Inej finished telling Kaz her take on what happened, and he stared at her blankly. She shifted under his gaze, waiting for him to speak.

"Why did you do that?" He asked with a frown.

Inej frowned back at him. "What do you mean?"

"I told you to run, to leave me there. You could have gotten killed, and you could have killed yourself," he said angrily.

"You're an ungrateful monster Kaz Brekker." Inej was angry, but she kept her cool. Kaz was unreasonable on a good day, and this wasn't exactly a good day for either of them.

"I gave you an out and you didn't take it. You should have left, I was as good as dead anyways. More of a liability than anything at that point. Inej, sentiment gets people killed in our line of work, you should know that by now. Caring is a liability."

Anger flared inside of Inej. Sitting in a room and letting thoughts about Kaz dying fester for the past three days had done a number on her nerves and her temper. She did not need a lecture right now.

Her eyes narrowed as she practically hissed, "So I'm just a liability then. First, I'm just an investment and now I'm just a liability. I really can't believe you! You owe me your life, and not just from this. At the very least you owe me an apology! You are such a bast-"

The door opened and Inej cut off abruptly. Nina looked between the pair. Kaz looked irritated, but what else was new. Inej though, Inej looked furious. Nina could see the anger behind her dark eyes. Nina thought she also detected a glint of panic, but she wasn't quite sure. She cleared her throat.

"Alright, so, I'm clearly interrupting something here. Whatever it is, you probably deserve it Kaz. But let me remind you that we found our dear Inej here covered in blood sitting next to two corpses. Just thought you might want to keep that in mind," Nina said cheerfully as she set down the jug of water she had brought up. "I'll let you two get back to it then. Although, Inej, I did work really hard to keep him alive, so maybe don't kill him? You do you though." She shrugged and left, clearly unconcerned.

Inej turned her attention back to Kaz, but he had slumped back down onto the bed. Looking at him, she felt the tide of anger slip away.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I… thank you. Honestly."

Inej nodded. "You're welcome," she told him curtly.

Kaz sighed. "Why do things always have to become complicated with us?"

At the word 'us', Inej looked up in surprise. "I wasn't aware that there was an 'us'," she said carefully.

"Well, there isn't," Kaz agreed. "Thanks to me," he muttered under his breath.

"Hmm?" Inej wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly.

"Nothing. I'm tired Inej," Kaz snapped and closed his eyes.

Her shoulders drooped. "I'll leave so you can get some rest then." She stood up to leave.

"Inej," Kaz blurted out. The girl in question turned her head to look at him. He didn't say anything for a minute. "Stay. I mean… will you? Stay?"

Inej smiled sadly and took a seat in her armchair. She might not be ready to forget, but against her better judgement, she would always forgive him. Kaz returned the smile and then settled down into the mattress as best as he could. Fighting off sleep herself, she could pinpoint the exact moment when his breathing leveled out and he drifted off to sleep.

Before sleep could consume him, the only thoughts rattling through Kaz's head were the circumstances under which Inej had last demanded an apology from him.


AN: So, our little Kaz finally tries his hand at feelings! A bit of a shorter chapter this time, but I'll have more up soon. The next chapter will hopefully make up for it. Thank you all for your support this far!