A/N-Hey guys! As it says in the description, this oneshhot is for ThatBlondeALB. You are amazing! your review gave me so many ideas, so thank you! And without futher ado, your chapter!
Inej woke up and stretched. She yawned as she did her morning exercises. Three steps down the stairs leading to the Crow Club, she noticed almost inaudible breathing behind her. She whirled around.
"Kaz?"
He had his hands up, as Inej was known to grab one of her knives first and ask questions later.
"You caught me. Can I…take you to breakfast?"
"Sure."
They went to one of Ketterdam's many coffeehouses and were served the usual brown sludge in chipped mugs and bad jam on stale toast. Inej grimaced as she took a tentative sip.
"They're out of sugar again. For Saints' sake."
Kaz waved his hand for the bill.
"Twenty kruge? This is ridiculous."
"I'll pay, Kaz. Don't worry about it."
Inej left the coins on the table and they walked out.
"Hey, Inej. Look."
Inej looked where Kaz was pointing and saw a horse-drawn carriage.
"Black and red," she said, "like our souls."
This made Kaz smile.
Inej continued.
"Red is the color of love, you know."
"And what's black the color of?"
"Power. Mystery."
"And red is also the color of ruthlessness. Anger. Blood."
"I'd like to think the only one that applies to me is the last one."
"…Speaking of which, you never really told me what happened to you when we were in the Stadhall."
"I'd…rather not."
"All right, Wraith," Kaz said teasingly, "I'll let you keep this one secret."
Inej smiled. She liked it when Kaz joked around. His face looked more like it belonged to a seventeen-year-old boy when he smiled, which made her fall in love with him a little bit more every time he did it.
Kaz held out his hand and Inej took it as she stepped into the carriage, even though they both knew for a fact she wouldn't lose her balance. She'd proven that countless times.
Kaz handed the carriage driver five kruge and said, "Take us to the park, please."
Their driver tried to make conversation until he glanced back and saw both of his passengers glaring at him.
When they got out, Kaz said, "Saints, I hate when strangers try to talk to people they're providing a service to."
Inej nodded.
"Yeah, like if I'm trying to buy a new shirt and the shopkeeper tries to talk. I loathe people who do that. No offense to them, but they need to shut up before I shut them up. With Sankta Alina."
Kaz glanced down to see Inej's hand over her hip, where she kept the deadliest of her five knives. He smiled at her.
"Anyway, let's go to the park."
They walked along the path together for a while when they ran into Wylan. He looked at them and held out a basket.
"Nina said she had orders to have this delivered to you, Kaz."
"I didn't give her any orders."
"Well, maybe you better take this anyway."
Inej took the basket.
"Thanks, Wylan."
Inej opened the basket and was too busy figuring out what was inside to notice Kaz flash Wylan a thumbs-up. Wylan nodded back, the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Kaz rolled his eyes and returned his attention to Inej.
She pulled the corner of a blanket out of the basket, put it back, and then pulled out a sandwich.
"Kaz, this is a picnic basket."
"Oh, really? Huh. Wonder why Nina wanted to deliver that to us."
"Kaz Rietveld. You're hiding something."
"I'm always hiding something, Inej Ghafa."
Inej shoved him, knowing that it wouldn't do much, even with Kaz's bad leg.
"Stop being so stubborn! Tell me what it is!"
Kaz shook his head.
"Let's just have this picnic that Nina wanted us to have."
"Ugh. Fine."
They picked a spot off the path and opened the blanket.
They had spent the whole day after lunch laughing and talking on the picnic blanket. It was dark now, and they were lying on their backs, looking at the stars. Suddenly, Kaz got up.
"I'm gonna go see about buying us some hot chocolate."
"No, stay."
"Inej, I'm cold."
"All right."
A few minutes after Kaz left, a stranger approached Inej and squatted down next to her.
"Are you Wraith?"
She sat up on her elbows.
"To some. What do you want?"
"I was told to give you a message from someone named KR."
"What was the message?"
"He said to tell you to check his coat pockets."
"Okay, thank you."
The stranger got up and left.
Inej picked up the coat Kaz had left behind. Of course you were cold, silly boy. This coat is absolutely threadbare.
She made a mental note to get him a new one as she dug through the pockets. In the last one, she found a piece of paper. It was thick and creamy white, like the type a merch would use.
It said in Kaz's jagged handwriting, "Go to the White Rose."
Inej was confused, but she followed the instructions.
On one of the upper windows of the White Rose, she saw a purple flash. So she climbed the building, using the windowsills at footholds. When she got up to the purple flash, it turned out to be a piece of purple sparkly fabric, probably from one of the girls' dresses. It had another piece of paper attached to it.
"Go to the roof of Per Haskell's house."
Inej sighed. So Kaz was sending her on a scavenger hunt. It was getting late in Ketterdam, so she kept one hand on her knives and stayed in the shadows. She climbed down the wall of the White Rose and back up a different wall, the outside of an apartment building. She hopped from roof to roof when she got to the top, staying low.
She got to Per Haskell's house and glanced around for another piece of paper. There wasn't one.
"Inej."
She whirled around.
"That's twice in one day, Kaz. You've been practicing."
Kaz was standing there, leaning on his crow's head cane. He smiled, then took a step forward. The cocky smile became a grimace. Inej stepped forward, meeting him in the middle.
"You climb up here yourself?"
"Yeah."
"And up the White Rose?"
"No. I went through the inside and stuck it in the window that way."
"Well, at least you only had to climb one building."
"Yeah, that makes it so much better."
"Sorry." Inej suddenly realized their faces were really close together and the clouds of their breath were mixing in the cold evening air. Her eyes flicked down when she heard rustling.
Kaz was taking off his gloves.
She looked back up into his eyes.
"Are you sure?"
"If you can do it, so can I."
Stubborn Kaz, she thought, always competitive.
"I can do it."
Kaz brought his left hand up and gently rested it on her shoulder.
"You want me to stop, you tell me."
Inej nodded, her breath stolen by the intensely focused expression on the face of the boy in front of her.
Kaz took a deep breath and slowly, slowly, put his other hand on her cheek.
Inej flinched and Kaz froze. It's all right, she told herself, you can do this. Kaz is not those other men. You will be okay.
Kaz watched as her eyebrows furrowed, and she slowly rested her cheek in his hand.
Inej took a small step forward, bringing her body toward Kaz's.
Kaz tensed up as he felt her soft curves push up against him. She put the tip of her nose against his cheek.
"You okay, Brekker?"
Kaz nodded, so Inej turned her head and put her whole cheek against his.
Kaz slowly, not wanting to scare Inej, put his arms around her, and suddenly, they were hugging. It was somehow much more intimate than a kiss would have been. Inej felt Kaz's ragged breathing as tears leaked out of her eyes.
"Inej."
She looked up.
"Kaz."
He took his bare thumb and brushed it across her cheek, wiping a tear away.
"I have something to tell you."
Kaz unwrapped one arm from the Suli girl and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a little box.
Inej watched as he flicked it open with his thumb. Inside was a small silver ring. It had a tiny pewter crow's head on it that matched Kaz's cane.
"Inej, I'd be really honored if you agreed…to, um…"
"Marry you? Kaz, I'd have to stop hunting slavers…"
"No! No, you wouldn't. We'd each be fine on our own, going about our business, but at least we'd have some family, right?"
Inej smiled.
"Yeah. Family sounds wonderful."
A/N-I had to make a few changes because in the Six of Crows world, they don't have cell phones. Sorry about that! Please like it.
The next chapter of TSWH is coming out soon, guys, I promise. I have a teeny bit of writer's block, which is why this is out late as well. Sorry about that. Thank you to my WONDERFUL temporary beta, FlyingCats777! As always, my PM is open if you want to talk. If you want to be my freind, all you have to do is send me a PM letting me know and I'll just be like, "Hi friend! :D" I love meeting new people!
Love,
Baz