So I decided I needed to get something out there after basically being destroyed by school (for like the millionth time) this semester. This is a quick drabble I wrote up at an obscene hour of the night while listening to one of my favorite songs. The only background you need is to have read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, but really if you love Kaz and Inej, then this is for you. There may be more coming in the future, but that's tentative because I'm working on my other fics right now.
I hope you enjoy!
Kaz didn't know what to expect after a year of not seeing her. Of course, he told himself he didn't need her, even prayed to her ridiculous Saints that he wouldn't see her again just to preserve what was left of his sanity and sense of self-worth. But deep down, he knew he was fooling himself and the little boy in him who still liked drinking hot chocolate while dangling his feet off the pier ached for her touch, her silence, her being. Seeing her made him forget that he was supposed to be Kaz Brekker, the true bastard of the Barrel, leader of the Dregs, Dirtyhands. Seeing her made him forget the feeling of Jordie's rotting flesh against his small hands and the ghost haunting him every night. Seeing her undid him. Seeing her unsettled him. Seeing her broke him.
He loved seeing her again.
"Who told you?"
Her velvety voice broke through the silence and his thoughts.
"No one needed to," he replied, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible. He couldn't betray himself again like he had that night. Brief flashes of soft skin and loose hair and shaky breaths filled his mind before he expelled them.
She turned around finally, her eyes fixing on his. Endless seas. Dark moons.
"It was Jesper," she concluded, scanning his eyes, laying his secrets bare, "I told him not to."
"You should know Jesper is only loyal to his guns and Wylan."
She made no sound, only further scanning him, as if searching for something, anything. Kaz resisted the urge to fidget like a criminal under trial.
Moments passed before Inej turned back to her makeshift table, the sounds of her pen scratching old parchment filling the air.
That's all? Kaz couldn't help but think. Inej was courteous at her worst and while he hadn't expected much, he had still expected something. Maybe that made him the biggest kind of fool.
"How are the Dregs?"
The question was asked so softly he almost thought it was the wind passing through. But Inej paused her work, plunging the room back into silence, beckoning Kaz for his response. He knew what she was really asking and it both thrilled him and scared him.
Speak you damn fool.
"I'm fine," he hesitated, "How is your family?"
Another pause.
"I'm fine as well."
Ciao,
Snow