AN: Not my first fanfic but my first one under this pseud, for this fandom, and containing explicit descriptions. I'm sorry I couldn't resist the title XD

INEJ

She had a theory, and she had a plan. Inej felt her palms get clammy and wiped them on her loose pants. The last thing she needed was having second thoughts now. She had spent the last two days thinking this through. Then again, something was definitely about to happen, either way... So fear was an appropriate companion, she supposed. As great the risk she had decided to take was, it was their only hope. They needed something more before she disappeared out onto the sea to take her parents back home, and to continue for her first hunting. And it was her turn now, she had realized. She had been a breath from walking away forever, that day on the quai.

Kaz was inscrutable, and his words had so often driven her to distraction, burning anger and contempt. She had only started seeing the pattern, or started to believe it was more than a figment of her imagination, that day on the ship talking with or listening to Nina. Whenever he did something kind he made up for it in double measure of coldness in words and mean inconsequentials. He had had that hateful facade fully perfected before thay had ever met. Those hurtful words were the most important part of his armor, she knew now. Violence played its part, too, yes, but what secured his power and reputation lay all in his knowledge and the abrasive way he treated even those on his side. Nina had noticed the discrepancy lately, and it had taken Inej herself almost as long to understand the mechanisms.
Yet Kaz actions had never left any doubt. He had taken her away from the Menagerie. He had allowed her to decide on her affiliation to the Dregs. He had not ever demanded anything of her but that she did her job like all the rest of his crew. Then came the net... and he had given her her contract, her family, and her ship. Inej could still feel her heart hammering in her chest every time she thought about it. Talk was cheap, when it came down to it. But he had done all that. And finally he had scattered her doubts and desparation at the future with as little as an outstretched, bare hand.

He wanted to fight. He had told her before, and she had decided she needed to take him at his word. There would not be any pistols involved tonight. Still, if she was wrong, this could end just as horribly. Damn it. She knew what she was doing, at least, she told herself. But that was another part of the problem. She was frightened of his reaction, but she was even more frightened she might start feeling... professional. This was the very opposite of professional. It had to be a first for her just as it was for him, or it would not work at all.

With a last longing look at the stars twinkling up in the black-blue sky she slid through the window, as she had done so many times before. The room was in its usual cluttered state. She took her favorite perch at the window. Minutes later she heard the familiar staccato sounds of the cane on the last steps. She willed him to stop and leave. She willed him to enter his room. And she prayed she was not wrong about all of this.

If she was willing to believe in signs sent by the Saints, the next minute would certainly qualify. Kaz smiled slightly, as he noticed her shadowed against the window pane. A rasped "Wraith" was sent her way, before he walked into the small bathroom to wash after another long day. Inej's eyes were drawn to his lean, well-muscled back, and she knew she was still staring while he limped back to his chair, where a fresh shirt was already laid out.

With a sense of utter unrealness, she moved to stand in front of the chair.

"Come to say goodbye?" She could hear he was nervous. Curiously, it calmed her nerves.

"Sort of", she murmured. "I have a theory."

"Regarding-"

Inej opened her tunic and the thin material slid from her shoulders.

He stared at her naked torso, completely stunned, obviously unable to tear his eyes off her breasts. She could feel a tiny smile forming. Maybe it was going to be all right. If they could keep to the rules. She took a step towards him, his eyes still drinking her in. His pupils were so dilated she had serious doubts he could be seeing much.

With the next step, he had to look at her face, because there was less than a hand's breadth between them. Still, they were not touching. She saw the flutter of darkness behind his gaze and immediately leaned a fraction forwards. He drew in a sharp breath when her nipples touched his skin.

"Inej." Toneless. But no panic, possibly yet, only disorientation.

"Shh." She did not put her finger on his lips, altough she wanted to very much. "Trust me?"

All he managed was a tiny dip of his head.

She sidled up a little closer, and was rewarded by feeling another, very distinct reaction against her belly. Kaz eyes fluttered shut, and she was willing to let it go for now. At least she had been right about one thing. There was absolutely nothing wrong with his body, or its reactions to this kind of closeness. This was too new, and too different. So her theory might just hold. If she could hold herself together as well. Inej let her fingers trail lightly over Kaz's shoulders and his chest, listening to his shallow breathing. He was pretty close to hyperventilating himself into a faint there, but no sign of the Panic taking a hold, she decided. "You might want to sit down, Kaz", she whispered. "Not the chair."

Without opening his eyes, he took two backward steps and sat down on his bed inelegantly. She gently pushed at his shoulders until he was lying on his back, never breaking skin contact. She knew he was more than half hard already, and when she gently pinched his right nipple now, the one closer to her, he gave a moan that neatly filled all of the room. Inej was more shocked at her own reaction than Kaz's, though. This plan was proving things she had not dared put in her theory, she realized. But now was not the time for contemplating this. Before she could lose her nerve she moved a little, still kneeling on the bed, and opened the belt at Kaz's hip. With trembling fingers she managed the buttons, too.

Relief surged through her when Kaz helped with the tricky bit of pushing his fine cloth pants down to his knees, lifting his lower body using his good leg only. That still left his short, rather baggy underpants, but she could with that. Or around that. She almost smirked, until she realized Kaz was lying all too still. First rule of the game: never give either of them a moment to think. She let her fingernails trail the length of he bulge in his underpants and felt his cock twitch. The low moaning breathing was back, too, and she realized she could easily get drunk on it. After a dozen trips of her fingers up and down, there was a sheen of sweat covering both of them. With a mental kick at herself she made herself tug those underpants down, gently lifting them in front to avoid another halting moment.

She had no idea what she had expected, but the sight of this very normal, if handsome boy struck her nonetheless. He was pale, his body hair in stark contrast to his flawless skin, though it was not quite as dark as his crow's black head. She had liked his lean build from the start, but she also liked his straight, non too lean, and right now very eager cock, she decided. And no one would have been more surprised by this than herself. All the fretting, and all she thought of right now was how she could make him keep making those noises. Inej settled down more comfortably, propping herself up on her elbow.

She stroked him, unhurriedly and lightly at first, but without a moment's pause. Tremors ran through him, whenever she applied a little more pressure, and though he tried to keep quiet, he was having less and less success with that. Inej quickly slicked her palm with her tongue, allowing herself a little sigh at the smell and taste he had left there. His cock strained towards her hand, and when she gripped him properly now, Kaz's hands fisted in the sheets, his mouth opened slightly, and he moaned on every breath until it turned into panting. This was him without armor. Saints, how deeply he must trust her. She could not even imagine what it took him to allow her seeing him this vulnerable. She felt tears in her eyes. One day she wanted to be able to do the same for him.

"You need to let go", she choked out. After a few more strokes she lost her nerve, knelt up and ran her tongue along the ridge on his cock's underside. Then she gave its head a quick, thorough suck and quickly leaned back. His back arched and he cried out, then gasped an almost unitelligible, broken "Inej" before he came all over his stomach.

She stroked him through the pulses, until the very last of the tension was gone. Then Inej took her hand back and hoped.

She watched Kaz return to his senses slowly, very slowly for him, she thought. He opened unfocused eyes after a minute, flickering to her face. With an unidentifiable sound he covered his face with both his hands. "I... Hell, I am sorry", she heard, muffled. "I am so-"

"What the fuck, Kaz." Inej snorted. She felt too giddy to watch her words, but the relief was overwhelming.

He finally looked at her, his cheeks blotchy red and white. "I... You didn't... You should not..."

"You don't get to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, Kaz. And this was all me, so what could you possibly be apologizing for?"

Kaz bit his bottom lip, searching her face for something. Revulsion? Regret? He didn't believe her, that much was clear.

"I have never wanted this before, true enough. But I have never felt like this either." She decided to risk taking his hand. There was no adverse reaction at all, he was still flying high, she thought. Without that stupid, brilliant head on his shoulders they could even have tried kissing tonight. But he was already on his way back to control. She quickly brought his hand up against her belly, then pushed it further until she could slide it into the warm wetness between her legs.

Kaz closed his eyes tight and sucked in a shuddering breath. When he looked at her again a second later, something like awe and profound confusion mingled in his eyes, to be replaced by lust a moment later. The effect on his body was immediate and undeniable. He took his hand back and gave a dissonant groan, clearly embarrassed and lost for words.

"Without armor," she reminded him. Hoping he saw she was talking about herself as much as him this time.

"Without clothes too?" he grumbled.

She laughed at that. "Whatever it takes to fight our way out."

Kaz stilled, considering. His gaze felt so intense she could feel her skin heating up.

Inej rose from the bed. "I should be going." The high would only last so long, she knew, even if he did not, and there was no way she'd risk what headway they'd made. If he was going to panic about this later, he could do so in private, she decided. She tied her tunic and found her slippers, ruthlessly suppressing her need to look at Kaz watching her, or touch him again. Kiss the shell of his ear or slide her hands through his mussed-up hair. She would do all those things, she promised herself, but not tonight. Rule two: keep your touches to the absolutely necessary minimum.

She had almost come to believe he'd dispense with further words, but when she finally did turn in order to hoist herself on the sill, he spoke up, after all. "Were you not afraid?"

She felt herself blushing a little but forced herself to be honest. "Not once I saw it worked. For you, I mean. Before, I was afraid you might push me away."

"I would have if I could have." Bitter words, but all she heard was wonder and puzzlement. "Tell me about this theory now?"

"I'm sure you're smart enough to figure that one out," she told him, smirking. She swang her legs out of the window. Looking over her shoulder, she cast one last look at the boy on the bed. She would not see him on the quai tomorrow, she was certain. "We both needed something to think about while I'm gone. And I didn't want it to be only fretting and fear."

He was about to reply something, but she was aready sliding down the shingles, leaving the window open so her crows could wake him in the morning.

A one-shot that could easily be expanded, obviously. Tell me what you're thinking, please? I am dying to know if this works!