A/N: i was walking my dog today and saw a snake and just? what? straight up have not seen a snake outside of a museum/zoo before and they're so cute and slithery oh my god
The Wraith pulled into berth twenty-two amid the calamity of an early morning on the docks. Workers and fisherman rushed back and forth, blocking the ship from view as it lowered its gangplank. Already, even after just two months at sea, the business owners of Ketterdam had begun to whisper about a ship stopping slave trade. It hadn't made too much of an impact on the local market yet, but it was sure to be a matter of time. Everytime Kaz heard a whisper from some puffed up mercher about the new force patrolling the seas, he felt a swell of pride.
He stood now, after two months of missing her, waiting for Inej to find him on the docks. She had sent a letter from Os Kervo, mailed to Wylan's house, as any official looking mail carrier was sure to get jumped if they wandered too far into the Barrel. Jesper had brought it over the day before, a slightly too knowing grin on his face after seeing Inej's name on the sender's address. Kaz hadn't written her these two months. Everytime he tried it felt off, somehow. As if the promise he had made her, to try, was a looming shadow behind him, the sharp blade in its grasp poisoned with the venom of his past. And without a more detailed explanation of her voyages, he wouldn't have known where to send the letters anyway.
Between a gap in two fishman, Kaz could just make out a small, dark-haired figure coming off the ship and onto the docks. She was talking to a taller girl he hadn't seen before, someone rescued during her travels, most likely. He took a few hasty steps forward before forcing himself to assume the more dignified pace of the Barrel boss that he had become.
Inej caught sight of him almost immediately. She turned to face her crew behind her on the dock and said a few quick words that Kaz couldn't quite catch. The crew nodded, before dispersing through the docks. Inej turned, a smile breaking across her face that knocked the wind from Kaz's chest. She hurried towards him, her steps as graceful as a dancer gliding across a stage.
"Hello," Inej said breathlessly when she stopped to meet him.
Suddenly finding himself unable to meet her eyes, Kaz roughly pulled a small bouquet of cyclamen flowers from behind his back and held them out to Inej. "These are for you," he said, his face heating.
Inej carefully accepted the flowers, her sure fingers deftly avoiding Kaz's hand - he hadn't worn his gloves. "Thank you," she said, and when Kaz forced himself to meet her gaze, the smile on her face was bright enough to outshine all the lights in Ketterdam.
"How's the ship doing?" he asked, trying to think of anything other than her face.
"A very good investment," Inej said, a teasing smile on her lips as she looked up at Kaz. "Jesper's going to take a look at it while we're here. Perhaps adding some more firepower, in case we're facing bigger ships on our next trip."
"Making enemies already, Wraith?" Kaz said.
"These enemies, I'm glad to have," Inej told him. "If it means someone is slowing down the slavers, hunting them down, I'd take on every slave hauler in Ketterdam."
"I'll stay out of that business, then," Kaz said. "Wouldn't want to find myself on the wrong side of your knives."
Inej smiled as she looked down at her flowers, then out at her ship, its sail fluttering in the light breeze coming in off the sea. The docks had quieted in the time they had been talking, the fisherman heading out early to bring in the day's catch and Kaz couldn't tell if he was grateful or not for the sudden lack of distractions. Inej crossed to the side of the wooden path. She leaned against the rail, looking out at the sea. Kaz followed, forcing himself to step just a little closer to her then he had been standing before.
The tail of Inej's braid, caught in a gust of wind, brushed against his back as she took a sideways step towards him, enough that there was barely two inches of space between them. "I saw Nina on my way back," she told him, her eyes still fixed on the horizon.
"How is she?" Kaz asked. She had been destroyed after Matthais' death, headed off to Ravka, then on to Fedja to bury him. Seeing Nina, usually upbeat and determined, so utterly devastated had scared Kaz. He could only imagine what losing Inej would feel like.
"She's as well as she can be. Better," Inej said. Then, after a moment, "She's heading up north in a week or so. A new mission from the king."
"That'll be good for her. You know Nina, she can't be bored for too long," Kaz said.
"We should send her some waffles," Inej said.
"I don't think your ship could fit enough waffles for Nina," Kaz said.
"We'd have to commission a fleet," Inej replied.
And Kaz, swallowing his fear, took the one miniscule step needed to close the tiny space between them. Layers of shirts and coats between them, but still, it was contact, closeness. He leaned forward, balancing his elbows on the rail so they were a little closer in height. Inej exhaled slowly, contentedly as she looked out at her ship. Kaz counted slowly to ten, then back down. It was Inej. Just Inej. No one else around, no nightmares, no bodies, no death. Just him and Inej. He let out a breath and allowed the small and deeply repressed side of himself to enjoy her presence.
He climbed up the rickety stairs to his room, Inej following behind him. His leg hadn't been bad today, and for once his daily ascent up the stairs, one he forced himself to make to prove he could, didn't hurt. He and Inej had walked from the docks through the more respectable streets of Ketterdam, quiet in the still of the morning. Ketterdam was, undoubtedly, a nightlife city, but in the wealthier parts of town, remnants of respectability could be found in the way its residents roused themselves and headed off to their modest jobs. It was calming, sometimes. If he could look past their complicity in the dirty deals, the corrupted politics, the slave trade and indentures.
They had walked the cobblestone streets up through to the wealthier districts, talking of Inej's travels, the lighthouse she had climbed in the Wandering Isle, the sunset she had seen in Ravka. Kaz told her about the city in her absence. He kept the less favourable details to himself, but told her of the schemes and heists of the last few weeks. Though still illegal in some regard, Kaz couldn't help but feel a little giddy when Inej looked at him almost proudly when she heard the motivation for each and every one of the jobs. It was all something to do with leveling the playing field, taking down the corrupt players in the game of crime and the ruining of lives that fueled the underbelly of Ketterdam's more lucrative business deals.
By the time they had made their way to the Van Eck manor, the sun was well and truly and both had caught the other up on their adventures over the last two months. Kaz felt lighter, somehow, with Inej beside him. Like just her standing beside was enough to hold back the relentless tide of grief and pain that threatened to consume him.
Before they had even made it halfway from the street to the door, Jesper was bounding out the front door, seizing Inej in a bear hug and spinning her around. Wylan made his greetings in a more reserved, but just as happy manner. Settling into the comfortable chatter of the two boys, Inej followed them into the house, already beginning to regale them with stories of her travels. Jesper and Wylan led them into a sitting room where they sat on the plush carpet and ate the assortment of fine pastries prepared by Wylan's chef. Inej handed out the variety of gifts she'd purchased for them on her travels. For Wylan, special paints made from eastern jurda blooms, a print of the Little Palace in Ravka and a roughly carven flute Inej had found on the rocky beaches on the Wandering Isle. For Jesper, a package of Ravkan tea, proclaimed by Nina to be the best in the land, a bright green, excessively loud and very Jesper-looking hat and Zemeni polish for his guns. At the sight of the latter, Jesper whooped, immediately pulling his guns from the holsters at his side and polishing them tenderly.
By the time Inej and Kaz headed back out onto the street, it was well into the afternoon and Kaz's gloves had found their way back onto his hands. They had walked the streets back to the Slat in a comfortable silence, falling back into the rhythm they had found while working together. Eyes roving the alleys ahead, Inej watching Kaz's bad side, even though anyone with enough sense to last a day in the Barrel would know better than to attack Dirtyhands and his Wraith.
Kaz slid his key into the lock and pushed open the door, holding it open behind him for Inej.
"So," he said, settling into the chair behind his desk and peeling off his gloves. "What have you got for me?"
Inej rattled off a list of names, most of which Kaz recognized, all wealthy merchers. "No hard evidence on any of them," Inej said. "They're in on it, though. If I can find a way to connect these disappearances back to them-"
"If you haven't found anything by your next visit, I'll take them out," Kaz told her. "Nothing too bad. Burn their reputations, destroy their business and fortunes, but leave them to live out the rest of their lives in misery."
"They'd deserve it," Inej whispered. "The things I saw on those ships, Kaz, the things that could have happened to me . . . "
Kaz took a deep breath, stealing himself before saying, "The Menagerie is set to reopen this month," he had been dreading telling her for weeks now, knowing the pain it caused to to even think of the place.
Inej looked up from her hands at him. "I don't know what to do, Kaz. I haven't got anything on her yet. However Heleen manages to get her contracts, it's too well hidden for me to find without more time."
"I've got someone on the inside, a cleaner there," Kaz said. "They're working on it. Whatever it takes, they won't reopen. If I have to burn the damn place down myself to keep it from happening, I'll do it."
"I'll find something," Inej said. "This brand of criminal isn't as smart as you, they'll have left a trail somewhere."
"No brand of criminal is as smart as me, least of all some filthy slaver," Kaz said, relief flooding through him as Inej smiled slightly. "Now help me with this, won't you? I've got to knock some of those names off your list by morning."
Inej took up her spot by the window, chiming in with Kaz's scheming as she saw fit. This was more than she had even dared to hope for when she had left. Though not entirely morally grounded, Kaz kept up only the barest of cons, scamming tourists out of their money, while the core of his focus was fixed on uprooting the dark underbelly of Ketterdam.
The next time Kaz looked up, Inej's eyes were closed, her legs tucked up onto the window ledge and her face pressed against the closed pane of glass. "Inej," he said softly.
She stirred, slightly, shifting her head back against the frame, her eyes still closed. "What?" she murmured.
"Are you going back to Wylan's?" Kaz asked, ignoring the flutter in his chest when he considered the other option.
Inej peeled her eyes open and looked out at the dark street. Rain was once again falling, pounding against the roof and blanketing the city in a chill. She shivered slightly at the cold leaching into the room from the window.
"You can stay here," Kaz said, before quickly adding, "If you want, I mean. I - I don't expect anything, you don't have to-"
"Kaz," Inej said, "Yes, if it's okay with you, then yes."
"Okay," he said, a smile fighting its way onto his face against the rising feeling of panic.
"Do you have something I could borrow to sleep in?" Inej asked, sliding her legs off the window frame and swiveling around to face him.
Kaz stood there for a second. She wanted something of his to sleep in? "Yes, of course, just give me a minute," he said, standing from his chair and crossing to his closet.
He ducked inside, letting the door swung partially shut behind him to conceal him from view. What on earth should he give her? Something warm, undoubtedly, given the way she had shivered from the windowsill. But all of his winter clothing was either packed away, buried under mothballs or torn and bloodstained from the Ice Court heist. Muttering curses, he began rummaging through the small closet, tossing aside half of the clothing he owned that was soaked through with bloodstains that had never come out.
"Kaz," Inej said from the door.
He had felt her presence a split second earlier and straighted.
Looking as if she was holding in a laugh, Inej quickly surveyed the jumbled heap of clothes, before slipping past him and pulling a soft black collared shirt from the pile. "I'll take this, if that's alright," she said.
"Yes," Kaz said horsley. "You can change in here."
He slipped from the closet as Inej pulled the door shut and changed quickly. He could feel the cold rush of fear mixing with excitement of having her here, staying the night. Kaz sucked down several deep lungfuls of air, trying to calm the pounding of his heart.
A moment later, Inej stepped out of the closet. Kaz's shirt hung halfway down her thighs and she had rolled the sleeves up at least four times. He took a few steps forward before he even registered that he was moving.
Halting his hasty footsteps Kaz said, "I could sleep in the chair if you'd prefer."
Inej looked at him carefully, before saying, "Do you want to try? Just being together," she trailed off, not meeting his gaze.
"Okay," Kaz said quietly. He walked past her and moved to the lamp, dimming the glow of the bulb. As he moved to switch off the light beside his desk, he could hear Inej behind him, settling onto his bed.
When he turned, the room now dark, he could see her silhouetted form, pulling her hair from its long palit as she sat cross-legged on his bed. She shook her hair out with one hand, the other setting her hair tie on his nightstand.
Kaz crossed the room to her on shaky legs. He pulled back the quilt and slid under the blankets, making sure to keep a healthy distance between them. The mattress shifted as Inej switched from sitting to lying back against the pillows. He thanked himself for remembering to change his sheets for once.
Her being this close to her frightened him. It was intoxicating, the jasmine scent of her soap mixing with the fresh rain smell floating in from the partially closed window. He wanted to be closer to her and yet, at the same time, he was planning out how to get across the room to the door as fast as possible. The only noise was the unsteady rhythm of their breathing and the beat of rain against the roof above.
Staring at the dark ceiling, Kaz heard the gentle rustling of blankets as Inej moved her hand into the space between them. An invitation, and a welcome one, but also a challenge; Inej never made a sound unless she wanted to. Quickly wiping his sweaty palms on the fabric of his pants, he reached out towards her in the dark. Not quite touching, but close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating from her, he was sure his heart was pounding against his ribs loudly enough for her to hear it.
Inej moved her hand a half inch closer, still a hairsbreadth away from his. He felt his breathing speed up. He could tell Inej was nervous, too, from how still she was keeping herself. He forced himself to take two deep, measured breaths before moving his hand to close the final, tiny space between them. Their fingertips brushed. Both of them still staring at the ceiling, he could hear Inej's sharp intake of breath.
He counted up to ten, then back down. It's okay, it's only Inej. No harbour, no Jordie, just Inej and your room, he told himself, still focusing on his breathing as it slowly returned to its usual pace. Kaz moved his fingers a little more, intertwining the ends of their fingers. Not quite holding hands, but he didn't think he could take much more contact than this.
Inej's hand trembled slightly in his own. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Yes, " she said after a moment. She turned her head to meet Kaz's gaze in the dark. "Just happy to be with you."