a/n: do not ask me why my demographic went from six of crows to jjk because there WILL be more to come. never let them know your next move.
Gojo Satoru was a lightweight.
His friends knew, you knew, even he knew that. Yet he still found himself turning strawberry red, chugging down his third bottle, hiccupping away as he cackled so loud at a lame joke that Yuuji had cracked. You shook your head and sighed. It was luck that you knew how to drive his car because at this rate he couldn't even lift his head up without seeing triple the usual amount of his students.
"Oh, look at the stars! Ursa Major---hic!", he stopped himself before smiling again, "So pretty." he slurred.
"Satoru we're inside. Those are just ceiling lights." you deadpanned.
He blinked.
"Oh."
His students stared at him and laughed.
"Y/N-sensei I think Gojo-san needs to go home." Megumi groaned as Satoru tried to smush his cheeks, muttering something about how pale he looked. You stifle a chuckle as Nobara clicked pictures to capture it.
"I guess we do, don't we, Toru?"
At the call of his nickname his gaze snapped toward you so fast that you worried he'd hurt his neck.
"But it's still 10 pm!" he whined.
"Yes it is 10 pm and you are drunk, so let's go before you embarrass your students more-"
"Our students." he pouts at you.
"Yes, our students." you smile and shake your head.
"Sensei you're weird when you're drunk." Yuuji says and Satoru raises his brow.
"You're weird." Satoru pulls out his tongue.
"And more childish, if it was possible." Megumi deadpans.
"Ain't that just his normal self?" Nobara wonders out loud.
"Here you go hic! Nobara. Enjoy your night as 2nd grade sorcerers!" Satoru stutters as he fumbles around his pockets for his wallet. He manages to get out a sleek black card before handing it to Nobara Megumi.
Megumi just takes it without a word and looks at you pleadingly.
Please get him out of here.
You chuckle.
"Alright I gotta get him home. See you on Monday, kids." you smile at them as they wave you goodbye.
"Nooo. I still gotta teach them hic! how to defeat different kinds of curses." Satoru complains as you hook his arm over your shoulder, groaning because of his weight that doubled when he fully leaned on you.
"You'll teach them when you're sober, Toru. Now let's go to your car, hm?" you offered and he huffed but wobbled to walk nonetheless.
As you both went to his car you whispered an apology as you leaned him to the side of the car to fish out the keys out of your bag. You furrowed your brows as you tried to find that huge chiikawa keychain he had around his keys.
You were so busy that you hadn't realized Satoru was staring.
"You look almost as pretty as that moon." Satoru pointed and you followed his gaze only to huff out a laugh.
"That's a street lamp, baby." you said, letting out a small 'ah!' when you found his keys, opening the car door.
"Oh then you're hic! pretty-err." he slurred and smiled drunkenly at you. His cheeks had that faint red tint that mirrored the tip of his ears and his neck, eyes almost closing as his long lashes batted at you. Your heart skipped a beat as you helped him get inside.
"You're so stupid." you snort as he almost faceplants into the car floor. He groans.
"You're hurtful when you're sober." he mutters.
"Yeah yeah whatever, now let's get you home you lightweight." you smile as you manage to fit all of him in the backseat.
"Mine or yours?" he asked you when you sat in front.
"Ours." you looked at him incredulously.
"Oh!" he giggled and you laughed again and started driving.
It took approximately fifteen minutes, one wrong turn, and six very passionate debates about which kikufuku was the tastiest before you finally pulled into the driveway.
Well—your driveway.
His driveway.
Your shared driveway, technically, if you squinted past the commitment issues.
The car had barely stopped moving when Satoru slurred, “I’m gonna carry you over the threshold.”
“You’re the one who can’t stand.”
“I’ll levitate us with the power of love,” he declared dramatically, head bonking softly against the window as he tried to wink and forgot how.
You snorted. “Baby, you couldn’t levitate a chopstick right now.”
“That’s mean,” he pouted, already halfway into a pretend nap. “You’re mean and pretty. A terrible combo. Weaponized beauty.”
You walked over, opened the back door, and he slumped into your arms like you’d just scooped up a particularly affectionate noodle.
“Up you go, floaty king,” you groaned, slinging his arm around your neck again. “Try not to die on the porch. It’s bad luck.”
“I’d haunt you soooo sexily,” he murmured against your shoulder, giggling as you pulled him toward the door.
The porch light flickered on, casting a soft halo over his snowy hair and flushed cheeks. You caught your reflection in the glass — one sober, one stupid, both in love.
And then, in the middle of your struggle with his weight and the front door—
“I love you,” he mumbled suddenly.
You paused.
“…You say that every time you’re drunk.”
“And I’ll say it again,” he hiccupped, “until your walls break down like—like emotional jenga.”
“Emotional jenga?”
“Don’t interrupt my metaphors,” he whined. “It’s rude to interrupt genius.”
Inside, the familiar warmth of your home hit you both like a hug. Or, in Satoru’s case, a trampoline.
Because the second you managed to drop him onto the couch, he bounced.
“Boing,” he whispered reverently, wide-eyed. “I’m reborn.”
You tossed a blanket at him. “You need water.”
“I need you.”
You raised a brow, heading to the kitchen. “Thirsty in every sense, I see.”
His voice followed you like a siren with no sense of volume control.
“You’re my soulmate.”
“Your soulmate is Gojou-branded mochi and you know it.”
“You’re better,” he sighed dramatically. “You’re like—like hic! if mochi could hold me when I cry.”
You poured the water, shook your head.
When you came back, he was upside down. Feet over the backrest. Hair brushing the floor like a windswept boy whose arc was peaking.
“I will never love anyone like I love you,” he slurred. “Not in this life. Not in the next. Not even if I was reborn as a refrigerator.”
“A… fridge?”
“A sexy fridge,” he clarified. “With cool compartments and emotional depth.”
You handed him the glass. “Drink.”
He blinked at it. “Is this… holy water?”
“It’s tap water, love.”
He took a sip, looking betrayed.
“Where’s the flavor?”
“In your personality, hopefully.”
“I can’t believe you just roasted me in my own home.”
“It’s our home,” you mocked gently, sitting beside him, “remember?”
That made him smile, drunk and sweet and impossibly in love.
“Our home,” he repeated, like it was his favorite curse to break.
Yes, Gojo Satoru was a lightweight, but he loved you the same nonetheless. He made sure you knew it even if he couldn't remember any of it the morning after.
a/n: in my head he's getting drunk off of life rn, please never contradict this because i will haunt you down, thnx mwa <3
Pekka Rollins wasn’t a smart man in the academic sense.
But Ketterdam had taught him that knowing what people wanted was more profitable than knowing what they needed.
And Kaz Brekker?
Kaz Brekker wanted nothing.
That’s what had kept Pekka up at night. That’s what made him sick with rage and curiosity. What kind of boy clawed his way from barrel scum to king without wanting anything?
No weakness. No strings. Not even revenge.
At least, not anymore.
So when the girl showed up—sharp-tongued, hard-eyed, a walking contradiction of grudge and loyalty—Pekka noticed. She was fast. Good with a knife. But something about her made Kaz hesitate. And Kaz Brekker didn’t hesitate. Not unless it meant something.
Pekka had tried to figure him out for years and nothing stuck.
Until one night, one careless moment.
It wasn’t a photo. It wasn’t a confession. It wasn’t something Kaz said.
It was something he didn’t say.
“Boss, you’ll want to see this,” Danno, one of Pekka’s street rats, said as he tossed a damp journal onto the table. He was breathing hard like he’d just run across three bridges.
“You better be interruptin’ me for somethin’ golden,” Pekka muttered, swirling his drink.
Danno smirked. “Better. I think I found his soft spot.”
It was a routine report. Kaz meeting with a few of his crew after a botched arms deal near East Stave. Nothing unusual.
But in a narrow alley behind the warehouse, Danno caught a moment.
Dirtyhands, usually frigid as death itself, stopped. He turned to face her. The girl—Rollins barely remembered her name. One of the newer assets. The one who liked to enter through his window.
Y/N.
The report described her standing toe-to-toe with Kaz, yelling at him. Something about a bracelet. Something about a promise. Something about not being a pawn.
And Brekker?
He didn’t walk away. He didn’t strike back. He listened.
Not like a boss. Like something else.
And then—right before she stormed off—he reached out.
Didn’t touch her. But his hand trembled. Like he wanted to.
Rollins almost jumped up in joy.
He read the description three times. “He flinched?”
Danno nodded. “Swear on my mother.”
Rollins laughed. Long and slow.
“You’ve been a slippery bastard, Brekker,” he whispered. “But even rats can’t hide when they start givin’ a damn.”
Pekka Rollins had built his empire not just on blood—but on betrayal.
And trust? Trust was a blade people handed you handle-first, right before you gutted them with it.
So when the opportunity came to break Kaz Brekker with nothing but a name and a girl—Rollins sharpened the blade himself.
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
Y/N got the job on a Thursday.
A simple run to intercept a merchant dealing with knockoff jurda near the canals. Quick in-and-out. The kind of mission Pekka usually handed you when he needed someone precise, invisible, and deniable.
You didn’t even blink. Just nodded, grabbed her knives, and went.
That was the brilliance of it: no sedative, no ambush in a dark alley. Just routine.
It wasn’t until you reached the meeting point—a narrow warehouse on the edge of the Bridge District—that something felt wrong.
There were no guards posted.
No crates. No flickering lanterns, no whisper of ships.
Just... silence.
You hesitated before you stepped in. You wish you hadn't though.
The door slammed behind you as soon as you had two steps in and the lights went out.
Y/N’s body moved on instinct—knives drawn, pivot low, breath held—but it didn’t matter.
The floor beneath her gave out with a sickening lurch.
A trap door.
You hit the ground hard, rolling into a space that reeked of mold and iron.
A cage.
Not metaphorical.
A literal cage.
You scrambled to your feet, but it was too late.
The lights snapped on with a buzz, and there he was.
Pekka Rollins, standing on the other side of the bars, smiling like the devil dressed in velvet.
“Oh, I wish I was,” he said, drawing a cigar and lighting it like he had all the time in the world. “I paid a real amount of money for you in Shu and out of all the things you become…” he smirked.
“You had to be his sister.”
Your eyes widened.
“You just walked yourself into your own grave. Isn’t that tragic? All that work, all that double-crossing and tiptoeing around the boy’s leash—and here you are, boxed up like a street dog.”
“I’ll kill you,” you hissed, grabbing your last knife.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that.” He exhaled smoke through his nose. “But I think you’ll scream first.”
You lunged at the bars and threw the knife, arms swinging through the space between them.
His eyes widened as the knife almost lodged itself on his cheek. He groaned as he felt blood trickle down his jaw, you smirked.
“You little brat.” he snarled as he grit his teeth.
“Hold her down.” he ordered and his men chuckled darkly as they entered your cage.
He’d been waiting too long for this.
It wasn’t just revenge. It wasn’t even about the five million kruge he would ask for next.
It was about breaking the boy who had made him look like a fool.
And breaking a boy like Kaz Brekker?
You start by cutting the only thing he's ever dared to care for.
Outside the cage, Pekka laid the ransom letter on a table and dipped the quill in fresh blood.
Her blood.
“Let’s see if your brother remembers how to beg.”
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
Kaz Brekker did not flinch.
Even when Jesper pushed the envelope onto his desk with a look that could make a saint sweat.
Not when Inej stood in the corner, arms folded, like she'd seen a ghost crawl out of the Ketterdam canals.
Nor when he unfolded the letter and blood smudged the edge of his glove.
But when a single strand of dark hair slipped from the fold and curled against his cane, his breath caught.
"5 million kruge. Half your shares in the Dregs. You have 3 days. You know where to find me. Try anything clever, and I'll start sending bones instead of notes." —P.R.
"Kaz..." Jesper's voice was oddly quiet. No quip. No grin.
The others waited. He didn't speak for a while. Just stared at the blood.
"She's alive," he finally murmured.
"Who is?" Jesper asked.
“Jesper.” Inej called silently, begging him not to pry, but Jesper had enough.
“No, Inej. He can’t keep on doing this,” Jesper said, Kaz’s stare bore holes in his chair, “One night he stopped a carefully planned heist, made me repeat it three times, all just to back off the minute all things go our way for once?” he continued. Inej swallowed thickly and looked to Kaz, stoic as ever.
Say something, Kaz. She begged.
“Kaz–”
“My sister,” Kaz answered with his jaw ticked, “Pekka Rollins has my sister.”
Inej almost fell out the window.
Jesper blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then:
“…Okay.” His voice cracked like a match.
“So, just to clarify—Pekka Rollins kidnapped your sister, and we’re all just finding out you have a sister now? Cool cool cool. Love that. No notes. Totally not spiraling internally.”
Kaz didn’t move.
Jesper threw his hands in the air. “Saints Kaz, I thought you were spiraling over market shares. Or-or maybe the merch shipment of crow pins that came in bent. But this? This? You—” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You don’t just drop something like that and expect us to keep moving like we’re still playing pretend.”
A long silence.
Then came Inej’s voice—soft, razor-edged.
“You’ve known this whole time?”
Kaz’s hand twitched on the head of his cane. He didn’t look up.
“Since the canal job,” he said, voice barely audible. “The one where she slipped past Pekka’s radar. I knew. I wasn’t sure until…”
Jesper gestured wildly. “Until the literal envelope of blood and hair?”
Inej moved closer, a storm gathering in her dark eyes. “Kaz,” she said, steady, quiet, devastating. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He couldn’t answer. Couldn’t meet her gaze.
Jesper dropped into a chair like gravity suddenly remembered him. “You let her get close. You knew who she was, and you let her bleed for you, and now Pekka has her?” His voice cracked. “Do you even know what he’ll do to her?”
Kaz’s jaw clenched so tight Inej could hear it.
Inej’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You’re not the only one who’s lost family.”
Kaz looked up then. Sharp. Bleeding.
“I know exactly what he’ll do to her,” he said, voice like rusted iron. “Because he already did it. To me. To Jordie. And now he’s going to pay.”
Jesper leaned back. “How do you even know she’s alive?”
Kaz set the letter aflame with the candle nearby and let it burn until the flame kissed his glove.
"Because if she were dead, Pekka would be parading her body through Fifth Harbor."
No one argued.
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
Y/N woke to the sound of dripping water and your own heartbeat rattling like dice in your ribs.
Rollins had five men come at you all at once, your rage blinded you as you let your instincts move your body, you managed to take three down but the other two had seemed more skilled, albeit smaller than the other three.
Your body protested with every move as you tried to sit upright. You tried to move—your wrists screamed in protest, rope tight and cruel against raw skin. Your lip was split and your ankle throbbed. They had taken away your knives and cut off pieces of your hair. Your breathing came in and out with a wheeze.
But worse than the pain was the remembering.
Your head, your traitorous head, kept flashing—
Kaz, thirteen, gripping your hand in the canal as Jordie lay dying.
Kaz, fifteen, eyes burning when you snuck out to pick pockets with Rollins’ crew.
Kaz, seventeen, saying your name like it was a crime.
“You think he cares?” Pekka's voice cracked the dark like a whip. “You’re a pawn. Just blood with leverage.”
You didn’t answer. That made him laugh.
“Still quiet? Let's fix that."
Then came the knife.
And as the first cut was made, your mind betrayed you again.
Kaz handed you a black string bracelet, clumsily braided.
"Let’s go get her back for that cup trick, yeah?"
"You’re not real," you whispered. "You’re already gone."
You didn't know if you were talking to Kaz, to Jordie, or to yourself.
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
The Slat was too quiet.
Jesper sat backwards on a chair, chewing on his glove. Wylan was pacing like the floors were made of hot coals. Nina nursed a mug of something thick and bitter—something Ravkan and unforgiving. Matthias stood in the corner like a statue, looking like he’d rather be punching someone (preferably Jesper and his glove chewing).
And Kaz?
Kaz was still.
Until he wasn’t.
"She’s being held in the old Ravkan smuggler tunnels beneath Fifth Harbor," he said, voice colder than Ketterdam’s canals. "Pekka thinks I won’t find her in time."
Jesper raised a brow. "Do we tell him that we always find people in time, or let it be a surprise?"
“I’m more concerned with how many people we’ll need to find after this,” Wylan muttered.
Kaz turned his eyes on him.
Wylan shut up.
Nina leaned forward. "What’s the plan, Dirtyhands?"
Kaz cracked his fingers, one by one. A rhythm, a ritual. Like sharpening a blade.
"We walk into Rollins’ personal vault. We walk out with Y/N and all of his secrets. Then we set the place on fire."
Jesper grinned. "Can we take a few of his teeth on the way out? You know, for souvenirs?"
"Only if you don’t lose yours first," Matthias said.
"Oh Helvar, I missed this dynamic," Jesper sighed dramatically.
Kaz ignored the bickering.
"He has her under the west wing of the tunnels. They’re sealed, high-security, layered with guards who are paid in blood and don’t ask questions. But they’re human. They make mistakes."
"And you know what they say," Nina said, smiling thinly. "Crows don’t."
Kaz outlined it in meticulous detail:
Inej would move through the vents—silent, invisible.
Jesper and Matthias would create a distraction on the upper levels—a heist classic: loud, chaotic, impossible to ignore.
Nina and Wylan would work the back corridor—one with explosives, the other with deadly charm.
Kaz would go in through the sewer grate behind the furnace line. Alone.
Jesper groaned. "Every time, Kaz. Every time it’s you in the sewer."
"You're welcome to switch places."
"No thanks. I just had this coat cleaned."
Wylan frowned. "And if this goes south?"
Kaz tapped the floor once with his cane.
"It won’t."
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
They hit the vault at midnight.
Jesper and Matthias kicked things off by impersonating drunk guards hauling in "prisoners".
The real guards were too confused to react before Jesper had disarmed three and Matthias had thrown a fourth into a wall hard enough to crack a rib.
Inej slipped in through the vent like smoke and dropped down with the grace of a shadow’s whisper. One guard blinked—and his eyes didn’t open again.
BOOM!
Wylan’s carefully placed charge blew the back wall. Nina waltzed through the dust with a grin, casually stopping one man's heart with a flick of her fingers. "Ravkan medicine," she winked, Wylan shivered.
Kaz moved unseen. Unheard. A rat among rats.
He found the corridor—lit dimly, damp, reeking of fear and metal. The vault was at the end.
Inside, Y/N.
He didn’t let himself think. Thinking would slow him down.
The door, heavy steel, was locked. But when did locked doors ever stop the Bastard of the Barrel?
It took him less than a minute to pick the lock and the sight that met him nearly took the breath away from his lungs.
You were slumped in the corner, eyes glassy. Blood crusted on your lip. Wrists raw and bound to a pipe. The bracelet he gave you tattered but still hanging on.
Your body was still but your eyes flickered up at him, like you’d been waiting.
“You’re late,” you rasped.
Kaz moved fast, slicing the rope. "You’re heavier than I remember," he muttered, hoisting your hand over his shoulder like you were made of glass and guilt.
He could feel your ribs through your bloodied shirt, you hadn’t eaten for days.
“I got tortured, not fat,” you croaked.
Kaz didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He was too busy trying to keep the waves at bay. For Jordie’s voice to stop whispering in his ear.
But his grip tightened.
“Hey Kaz?” you mumbled as he ducked from gunfire and raced through collapsing tunnels.
He remained silent but you continued anyway.
“If we die, I’m blaming you.”
He smirked at that.
Your body ached with how he carried you, hands far too clammy to hold onto his coat. He stopped just behind Jesper and Matthias to give you his cane. You were drifting in and out of consciousness but your eyes widened at his gesture.
“Take it,” his eyes bore into yours. “Please.”
Let me help you. He almost said.
You understood, nodded, and took his cane.
Matthias had to be hallucinating when he had heard that. He thought he would die without seeing Kaz bat an eye at anyone other than Inej yet here he stood, stopping mid-air about to throw a punch before Jesper's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
Jesper’s voice rang out ahead. "Oi! Save the bonding for after we live!"
Y/N slumped in his arms, barely breathing, her blood soaking into his coat. Her head lolled against his shoulder, too light, too quiet.
The hallway ahead curved sharply — toward freedom.
But behind them…
Footsteps echoed, a sharp contrast to the gunshots and groans.
Slow. Intentional.
Kaz didn’t have to turn around to know.
Pekka Rollins.
His shadow filled the corridor long before he did — smug, sauntering, every inch of him reeking of victory.
“Well, well,” Pekka drawled, voice echoing like a curse. “Look what the rat dragged in.”
Kaz set you down gently against the wall. He called Nina and Matthias to get you, clutching his cane until his knuckles turned white.
Jesper skidded to a stop ahead. “Kaz—”
“Keep going,” Kaz said, voice razor-thin.
Jesper hesitated. So did Inej.
But one look at his face told them: Don’t. He’s mine.
They slipped forward in silence, taking you with them despite your weak protests.
Pekka stood at the other end of the corridor, flanked by two of his men, hands in his pockets like he had all night to die.
Kaz tilted his head.
“You sent a letter.”
His voice was calm. Hollow.
Pekka grinned. “You liked it? Thought the blood was a nice touch. Hair too. Bit of poetry, that.”
Kaz’s fingers twitched on his cane.
"You always were dramatic,” Pekka added. “But this? Falling for family? Thought you cut those ties years ago.”
Kaz said nothing.
He took a step forward.
"You know what I learned watching you?" Pekka asked, voice curling like smoke. “You’re not hard, boy. You’re cracked. One good hit and everything inside leaks out.”
Kaz took another step.
Pekka pulled a knife, twirling it. Blood dripped off the sharp edge-–Inej’s blood, Kaz noted.
“I gutted your crew. Bought your informants. And you still came crawling for your sister who barely remembers your name,” he spits. “Pathetic.”
That was it.
Kaz moved.
Fast.
Faster than anyone Pekka had seen.
The tip of his cane caught one thug square in the ribs — crack. The second lunged, but Kaz ducked low, swept the leg, and drove the point of his cane into his throat.
Two down.
Only Pekka left.
Kaz dropped the cane and took off his coat.
For once, he didn’t need leverage. He needed fury.
Pekka struck first — wide swing, all brute strength.
Kaz ducked, twisted, drove his fist into Pekka’s stomach, then another into his jaw, and a third into the side of his neck.
Pekka stumbled, coughing, spitting blood.
“You think this makes you strong?” Pekka growled. “You’re still that little boy on the ice.”
Kaz’s face didn’t flinch.
He grabbed Pekka by the collar, slammed him against the wall.
“You should’ve stayed dead,” Kaz said, low and lethal. “You took everything from me.”
Pekka laughed mockingly, blood in his teeth. “I made you.”
“You made a monster,” Kaz whispered.
Then he let go.
Kaz stood over him.
He could kill him now. Snap his neck. Beat him until his bones turned to ash.
But that would be too easy.
Instead, he leaned close, cane pressed to Pekka’s throat.
“From now on,” Kaz said, voice like a coffin lid closing, “You don’t walk in this city. You crawl. You beg. You watch every alley like it breathes my name.”
Pekka’s lip curled. “You won’t kill me?”
“I want you alive,” Kaz hissed. “I want you ruined. I want every kruge you touch turn to rot. I want the city to forget your name, except in warnings.”
He stood.
Cold. Composed.
“Pekka Rollins is no longer feared,” he said.
“He’s pitied.”
Because monsters didn’t die in the Barrel.
They just stopped being scary.
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
Jesper had seen Kaz break a man’s wrist with a spoon.
He’d watched him out-bluff assassins, burn bridges before crossing them, lie without blinking, and steal the future out from under men twice his size.
But this?
This was different.
Jesper had doubled back after handing Y/N off to Nina—told himself he was making sure Kaz wasn’t dead, or bleeding, or doing something stupid like bleeding on purpose.
He was halfway down the corridor when he saw it.
Kaz.
Standing over Pekka Rollins.
His coat was soaked. His gloves were off.
His hands were shaking.
And not from fear.
Jesper didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
He just watched.
Watched Kaz crush Pekka’s windpipe with the heel of his cane—not enough to kill, but enough to scar. Watched him lean close and whisper something that made Pekka pale like death itself had offered a trade.
Watched as Kaz turn his back and walk away like the whole thing hadn’t just happened.
Jesper exhaled, slow and shaky.
That wasn’t the Bastard of the Barrel. That wasn’t even Dirtyhands.
That was something else entirely.
Kaz smoothed out his coat and picked up his cane, walking towars Jesper who said nothing.
When they had reached the others standing beside a carriage Kaz got in, Jesper soon following suit as Matthias drove the carriage.
Jesper sat next to Wylan as Kaz sat in the far corner, scrubbing Pekka’s blood off his gloves like it was just another job.
Jesper stared at him for a long time.
“I always thought there was a line you wouldn’t cross,” Jesper said quietly.
Kaz didn’t look up.
“There wasn’t,” he replied.
And that was the scariest part.
────────────°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:───────────
They got out.
Barely.
Inej had a knife sticking to her side. Jesper had two new scars. Nina was drained, Wylan smelled like firecrackers, and Matthias was furious about it all.
But Y/N was breathing.
And Kaz…
Kaz was broken.
He sat by your bedside in a safehouse near the harbor. The others gave space. For now.
You stirred and looked at him.
“You look like shit,” you said.
“You’re not exactly radiant.”
They smiled. Just barely.
Then silence.
Until you whispered, “You left me, once.”
Kaz nodded slowly.
“I remember.” you added. Kaz swallowed and looked down.
“You didn’t before?” his voice was small, like when you both stayed up late and was afraid to wake Jordie. Like it was before.
You shook your head.
“I left you.” his voice broke.
You were quick to reply.
“You saved me now.”
Kaz didn’t speak.
“I thought I had to choose between losing you and ruining you. I chose wrong.”
You blinked.
“I’m not ruined,” you whispered. “Not yet.”
Another silence.
“Where you go, I go,” you murmured.
He flinched.
But you reached out, trembling, to take his hand. And this time, he didn’t pull away.
Not fully.
a/n: survived finished my first ever short series on tumblr! what do we think???
a/n: i wish i was there when the shadow and bone cast had a reunion with fans loll it's hard being a fan when you're literally on the other side of the planet.
In which you piece everything together.
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Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason.
That was something that he had in common with you. You got employed on your first ever actual job and was now betraying everything you were raised for and you couldn't give a single flying fuck about it.
Rollins still keeps on making you do his laundry, not the dirty kind you liked, and Brekker keeps on pestering you to come report to his office as if your routine has something new in it. He refuses to tell you why he has that tattoo, said something about not getting what he wanted still and you could have strangled him to make the headache you always seemed to have with him go away.
They have you going back and forth until Rollins finally lets you in on a hit that involves a merchant of some kind of new drug and you, like any well-minded person, tell Kaz Brekker.
You didn't need a reason.
You could use a drink though, as bullets continued to rain down on you.
"This is my first job after getting him groceries?" you mutter sarcastically as you throw a knife at one shooter and hide behind a wall, doing little to minimize the fact that you might end up coming out of this with half a mind and a body full of bullets.
Pekka had to give you 2 bags full of coins after this, who knew that drug merchants were so stingy when you gave them fake kerch bills?
"Hey grumpy help me out here will ya?" you called to one of the men Pekka sent you with. The tattooed burly man grunts as he fires back.
He fires 20 rounds and somehow only hits the cobblestone below. You curse
"You fired your whole round and you didn't even manage to hit their feet? You have got to be kidding me." you groan and try to find an escape route.
"Shut up will ya?" the burly man, Freddy you learned, grumbled. "I ain't paid enough for this." he added and shot back again, finally shooting something.
KABOOM!
You drop down startled as you stare at Freddy wide-eyed, "You did it Freddy!" you cheered. "What did you hit that was so-"
Just as you were about to go near him, Freddy gurgled and dropped down the wall, blood coming out his ears, nose, and mouth as he did so. You cringed.
"Oh Freddy you big beefy idiot." you muttered.
You peek at the shooters who had miraculously stopped and were surprised to find a familiar cane glinting in the moonlight standing in front of the previously conscious shooters. You groaned as you stood up to go near him.
"I had that under control." you glare at him.
He stares at you like you spat at his shoe and called him a sissy.
"I did." you urged as you walked off to get your knives off of the men. He raises a brow and looks at Freddy and you follow his gaze and tongue your cheek like it'll help with the embarrassment bubbling inside you.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." he says and you roll your eyes.
"What do you want this time Brekker?" you ask as you wipe the blood off your knives. His heart jumps at the name you call him. You try to ignore the shift you see and go as fast as you blinked.
"An explanation." he says simply and your brows furrow.
"A what?" you asked.
"Explain why you're here getting shot down. You're supposed to be at the Kaelish Prince." he responds.
"Why are you so suddenly interested in what I do in my free time?" you ask back and his jaw ticks.
"Since we had a deal. You weren't supposed to do his dirty work for him." he says. You scoff and start to walk off.
"In case you forgot he's still my employer," you say as you walk to wherever, his cane clacking behind you as he follows. "Our deal involved information which I never have and you just had to ruin my first job which would have helped but oh well!" you mutter sarcastically, moving to grab another one of your knives.
"He sent you on a job?" he repeats like a broken toy, following you.
"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius?" you ask.
"What was the job?" he asks again.
Why was he so persistent in knowing?
"A drug I was supposed to buy -- or steal? I don't know, all I know is that he asked me to get some with some money that I didn't even know wasn't real kerch bills." you mutter as you stop to turn to him and shove the fake money in his face.
It's comical how he almost runs into you if it weren't for his cane stopping his momentum.
"And boom! Now Freddy's juiced fruit and I am in so much trouble." you sighed as you stopped to lean against the wall and slid down it, rubbing your eyes.
Kaz could not for the life of him pay attention to what you were saying. He knew what the job was, Inej had already told him--it was the reason he was there . He knows what was happening because he was the one who threw the bomb to Freddy for crying out loud.
He should be ordering you to go back. Tell you to report to Pekka and tell him that you have been ambushed.
But here he was, listening to you rant away just like you did before when they didn't have the right brownies in the bakery you liked. Kaz Rietvield Brekker hummed as he looked at his sister who he used to carry on his back, his sister who he promised he would protect, his sister who he let float away because he decided you would be better off sinking to the bottom than dying slowly with him and Jordie.
"Stop looking at me like that." you whispered.
"Like what?"
"Like you know me." you mutter as you pull your legs up to your chest and place your chin on your arms.
But I do.
He almost says.
He opened his mouth but you stood abruptly and sighed, smoothing your clothes and your hair.
"You're not getting information from me Brekker, Pekka still doesn't trust me with an ounce of his life and I don't think that will change." you said as you looked at him, seriously this time.
"Didn't we have a deal?"
"I don't think I'll get freedom," you said. "Not in here anyway."
"And your want for this?" he challenged and raised his hand, the one that had the tattoo, and you laughed sarcastically.
"That want faded away when you kept making your Wraith follow me," you told him and his eyes widened. "I know you know why I'm here." you say.
"You told her to tail me and I am many things," you glared. "But stupid isn't one of them." you mutter.
He knew that tone. It was all too familiar, one you used whenever you didn't like what he or Jordie did, one you used when you were about to make a rash decision. The one you had when you decided to give Jordie the medicine that was supposed to be yours.
The memories were starting to make him sick. His knee felt it and it dared to give out from under him.
"What do you want from me, Kaz Brekker?" you asked him with a voice so small he almost missed it.
He remained silent.
"You know all I know and yet you still ask me to go to you like a pup?" you were pouring your heart out and yet he stood there motionless, his eyes betrayed everything his face told but you couldn't care less, he needed to hear this.
"If all I am to you is a dog to be ordered around or-or bait for Pekka Rollins why not take me hostage? Or just kill me?" you ask again and his jaw ticks.
"I... I cannot." he mutters and you scoff.
"And why is that? Everyone here claims you to be the big bad that made Ketterdam fall on its knees and yet you fail to give me a clear answer?" you challenged.
Silence.
"That's what I thought." you chuckle darkly.
"Leave me alone," you turned around, ready to leave. "Stop making me chase that tattoo you probably have out of sheer fucking coincidence." you sneer and walk away.
A hand to your wrist stops your movements and you swipe it off but his cane taps louder as he goes to you again but you face him.
"I said leave me alone-"
"And I said I can't-"
"Why are you being so difficult!?"
"If you would just listen."
His voice was getting louder by the second and you would be lying if it didn't hammer down at you harder than it should.
"The time for listening was earlier. You missed your chance." you said with finality and his jaw ticked.
He stared at you with such intensity that if you hadn't turned around ready to run you were sure you'd regret it. That familiar ache in your head starts to make itself known the more you spend time with him.
"I gave you that bracelet."
Silence.
And slowly, you turned around.
"W-What?" you ask, eyes widening.
"That's," he swallows thickly, "that's... my sister's bracelet." he chokes out, eyes meeting yours.
"Kaz, come in a hurry! Jordie's meeting with Mr. Hertzoon will be over soon and I want to play with Saskia!" your little voice shrilled as you tugged at Kaz's sleeve who was busy tying some sort of knot.
"In a minute, y/n. It's not like she'll go away any time soon." he laughed.
"But I want to go now!" you whined and he sighs.
"Guess this'll have to do then." he says and shows you a small black string with a simple braid in the middle.
You gasp like he'd given you raw gold.
"Is that for me?" you smiled and he rolled his eyes.
"Oh actually it's for Jordie, I'm sure he'll love the small detail I added." he said sarcastically and you put your tongue out at him.
"Put it on me!" you say and put your arm out, sticking you nose in the air like a royal ordering your squire around. He chuckled at this.
"Yes madame." he joked and tied the bracelet around your wrist, tying it tightly.
"There done," he smiled satisfied at his work, you coo at the string in your wrist and trace the braid he had done.
"Let's go, we'll have to get her back for that cup trick won't we?" he told you as he extended his hand out and you nodded at him, giggling as you took it and went inside the house.
Your whole world spins as the memories hit you. You clutch your head and groan as you feel the need to throw up, leaning against the wall for support as you forget to remember how to breathe.
"Y/N!" Kaz screamed as you coughed and fell down in front of him.
Jordie lay heavy in his lap as he yelled for you to get up. Blood spilt from your lips, dropping down the snow as you stared at your brothers clutching each other for warmth.
You take in a big breath of air making your ears ring, adrenaline pumping through your veins as you look at Kaz Brekker. He wanted more than nothing to go to you, to tell you he was here. But the waves were closing in, the mere contact he had with you making his body run cold as he locked eyes with yours. He hated the way they held so much emotion in them.
Pain, confusion, guilt.
"Y/N, you need to breathe." he said, his cane becoming the sole reason for his knees not to buck as he tried to go near you.
"G-Get away from me!" you screamed and stood up so fast that it made you dizzy.
"Y/N you need to be strong. I cannot hold all three of us at once, you need to go back to shore and find someone to help." he had told you but you shook your head, your thin frame shaking as you held onto him.
"Where you go, I go." you said and held his hand, so cold it didn't seem he felt it anymore but you couldn't care less, "It doesn't matter where.".
'It didn't matter whether you had gone or went,' Kaz said in his head. 'I'd push you away if it meant giving you a more peaceful way out.'
But he was wrong.
Kaz pushed you from Jordie. He had sent you floating on wood that would soon drift too far and he convinced himself he did the right thing. He closed his eyes and waited for death to come.
It wasn't supposed to be this cold. Your clothes stuck to you and the sound of your labored breathing sent you through panic as the memories start to flood in too fast for recovery. The bracelet in your wrist suddenly constricts tighter than it ever did before.
He wasn't supposed to look at you like that.
He wasn't even supposed to be here.
And he wasn't supposed to be your brother.
"Sister..."
Kaz Brekker did not plead. He did not feel nor did he want to ever again as you seemed to shatter in front of him and all he could do was stare.
"Don't," you held your hand out, scrambling to walk away, "Don't call me that." you rasped and took a shaky breath. And as fast as he could blink, you were gone.
He closed his eyes and gripped his cane harder than he ever did before.
Kaz Brekker clawed his way out of the Barrel's shittiest hole and had managed to be far worse than anything it had ever seen and yet he could do nothing as his sister ripped his heart out just by merely existing.
"There was a girl, just like I told him, and we were supposed to get her to tell us about Pekka, just like he told me." Inej had told the group when they got back. They had huddled around, save for Kaz who stormed to his office, to get the idea of what had happened that made them return so fast.
"What did she look like?" Wylan asked.
"A simple girl, although he looked like he was looking for something and I don't know what it is." Inej answered.
"Maybe the demjin finally found something disturbing that even he had the thought to leave." Matthias shrugged as Nina hummed next to him, sipping her drink.
"She was not at all scary, in fact she looked a little too… ordinary. Too normal to be Pekka's crew." Inej said.
"Guilt perhaps? Maybe you knocked so much sense into him that he backtracked and decided, 'You know what? I'll be the bigger person and just beat Pekka at the biggest sales of alcohol and gambling in the Barrel!'" Jesper snorted.
"Not funny Jesper." Inej rolled her eyes.
"What? I'm saying, nothing is possible in this age. I'm willing to bet he had a flashback of some sort." he added, downing the drink in his hand.
"All of you are wrong, maybe he looked in the mirror and had a good look at himself and it scared him shitless. Why else would his heartbeat spike through the roof?" Nina mused, biting into her food and sharing some to Matthias who happily opened his mouth.
Upstairs, Kaz was already hatching on another plan, one to retrieve you and find out more about you. He suspected Pekka didn't know your relation to him, otherwise he would have sent you to kill him and would have succeeded. Too bad he was an idiot.
He had to take matters in his own hands, he figured. Rollins had took too much from him and it was time he got him back. Brick by brick.
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The morning after, you seemed well rested and was ready to take on new assignments. Pekka Rollins had employed you only a little more than a year ago, having invested in you while you were still in the training camp you called home, and he was pleased to know that he had someone that could possibly equate Dirtyhands' Wraith.
The organization that you came from was not an ordinary one. Located deep in Shu territory and operated in secrecy disguised as an oil-mining company. It ran deep in the country's government and supplied them with assassins, spies, agents, and Grisha that were trained to follow orders for the Shu and its investors. You being swept up in its shores was the reason you were who you were today.
Being trained from dawn to dusk had been your life, the memories of your old life gone as they shaped and hammered down your mind to only do what was being told, and now the only thing that kept you anchored to the old you was the bracelet on your wrist that had been with you since. You never knew what it meant but you knew that the tiny string had sentiment so you never took it off.
You stretched as you stood up, the first rays of the sun shining through the small window of your room as you groan from the aches in your back from your hard bed. You sigh as you remember that you still had to report to Pekka at first light and you pushed yourself to function properly enough to face him.
You show up to his office later that morning after you had freshened up, climbing his office window as he landed softly on your feet, not enough to alert people outside but enough to let him know you were there.
He sat in his chair fiddling with his pipe and faced you, puffing a circle and making it float to your face. You hated that smell, hated that he smoked, hated that he was your employer, but you had to eat and you couldn't afford getting sent back to the organization. So your face remained neutral. Pekka smirked at that.
"You're up awfully early, lass. I myself am not even five minutes in." he said.
"I do what is expected." you answer coolly to which he hums at.
"You know I have a door for a reason, maybe you want to come in through there next time." he pointed to it.
You knew, you couldn't care less.
"If I didn't know it was you I would have shot you dead coming up behind me like that." he finished, accent running thick as he eyed you up and down.
Please do try. You had to fight off an eye roll.
"I'll take note of it but I'm more comfortable with my method, maybe I'll knock in the window instead." you respond, eyeing him.
"Less of the lip, girl. I don't like my men sassmouthin' me." he glared and you had to fight off the shiver that went through you.
"I need you to do something for me." he said as he puffed out smoke and handed you a list.
Errands? You were a trained assassin and he wanted you to run errands?
You stopped yourself from raising a brow and just nodded curtly, you didn't need a nasty comment on your contract. The last thing you needed was a 1 star review so you ran along, ignoring his stare as you go out the window again.
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Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason.
He could be jumping off a roof or juggling colorful balls and no one would bat an eye. But Inej Ghafa knew better.
Kaz woke up at exactly 7 bells and got up to have his usual breakfast: a hot black coffee and a plain bread with poorly spread jam on it. Inej had nothing on her roster and had wanted to talk to Kaz about what had happened, Kaz sensed it of course, and managed to avoid her, sending her to jobs just to make her avoid his office in particular. This ticked her off, she knew something was afoot and when the Wraith needed something, she got it.
So here she was tailing Kaz who was tailing you who was tailing Pekka Rollins' stupid grocery list. It's like cat and mouse had a mind whirlwind and decided to run its course on the three most dangerous people of the Barrel.
This went on for about an hour before Kaz caught Inej, scolding her and telling her not to tail her. Kaz always knew when Inej was watching him so now she made no effort to conceal her curiosity and instead just went along with him, despite his protests.
"Inej."
"No."
He grumbled and gave up but not without three repeats of that exact same conversation before making her swear not to tell Jesper. The downside was that she had to follow through the roofs, but she was satisfied with just this.
That only got on for half an hour though as you manage to corner Kaz behind a discrete alley, catching him following you to take a left.
"You and that Suli girl have been tailing me and I want to know why." you grit your teeth as you held him up by his collar, the proximity choking you both but were mutually unaware to each other's effect.
Inej was down behind you in a flash, holding a knife to your side.
"Let him go." she ordered, you grinned.
"You think I can't handle a little slice? I'd have choked him to death before you could say Ghezen." you challenged as you held Kaz up tighter, the bile in your stomach rising even more as you did.
You had always hated the feeling of skin on skin, a trait that your mentors took advantage of as they trained you to attack as soon as you come in contact with someone. It surprised you that it came slower with him though. It was as if something about him was familiar, like an inkling that you had met before.
"Inej." Kaz had managed to say as he looked at her and it felt like a whole conversation was going on. You felt a pang in your chest when you had looked at him. Something was prodding in the back of your head, a dull ache beginning to take place the longer you held him.
He dropped his cane and raised his hands to show he meant no harm and Inej retreated her knife soon after. Your eyes remained skeptical as your hold on him relaxed a beat after, still keeping your guard up.
"I know you, you're the Wraith," you spoke as you looked at Inej. "Pekka speaks highly of you." you raise a brow.
"And I'm assuming you're the bastard?" you look at Kaz.
He was still recovering from your touch, leaning against the wall as he tried to fight off the waves that were pulling him in.
"What do you want?" you asked as you remained defensive.
It felt like it was in another life since he had heard your voice. In front of him was not the little sister he had stolen cookies from, you no longer held that twinkle in your eye, instead stood in front of him was whole new person; scorned from years of torment and something far darker, something he had feared he would not get you back from.
"Pekka." Kaz's voice betrayed him, it was soft and quiet, even Inej had to blink to check if she had heard him correctly. Not at all like Dirtyhands, nothing at all like the barrel rat that he was. For a split second, he was Kaz Rietvield again. Something in your head clicked and your headache worsened but you had to remain unaffected, your eyes twitching as the ache began to bloom.
"Why?" you asked.
"I want a man on the inside." he answered, his voice and posture back to normal as he grabbed his cane, gripping its head so hard that Inej feared it would come to life and peck his fingers.
"Bold of you to assume I'd disobey my employer." you tilted your head and began to pick up the bag you previously discarded on the ground, moving to walk away from whatever mess the bastard of the barrel had to offer. It was humorous to him to find the bag full of vegetables and spices. Kaz knew you hated being ordered around.
"A deal, then." he stopped you.
"Work for me. Give me whatever you have on him." he added, to which you turned around to.
"In exchange for what? What could you possibly give me?" you challenged.
"Your freedom and," he moved to unbutton his sleeve, "this."
He smirked and showed you his wrist and a tattoo of your bracelet was seen in black ink, making your world spin.
a/n: of course the debut post HAD to be the mighty glorious kazzle dazzle. this is heavily inspired by "Aftershocks" from Next to Normal.
this is my first time ever trying to write on tumblr, please be gentle i beg LOLL
In which Pekka Rollins has the audacity to hire a new spider and build a new club near the Dregs' territory What happens when the spider he hires is Kaz Brekker's long lost sister?
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Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason.
Everyone in the Barrel knew this fact, everyone knew not to question his actions and knew even better not to contradict them, especially his crows. They were used to his wild nature, used to his grumbles and glares, and were often the first ones to eliminate anyone that did. But ever so often, they could not help but to raise a brow at it.
Especially now.
"Pekka has hired a new cub, find out who and why he wants them. I want answers." he had ordered Inej.
"Make another set of bombs, ones that create smoke before exploding. I need them by tonight." he said to Wylan who jolted away from Jesper at his sudden intrusion into their very private moment.
"Matthias, guard the club. I'll have to borrow Zenik from you for a job, hurry up." he knocked at Matthias' room.
Kaz knew what to do, of course he did. He had a plan, a meticulous one that had countermeasures down to the moment they got back to the Slat. Get inside, raid the new club Pekka had balls enough to build right across the harbor, just barely grazing the line of property Brekker swore him not to cross, and get back.
The crows moved swiftly through the night, he informed them of the plan, making Jesper repeat it thrice for good measure, made sure they knew every crevice of Pekka's place from the information Inej got him. Every instance and chance was accounted for and yet, somehow, some way, you had manage to stunt the bastard of the barrel.
The "Kaelish Prince", as Pekka called it, was still closed. Kaz managed to plan the heist just before the grand opening and they managed to enter quietly without Jesper scratching his itch to shoot something.
Meanwhile, Pekka had given you a room in the club, a small room that was far too plain for your taste but you'd rather have this than sleeping in the cold streets of the Barrel.
Shivering at the thought, you had managed to fall into the best sleep you ever had in years, not hearing the soft thump of a cane entering your room just an hour after you drifted off.
His plan was simple. Get information that valued Pekka whether the spider was to bleed or to die.
Kaz and Inej had stood on guard as they entered your room and spotted your form on the bed, buried under a blanket too thin to provide much warmth. She moved to remove your blanket, as quietly as she could, and she might as well have punched Kaz right in his stomach when he was met with the sight of you underneath the blanket.
His eyes widened and without realizing it, he grabbed Inej's hand to stop it from taking one of her knives out, making the Wraith widen her eyes and look at Kaz dead in the eyes before moving her sight down to his hand on hers. She feared to move, not daring to remove his hand as she scrunched her brows in question.
Kaz didn't know how to breathe. Suddenly, he was seeing Jordie laying there next to you locking eyes with him mockingly. "What's wrong brother? You look like you've seen a ghost." Jordie smirked.
You shifted in your sleep and he sharply inhaled, shaking his head to shoo away his thoughts as if it'd all go away--as if you'd go away. He had to be hallucinating, you weren't there, you were dead. He saw you drift away from him and Jordie at the harbor. He saw you breathe your last. He was alone and yet, here you were, like a slap to his face.
"Kaz?" Inej called quietly. Kaz swallowed thickly before snapping his eyes to Inej, to his hand on hers, to you. And as quick as Inej could blink, he had retreated his hand away again as she quietly sighed in silent defeat.
"Move." he said to Inej and kneeled next to you, searching for a pulse despite every fiber of his being complaining. Inej stood by and let Kaz do what he did, still shocked and confused, but she knew there was something Kaz needed to find. Still, she could not shake the feeling that something strange was afoot.
Kaz Brekker did not act brashly, not while on the job and certainly not like this.
Her eyes took in his form, bent over yours as he slowly moved your hand, a hand that had a bracelet was strikingly similar to the tattoo Kaz had on his wrist, to lift the collar of your shirt, hearing him suck in a breathe when he did like he had found gold. Despite all this running through her head, she stayed quiet, waiting for him to finish.
With all dirtyhands as doing, he was surprised that you remained sleeping. He was counting on it though, you were always a heavy sleeper.
He shook his head at his thoughts and shrugged away the twitch that he felt on his lips to remain as calm as he could be. His heart betrayed him though as it pumped loudly when he found what he was looking for; a birthmark in your collarbone. A sign that he was not dreaming. That Pekka was not playing some sort of sick joke by leaving his sister there for him to find. His ears ringed as all his movements just halted at the realization of your existence.
You were here. Not dead. No longer the ghost that haunted his every step. You were alive.
Questions poked at his head.
Why hadn't you looked for him? Where did you go? How long have you been in the Barrel? Why were you taking so long to wake up?
"Kaz." Inej's voice cut through his thoughts and he stood up suddenly, putting the blanket back on your shoulders, and walking away.
Inej's eyebrows would have shot up through the roof if they weren't limited to her forehead.
What is he doing?
"Kaz?" she asked again, following behind him cluelessly. She wanted to ask questions, to pick and prod, she knew better yet this was a new bewilderment, even for Kaz.
"So? Any news?" Jesper asked them the moment they walked out the building but Kaz walked right through him, ignoring the sharpshooter's confused gaze. Nina, who was beside Wylan, looked to Inej for answers to which Inej shrugged at, the answer "I have no idea" getting mouthed as they stood to follow the bastard of the barrel.
"Any words can amount to a 'let's go home, gang' you know that right, boss?" Jesper joked as they jogged to catch up to Kaz who walks surprisingly fast for a person with a cane.
"Not now Jesper." Kaz grumbled.
"Is it possible that you entered a portal and got back to be a whole new level of grumpy?" Nina tried. Kaz remained silent.
They looked to Inej once more to which she shook her head as if to say to leave it alone and they understood. Jesper didn't though.
"What are we shaking our heads about? What-?"
"Shut up, Jesper." they told and he grumbled to that. Grumbled all the way back to the Slat.
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click for part 2 !!!
a/n: well there we go! hehe, hopefully i can upload the next part tomorrow! stay tuned! ;)
