A/N: this one's really short, i just wanted to update before i head off to work. i've been kinda slammed with school and ball recently, but i'll try to update with a longer chapter as soon as i can :)
When Kaz woke the next day, he was instantly aware of two things. The first was the sunlight streaming in from his partially opened window. The second was the arm intertwined with his own.
The feeling of skin on skin instantly pulled him from the drudges of sleepiness and he rolled away, scrambling off the bed and barely managing to keep from knocking his head on the nightstand as he tumbled to the ground. He stumbled to his feet, still moving away from the bed as he struggled to get his breathing under control.
"Kaz?" Inej said sleepily, pushing herself halfway into a seated position to look at him. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kaz panted. "Stay there."
As the wave of nausea subsided, Kaz looked up at Inej. Her long hair was tangled and sticking every which way and she had lines pressed into her cheek from the creases of his pillows. Kaz didn't think he had ever seen her look more beautiful. Though the sight of her did nothing to help calm his breathing, Kaz pushed thoughts of the harbour and Jordie away.
Inej slipped out from under the blankets and crossed the room to him, stopping a few feet away to give him space. "Are you alright?" she asked again, turning her head to force him to meet her gaze.
He felt the hot glow of a blush climb onto his cheeks. Inej, who had been through so much, had suffered so much, was fine, and he was here panicking over holding hands? "I'm fine," he said again, perhaps a little colder than he had meant to.
Turning away from her, he crossed to the window and peered out at the clocktower. He could just barely make out the hands through the startling brightness of the morning. He was surprised to see it was already past eight bells. He felt Inej beside him, still making sure to give him a few inches of space as he recovered from the shock of unanticipated contact. He looked down at her, her eyes closed as she allowed the sunlight to wash over her face.
Her eyes flicked open and she glanced at Kaz, still staring down at her. "What?" Inej asked, a flicker of a smile on her face.
"We're about to be late to meet Jesper and Wylan," he said, holding her gaze.
Inej squinted out at the clock tower in the distance, her mouth falling open in a surprised 'o' when she saw the time; both of them typically woke well before dawn, if they even managed to get to sleep at all. Kaz suppressed a small laugh at the look on her face as he turned away from the window to get ready. Inej changed quickly in his closet and sat cross legged on his bed, winding her hair into a coil as he splashed water on his face and tugged on a clean shirt. Kaz grabbed his cane and hat, and they were out the door, headed towards the slightly more respectable part of Ketterdam.
Kaz wore black, as always, but Inej had swapped her usual close-fitting dark clothes for a looser white tunic and cropped brown pants. Kaz smiled to himself as he realized she was still wearing her rubber soled shoes, ready to scale a wall at a moment's notice.
The Barrel was quiet, the streets nearly empty in the morning sun. They made their way to the tidy little coffeehouse Wylan had selected, meeting him and Jesper outside, the latter clicking his tongue sarcastically at their lateness.
"Good morning," Inej said sunnily, giving both of the boys a quick hug before following Wylan inside.
Jesper caught Kaz's eye, giving him an over exaggerated wink at the sight of him and Inej arriving together. After all, if Inej hadn't returned to the manor the night before, there was only one place she would have gone now that her old room at the Slat had been taken over by Anika. Rolling his eyes, Kaz followed his friends inside, hiding a smile behind his usual griminance.