Kanej Week 2022 will be held from June 19-25 2022, celebrating the most beloved ship in the Grishaverse. Prompts are pinned, and our askbox is open for any questions you may have. Welcome! (run by @southslates/dee and @cruelhighways/jasmine)
Kanej Week is occuring from June 19 - 25th. These are the prompts. Any type of content creation is welcomed. Tag us on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram (@kanejweek) whenever you post! If you’re planning on posting a fic, add it to our AO3 collection “KanejWeek2022″.
Sunday, June 19th: Royalty
Kings & Queens
Masquerade
Monday, June 20th: Storytelling
Once Upon a Time
The 5+1 Trope
Tuesday, June 21st: Relationships
Marriage
First Dates
Wednesday, June 22nd: Supernatural
Angels & Demons
Ghosts
Thursday, June 23th: Affection
Rooftops & Stars
Love Language
Friday, June 24th: Perspective
Jealousy
Outsider POV
Saturday, June 25th: Growth
Memories
Sharing & Secrets
We will be reblogging content for all seven days for three weeks after the event ends (until July 16), so please don’t fret if you want to take some extra time on them. You can do the prompts day by day or out of order, it’s completely your choice.
Rules & FAQ: (all asks are here)
Kanej must be the primary ship of your content, but it doesn’t need to be the only ship, does not need to be romantic, and polyamorous or multiple relationships with Kaz and Inej are allowed.
Accepted examples: Kaz/Inej/Jesper, Kaz/Inej and Nina/Inej in the same fic, Kaz & Inej, Kaz/Inej and Jesper/Wylan and Nina/Matthias in equal measure
Not accepted examples: Just Nina/Inej or Kaz/Jesper, Jesper/Wylan with background Kaz/Inej, any Y/N or readers/Kaz or Inej
Please tag and TW all your content with the appropriate triggers. If you’re posting NSFW (for matters of sexually explicit or violent content) on Tumblr, please place all explicit content under a cut. If you’re posting on Twitter, please put a TW above your tweet. On AO3, please use the tagging system to your advantage.
We will not be gatekeeping what kind of content you produce as long as it is tagged correctly. We may not reblog content that is not properly tagged.
Is the collection not showing up for you on AO3? Just type “KanejWeek2021″ and post your fic, even if it doesn’t automatically show up. The collection is open and the mods will add your fic to the collection if it’s not working for you.
The prompts are completely free to interpretation. There are no guidelines, so have fun with them!
Our askbox will be open for any more questions during the week.
Inej kills someone for the first time, and Kaz sort of comforts her (he’s still Kaz).
For the seventh (and last :( )day of Kanej Week. The prompt is “Memories.”
Words: 866, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 7 of Kanej Week 2022
Fandoms: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: F/M
Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Additional Tags: Kanej - Freeform, Kanej Week 2022, Inej’s first kill, Kaz comforts her in his very Kaz way, prompt: memories, It’s pretty loose around the prompt, it starts as Inej’s memory, POV Inej Ghafa, POV Kaz Brekker
I posted a trio of absurdly fluffy, absurdly domestic kanej-as-parents ficlets this week to celebrate @kanejweek, so here they are linked for your convenience:
1. prompt: “first dates” (linked here)
summary/snippet:
“That was my first date with Inej,” he responds, as if it were common knowledge.
Based on the incredulous look Inej shoots him in response, that’s hardly the case. “You think the DeKappel heist was our first date, Kaz?”
“…Yes?”
2. prompt: “ghosts” (linked here)
summary/snippet:
“Do you believe in ghosts?” Saritha inquires offhandedly, tilting her head toward her sister.
The glare that Lieze shoots at her is sharper than Mama’s collection of knives. “Please tell me that’s not the only reason you’re making me walk you home.”
3. prompt: “sharing & secrets” (linked here)
summary/snippet:
There were very few secrets that Inej kept from Kaz anymore. After all, with two children and nearly two decades of marriage between them, they’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything they didn’t already know about one another.
In fact, the puppy she’d been hiding in the downstairs coat closet was probably the first secret she’d kept from him in a long time.
Written for @kanejweek 2022 day 6 prompt: jealousy
For all his dark, dangerous reputation and his dead-eyed stare, Kaz Brekker catches the eyes of plenty of mercher’s wives at the annual ball in Ketterdam.
Inej Ghafa, watching from the other side of the room, has one way of keeping her jealousy at bay… and her man on his knees.
Written for @kanejweek 2022, day 5 prompt: rooftops and stars.
Read on AO3 now, or continue below…
Kaz always kept his window in his attic rooms open, now, even when Inej was far off on the True Sea. He liked the feeling it gave him; the ersatz possibility of his girl coming back to him, climbing silently through his window like she had so many times before. He was used to constantly feeling Ketterdam through the open panes; the muggy heaviness of the summer, the relentless rain of what passed as autumn.
And on the nights the loneliness was too much for Kaz to bear — when Inej had been gone for longer than usual, or his day in the Barrel had been particularly trying — Kaz would climb slowly through Inej’s window, and out onto the rooftop.
He’d lain here countless times by her side; sometimes in each others arms, sometimes just with their pinky fingers linked. They’d lie together and look up at the silent sky, the stars that watched over Kerch, watched over them.
He climbed through his window now, wincing as his bad leg spasmed and seized. Carefully he climbed the roof tiles, lying on his back when he reached their usual spot. As he looked up at the night sky, he let his mind drift, wondering what stars Inej was watching right now.
My submission to Kanej Week is just on tumblr this year - this is a yet-unbeta’d section of my 5+1 times Kanej wip. It’s fallen to the wayside between other fic projects and personal life, but I really want to get around to completing it sometime. I’ll most likely have a more polished version of this scene in the final fic that gets posted to Ao3, eventually, but since I don’t have time to complete a fic by the time Kanej Week is over, this is my contribution for now, because I was getting FOMO.
cw for references to inej’s menagerie trauma, descriptions of corpses, and kaz’s haphephobia/ptsd
@kanejweek day 5 || affection/love languages
Slowly, an unspoken ritual formed between them, in which Kaz would shuck off his gloves in the quiet seclusion of his attic room. Once or twice, after an exhausting job, he even removed his shirt to wash off in her presence, though Inej always made a point of averting her eyes. For a long time, Kaz thought that would be the extent of it: him allowing her glimpses of his bare hands, comfortable in the knowledge she would never come near enough to touch him, never use his weaknesses against him.
Kaz never anticipated it would amount to more than that. How could it, after all, with the way his stomach turned at the slightest brush of skin on skin, and his mind thrust him back to the freezing waters of the harbour as he clung to his brother’s bloated corpse?
But the heist on the Ice Court, and the subsequent conning of Jan Van Eck, changed everything.
There was Inej pressing a hand to his cheek on the roof of the Ice Court. There was Kaz brushing his lips against her neck in a steam-filled bathroom. There was the pair of them standing at the harbour overlooking Berth Twenty-Two, their fingers interlocked. He’d clasped her hand in both of his on the day she left Ketterdam for the first time, rubbing his thumbs over the calluses on her palm.
Inej waits patiently behind the wall separating the tiny kitchen at the Slat from the rest of the ground floor. It's six bells at dawn and most of the Dregs are either asleep or too drunk to make sense of anything. She has blended herself well within the darkness of the room and indulges in watching her co-members snore and murmur in their sorry states.
A soft rhythmic tapping makes her scoot further into the darkest corner.
Kaz is finally downstairs.
After six months of being in the gang, she has caught onto some of his oddest habits. His sugar intake in beverages being far more than hers, him feeding his stomach at unsaintly hours, her finding him fiddling with a set of cards when he's unable to scheme, or him going out for early morning walks.
Inej watches him step out and shut the door. She slips out of the shadows, opts to exit the place through a window, and follows him quietly.
"Come to join me for a walk?"
Her feather-light feet halt in their pursuit and her eyes widen. How? Was she too loud jumping out that window? Or had he already spotted her back in the kitchen? He'll never tell her.
She slides away from her obscured position behind the column of a rundown cottage and reveals herself.
Her eyes immediately take note of the slight lift of one end of his lips. That smirk– a clear indication of his awareness of the game they're playing– irks her the most. He knows she's been trying to sneak up on him ever since that night at the Menagerie where he had told her not to. He knows, yet he won't address it outright.
Inej takes a breath to suppress her annoyance and walks down the cobblestones to fall in step with him. One of these days she'll definitely catch him off-guard.
2
They're on a job to steal an antique vase from the personal collection of Dreesen, a member of the merchant council. She's expected to be the undetectable spider that she's known as in Ketterdam. And yet, she can't help herself from trying even in a situation like this.
Kaz had suggested earlier that they walk in directly through the front doors disguised as the mercher's personal guard. She declined and chose to stick to her conventional methods that involve scaling walls and gliding in via the windows.
The minute her feet land on the floor of the drawing-room, she spots the back of a lone man dressed in the fine indigo and gold colors of Dreesen's livery. Kaz.
A grin begins stretching on her lips as she slowly ascends toward him. Her hand reaches out but before she can tap his back, a long stick-like object gently swats her fingers. She stiffens and trails her gaze along its length to find a crow's head atop it. And upon tilting her head further up, her eyes meet Kaz's imperceptible coffee ones. He's dressed in a similar uniform as the guard. The index finger of his other gloved hand rests on his lips, gesturing to her to stay silent. She barely manages to keep herself from jumping and compromising the whole plan.
"Hardly the time or place for our game, Wraith." He whispers in his rock salt rasp, an amused smirk playing on his lips.
Together they close in on the oblivious guard ahead of them. Inej grabs the man by his torso while Kaz knocks him out with one smack of his cane. They leave the body lying near the stairway and continue with their job.
3
Inej jogs and hops off from one rooftop to the other, her gaze peering down to the streets occasionally to confirm she hasn't lost Kaz. He's forgone his usual route to the Crow Club which simply indicates it isn't his destination for the night. But that doesn't bother her at all. She's far more concerned about his surprisingly fast pace and how it directly affects his right leg.
The alleyways keep getting so narrow and unfamiliar that even Inej isn't sure if they're in the Barrel anymore or strayed away to some part of Ketterdam that the Wraith has yet to explore.
Kaz finally stops before a seemingly abandoned tavern and knocks thrice at its swollen, wooden door infested with fungi.
Inej soundlessly slides over the gabled roof of a warehouse next to the said tavern and lands behind a pile of sacks filled with only Saints know what. She's thankful for her custom-made, rubber-soled slippers for they keep her from making so much as a squeak. She had only intended to tail Kaz due to the childish game she has ongoing with him. But as the thief of secrets, there's no harm in stealing some about the infamous Dirtyhands as well.
It's when the door is answered by an unfamiliar young man with a familiar tattoo– five birds in a wedge formation– a Razorgull– that Inej realizes she isn't supposed to be here. That she mustn't be spying on this clandestine meeting between the lieutenant of the gang she works for and a new recruit from their rivaling gang.
It's then that Inej takes note of the normal cane Kaz is holding, has been holding throughout his walk here. And that he only ever switches his precious, silver, crow-headed one when on a secret rendezvous or a job involving a disguise.
Inej can't even begin to comprehend what the formidable Dirtyhands might need from a low-rank thug of the Razorgulls. But she has definitely witnessed the horrors a Dregs suffers if ever caught eavesdropping. Kaz makes sure of it.
But Kaz wouldn't hurt me. Kaz never promised her safety or comfort but he has always been kind.
Yet the self-assurance does nothing to ease the rapid beating of her heart.
Uncertainty creeps up in her gut and her feet slowly tiptoe back. One excruciatingly silent step after another.
Until she's reached the dark alley between the tavern and the warehouse. There, she cautiously feels along the walls in hopes of finding cracks or divots, anything that can assist her in climbing back up and running off.
Yet just as she finds a small sewer pipeline, she also comes to the grim realization that the street is eerily quiet. That the conversation between Kaz and the Razorgull has already ended.
“You can come out now, Wraith.”
The instant chill of dread roots her in place. She gulps, trying to stay as unmoving as she used to when standing still atop a tightrope, hoping to somehow trick him into believing he had merely mistaken her presence.
“I know you're there,” Kaz speaks again, followed by his approaching footsteps and the dull rap of a cane.
She clenches her fists, exhales deeply, and walks out of the shadows to face him.
We meet fear. Her father had told her long ago. But Kaz isn't a stranger she fears. Kaz is a 16-year-old boy she dared to speak to in the gilded halls of the Menagerie.
He notices her vigilant stance and lets out a breath. “No need to be so on edge.”
“The boy was a spider. Obviously not as efficient as you, my Wraith but useful nonetheless.” He explains. “I have several planted within each gang of the barrel.”
Inej can't help her curiosity and asks, “Why would they betray their own?”
“How naive.” Kaz scoffs. “They do it for the same reasons as anyone else in this saintsforsaken city. Money, protection–”
“Freedom.” She finishes, her somber gaze meeting his.
Kaz nods and resumes walking.
“And Inej, ” He stops a few steps ahead and looks back at her. “No one knows about this. Not even Haskell. And I'd prefer to keep it this way.”
She blinks in shock. Not even Haskell?
“Can you keep a secret?” He waits expectantly.
“I can.” She replies without a beat, surprising not just him but herself as well. She may have not realized it but if it comes down to picking sides, her allegiance lies with Kaz. Always has . Since the night he helped her out of the hell that was the Menagerie and of Tante Heleen's preying clutches.
4
Inej isn't impressed by the pigeons splurging their earnings at the Crow Club. She would've requested her saints to watch over them but they aren't deserving of such blessings.
She slithers through the crowd, untouched and unnoticed, quiet as a wraith .
As expected, her eyes spot Anika bartending and Rojakke dealing cards. Pim is in a corner, arms folded across his chest, eyes sharp in surveillance. And she had also greeted Rotty at the entrance. It's not her job to check on them but she ensures everyone is faithful to their assigned tasks, faithful to Dirtyhands .
She finds the said guy sitting in his personal booth, cane resting at his side. Jesper Fahey, his favored sharpshooter sits on the other end of the red and black couch, and next to him is the newly-hired heartrender, Nina Zenik.
Inej rolls her shoulders and silently approaches the booth, hoping the liveliness of Kaz's company will be distracting enough for her to catch him off-guard.
Yet she barely reaches behind him when Kaz cranes his head at her, Jesper and Nina yelping in unison.
“Wraith.” Kaz greets, taking a sip of his drink.
“Sweet Ghezen!” Jesper exclaims, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “How did you even know she was there?”
“Y-yeah..” Nina stutters, a hand over her heart. “Share the secret, Brekker.”
Inej settles down in the empty spot next to Kaz, making sure to maintain proper space between them. For whatever reason, she has felt that he disapproves of unanticipated touches as much as she does.
Despite knowing there's no chance, she peers at Kaz just as her two friends do, awaiting some kind of response.
Kaz merely shrugs and takes another swig from his glass.
5
Under the heavy, evening downpour, Inej's eyes catch sight of two suspicious men by a flower barge. As Kaz drifts past them, they step away from the barge and start tailing him.
When Inej had decided to shadow him tonight, it was more out of habit than an attempt to sneak up on him.
But the Bastard of the Barrel has carved quite a reputation for himself. One that comes with a bunch of troubling disadvantages at the most unsuspecting moments. One that rarely allows him peace.
Her hand immediately reaches for Sankta Marya strapped at her thigh, only to waver at the last moment. What if they are some of Kaz's other spiders? There is no need for her to shed blood based on mere suspicion. So she follows the men instead.
For a good part of the walk, they do nothing and it almost seems that Inej might have misjudged them after all. Yet the very next instant, her optimism is proven wrong.
The sturdier one of the men pounces at Kaz.
But no one in Ketterdam gets the better of Kaz. He easily sidesteps and avoids the attack, letting the man crash into a dumpster nearby. The other guy uses this opportunity to shove Kaz into the alley.
“'Shouldn't walk the streets alone, Brekker.” The man says, throwing a punch at his jaw.
Kaz readjusts his leather gloves and strokes back his rain-soaked hair, lips curling into a devious grin. Dirtyhands has taken over.
“Who says I'm alone?”
Inej's heart skips a beat. Even from her elevated spot on an old diner's roof, she can feel the full force of his grin directed at her. He knew.
The sturdy man is up already and lunges once more. Kaz turns sharply, the movement sending a jolt of pain through his right leg. He grits his teeth and smashes his cane in the big man's face. Then proceeds to land punch after punch, bruising his face beyond recognition.
Unknown to him, the other man advances and before Kaz can even react, he pulls out a pistol from his coat pocket and fires.
The bullet tears through the fabric of Kaz's coat as well as the cotton shirt and lodges straight into his left bicep. The grip on his cane falters as he coughs and clutches the wound with his right hand.
“Not so smug anymore, eh boy?” The man jeers.
Enough. Thieving, scheming, conning. She has excused them all. Killing however is the one part she despises the most about being the Wraith.
Yet in this moment, she realizes that Kaz's life is worth more to her than she may like to admit.
She releases the trigger on the sheath at her right forearm, feeling Sankta Petyr slide into her palm. Staying cautious of the slippery railing, she leaps off the roof, landing gracefully on top of the man, her blade sinking deep in his throat. Blood gurgles out of his neck and mouth, and with a final groan, he falls dead.
“May the saints receive you.” Inej prays, slowly shutting his eyelids with her palm. One more life to pay penance for.
“You follow me quite a lot.” Kaz remarks from behind her. “Why Wraith? Taken a fancy to me?”
Inej ignores the traitorous warmth in her chest and pulls down the hood of her cloak. He is in no shape to be making such tasteless jokes. “You need help.”
“I'm sure your Saints can spare a few blessings.” He quips weakly, voice rougher than usual.
“Shevrati, ” She glares at him. “The Slat is too far and you're bleeding too much.”
“Fret not, darling Inej.” He shucks off his coat, rips the left sleeve of his shirt, and ties it firmly around the wound using his free arm and teeth. “There's a safe house nearby.”
He tightens his hold on his cane and begins walking out of the alley, expecting her to naturally tag along.
Saints! She picks up his abandoned coat from the wet ground and jogs up to him.
+1
Inej climbs with ease from her room's small window to the one in Kaz's attic. If she isn't mistaken, the back and forth tapping noises that roused her from her slumber are an indication of him being still up and pacing about his room. And since she doesn't feel sleepy anymore, she might as well try to scare him. Surely, he wouldn't be expecting anyone else to be up past midnight.
With a level of grace impossible for any spider in the barrel, she lets her soundless feet touch the floor and approaches his unsuspecting back.
"Not tonight, Wraith."
Inej is startled, not by the stern statement but by the fact that he noticed her presence again. Was it her soft breathing that gave her away? He turns around then, in the process of buttoning his shirt, and flashes her a halfhearted smirk. Annoyance replaces her initial reaction and she tries her best to conceal it. He had known all along. Somehow he always knows!
"Why not, Kaz?" she asks, hoping the conversation will assist her in easing some tension off his face.
He shrugs and settles on the chair behind his makeshift desk. She takes note of the expensive, sealed bottle of brandy resting on it.
“Something special tonight?” She asks. A harmless question out of curiosity.
He chuckles bitterly at that, strong tea eyes glinting with emotion. “Just a reminder.”
He explains no more and she isn't the type to press further. So they stay like that for a few moments in peaceful silence— Kaz laying back on the chair, eyes closed in deep thought; Inej reorganizing the things scattered on his desk.
Until Kaz sits up with an audible sigh and looks at her. “Inej.”
She hums in response, too busy arranging a pile of papers according to their dates.
“Let's go on a heist.”
She raises a brow in disbelief. The restless pacing and the bottle of brandy are an indication enough that he isn't in the right state of mind. Especially not for a heist.
He walks past his bed space and returns with his coat and cane. From the coat's pocket, he pulls out a folded piece of paper, which Inej realizes– as he unfolds and spreads it on the desk– is a layout of some building. No. A mansion actually.
“This mercher Van Eck bought a painting the other day,” Kaz speaks in an amused tone. “Let's nick it.”
Inej blinks. It's way past twelve bells of midnight. Everything in her is telling her to be the sensible one and chide him to rest. Yet the scarce hints of hope twinkling in his tired eyes waver all reasonable thoughts. Saints!
“Just us?” she asks, scanning the layout to find the stealthiest way in and out.
He cocks his head. “Is the Wraith not up for a challenge?”
The Wraith is always up for a challenge and he knows it. Dirtyhands? Not so much tonight.
Kaz had once told her that stealing is like solving puzzles. You can't decode a puzzle unless you take the right steps. As it appears, his current frame of mind isn't ideal for something as precarious as a heist. And usually, she wouldn't even entertain such a reckless proposition. But she can feel that the boy before her needs this right now. That more than the painting itself, he needs the distracting thrill of doing this.
“Fine.” She stretches her lips into an easy smile. “Let's nick it.”
