually Ivan becomes his de facto #2. As someone who has no one, this relationship is incredibly meaningful to Ivan, and he responds with the kind of gruff affection and trustworthiness that Aleksander hasn't had in a long time. So while he'd never admit it, Ivan's friendship is very important to him too.

- Ivan's period of compulsory service ends. He has options, limited though they are, to leave the Second Army; he could take a research postgraduate place at the Little Palace, or become a teacher for small Grisha, or find paid work in a noble house somewhere. He refuses all of them. What he wants - what he's always wanted - is to be a career soldier.

- So when he's medically discharged from service, he's devastated. It's battle-shock, they tell him, and it makes him a danger to himself and others on the front lines. Kirigan takes a bullet dragging him, frozen, out of the way of advancing Fjerdans with repeating rifles. He's not fit to fight.

- And suddenly, he's utterly lost. Fighting is all he's ever known, the only thing he's good at, the only future he ever saw himself having. He makes a few comments to friends that leave them seriously concerned, and one of them goes to the newly-minted General. Aleksander pulls some strings on Ivan's behalf to stave off a complete discharge. Instead of being booted out of the army completely, he's shunted sideways into a new job as Kirigan's aide-de-camp - basically a personal assistant to run his life for him while he focuses on Military Things.

- It's not what Ivan saw in his future, but he's incredibly grateful not to be sent home to rot. He throws himself into his new role with everything he's got, determined not to make Kirigan regret it. He makes sure correspondence is sent on time, he makes sure the General gets where he needs to be when he needs to be there, he manages supplies and personal requests and bodyguarding. He's still Kirigan's right hand man, just in a different sphere. And over time, as the pressure of chessmastering two wars ramps up, he takes on more and more little tasks and becomes increasingly indispensable until Aleksander really isn't sure how he used to function without Ivan. There's a kind of symbiosis there, eventually. Ivan is Pepper Potts to Kirigan's Tony Stark: he usually knows what his boss needs before Kirigan asks for it, he knows a lot more about Kirigan than he'd ever let on, and Kirigan would be far less effective and put-together without him.

- One day, Ivan meets Fedyor Kaminsky. Ivan proceeds to spend the next few years pining over Fedyor Kaminsky, because he is emotionally inept, sharp-tempered and struggles to endear himself to anyone that isn't also a gruff, hardened war veteran. Fedyor is young and idealistic and still believes in things like hope and heroism. He's still in active service, but he's thinking of maybe leaving after the compulsory term to teach. He's good with the little Grisha.

- This crush shocks fucking everyone who knows Ivan, because at this point it's basically a running joke among the Little Palace's higher-ups that he'll never marry - he's too devoted to the General to have room in his life for romance. Fedyor is not what anyone - Ivan included - expected Ivan to like, but hey, opposites attract. Kirigan tolerates several years of long-distance Yearning™ with good grace.

- Fedyor and Ivan court for quite a while, and figure out how they fit a) together and b) into each other's lives. Fedyor has a long hard think about whether he can see himself marrying a man like Ivan - he knows Ivan is pretty codependent with General Kirigan, knows how traumatised he is, knows how dedicated he is to his job, knows he's uncertain about ever wanting children, knows that their marriage would essentially be "This is my husband Ivan and Ivan's boss, General Kirigan." And eventually, he decides he can deal with that; Ivan is worth it. He stays in the army rather than leave, to be close to Ivan.

- Ivan brings up the wedding to Aleksander precisely once, to tell him that he'd be honoured if Aleksander would officiate. The way he says it is offhand, low expectations, because a General has more important things to do than go to an employee's wedding. Aleksander hmms, not even taking his eyes off the report he's reading, and says, "Give me a date when you have one and I'll see if I can spare the time."

- He makes the time. Ivan usually manages his schedule, but he damn well makes sure that day is free personally, because he knows Ivan won't prioritise his wedding over a meeting with the king, or whatever, and nope. He's unavailable for meetings that day. He has somewhere to be.

- He marries them. And wrangles a whole three weeks off for Ivan, so they can have a honeymoon.

- However. Going on a honeymoon means leaving Kirigan unattended, so Ivan coming back from his honeymoon is basically this:

- And like, it's not that Aleksander can't look after himself. It's just that Ivan has been doing so much for him for so fucking long that he's forgotten he needs to do those things. He's so used to Ivan Handling It, that it's only when it comes back to bite him in the ass that he's like oh, yeah, Ivan is on leave. Ivan has literally never seen Kirigan this openly glad to see him, please fix his calendar he has four meetings today in four different places and they're all at the same time, never leave again.

- Fedyor becomes bodyguard #2 after a brief blip in their marriage where he and Ivan spend a lot of time rowing over how little they see each other. He feels neglected, and he's second-guessing whether he can tolerate the Ivan-Kirigan codependence issue. Ivan and Aleksander are not the type to have deep conversations about their feelings - they bully each other into self-care once it starts affecting their ability to do their jobs. Ivan bullies Aleksander into eating or sleeping or getting fresh air, and Aleksander bullies Ivan into admitting he's having marital issues. His solve is to offer Fedyor a job - that way, he and Ivan will get to spend most of their time together. Sharing his duties with Fedyor also frees up a fair amount of Ivan's time, which is hard for him at first, but good for their relationship in the long run.

- Fedyor develops his own relationship with Kirigan, over time. Sometimes, his softly-softly approach can get results out of a stressed-out sleep-deprived General where Ivan's no-bullshit confrontational style would cause a row. They respect each other, and like each other as boss/underling, but there's not the friendship there that there is with Ivan. The professional barrier is a lot more pronounced - Ivan can get away with calling Aleksander "Kirigan" at times - when he's being particularly vexing, mostly - but Fedyor could not.

- By canon, they've settled nicely into their You, Me & The General Makes Three marriage. It's become an in-joke between them that Kirigan is, in turns, the third spouse, the kid, or the dog:

("Fedya, I don't know if I'll ever be ready to be a father. I have no idea how to look after a child."

"Oh, nonsense, darling, you do a wonderful job every day with General Kirigan.")

("Beloved, you should go rescue your other husband. The Kerch ambassador has him cornered by the punch fountain.")

- Genya also gets in on this vein of in-joke from time to time - but only with Fedyor, never with Ivan.

("So if you two ever divorce, who gets custody?"

"Of the General? Oh, he does. It'd be cruel to separate them, you know? They'd pine.")

- They are all under the impression that the General is completely unaware of these jokes, because they're unprofessional and he'd surely disapprove. They have no idea that when Aleksander enters a room without Ivan half a step behind him, half the time Nikolai still thinks it's funny to ask, "Where's the rest of you?"

- And despite everything, they still both refuse to admit they see each other as anything more than, basically, boss and devoted servant. The last ~150 years? Entirely professional.

But. Yeah. Nah. Friends.

#aleksander kirigan #ivan kaminsky #fedyor kaminsky #fivan #darkolai #sab headcanons #also gonna tag this as #sab d3 #because all my headcanons are d3-inspired #sab

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