Summary: “Kaz,” she says quietly, “what’s the plan here? I won’t call a medik without your agreement, but there’s no way you can hide this. Even if you could – it leaves you too vulnerable. You can’t defend yourself like this.”
Just saying it feels wrong, like she’s bringing down a curse on their heads.
When Kaz gets injured and can't - won't - look after himself, the task falls to Inej.
Length: 3.4k
Pairing: Inej Ghafa/Kaz Brekker
Rating: T
Tags: Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort
Read it: AO3
Written for @semicolonsandsimiles as part of the @grishaversesecretsanta 2021!
This is where I hang my head in shame and admit that I don’t think I’ve really been to any proper forests. I’ve been to many a densely wooded area in my life, and have ambled through the trees in Shenandoah Valley while on Skyline Drive. That’s a very strong memory that is in my top 5, and another is a quiet volcano in Hawai’i that I walked along the ridge of, then down into the crater. The ridge was actual rainforest - hot and humid - but in the crater, it was 50 degrees and raining. One of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had.
I’m currently in the Pennsylvania area, so I’m going to flip this meme and ask for your (or any of my followers) for your top 5 recs. They don’t have to be close to me, but if they are, I’ll note them down to go!
It would be a tie between wasabi peas, salted peanuts, butter popcorn and poppadums.
I’m sorry! But there are like 5 more I could easily have listed. It’s a mood dependent thing!
park benches: what’s your favourite hobby to do with a friend?
Hmmm. Given our current lifestyle I would say things like getting a coffee in an actual coffee shop, or browsing some stores, or going on a road trip.
But the true me, the me I was before 2020, loved to tango. I’ve learnt it on and off, and I got really, really into it for a couple of years with a friend.
Tango is ... it’s something that’s in your blood, somehow. From the first moment my entire being was like ‘Yes! YES!’. The passion never truly leaves your bones if you have it in you.
And my friend that I learnt it with was a big part of that joy for me. I haven’t danced since they moved away :(
4. Do you outline before you start writing? If so, how far do you stray from that outline?
this one also depends on the fic! with plot-heavy longfics (like breathe on the ashes), i tend to have very detailed chapter-by-chapter outlines. but those also undergo frequent adjustment as characters and relationships and events develop differently than expected, as pacing needs adjustment, and as i get new ideas or discard old ones
then with emotionally driven fics very focused on internal narration (like we never were good at doing what we’re told), i go into it knowing
where the characters start
where they end
what they need to unpack
how they change
but i don’t have a chapter-by-chapter outline or pre-plotted interactions. i let the story develop w/ a mix of organic evolution and conscious intention - i put characters together when they have a conflict they need to resolve or a conflict they need to create or something they need to learn from each other, but i don’t know the shape of the constellations until i get there
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12. Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?
oh i’m not sure! i very much take an “i do what i want” approach to writing so when there are tropes i want to write, i just..... write them
the biggest thing i can think of is that i want to write a lot more domestic supportive fluffy polyamory than i have - the big hurdle is juggling all the characters (particularly when there’s more than three) & their individual relationships. the logistics sometimes make me go AAAAAA and then i give up before i start. but i should get over that bc domestic supportive fluffy polyamory is good as hell
fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?
hm i kinda have my dream wardrobe—i mostly wear stuff that is comfortable but chic. i love three-quarter sleeves, tights and high-waisted bottoms. if i lived in a colder climate i’d love to wear more hats and gloves though
quilt - how do you take your tea (or coffee)?
i usually have cinammon tea, and i take it without milk or sugar. however i do add milk and sugar to my coffee 😋 i always drink coffee in the morning, with breakfast, and in winter i like to have some tea in the afternoon. if i have coffee after 5-6pm, i must take it decaf or i’ll have trouble sleeping at night!
This had been the longest Hennessy had ever spent away from Jordan. She hated the feeling, separation anxiety. She wasn’t fucking twelve anymore. It didn’t help that Lynch spent about as much time looking at his phone as she did wondering if Jordan was still alive. It was a shit system, this dreamer-dream thing. If something permanent happened to her, anyone near Jordan would know, but if it were the other way around? All the other girls had been killed and she’d felt nothing in Lindenmere. A shit system with shit rules that changed up on her just when she thought there was no more point. Hennessy didn’t know whether to be grateful or pissed off, and her ticker landed somewhere in the middle.
Her ass helped itself to the trunk of the BMW, and she lit up a cigarette, her third one since they’d pulled off somewhere along Skyline drive to rent a touristy cabin and figure out their plan. Hennessy wasn’t sure if she cared about a plan, and she wasn’t sure yet how she felt about meeting and saving other dreamers. She’d spent so long just trying to save herself and her girls that the victory of dreaming something other than a copy felt like the illusion of success. Especially when dreaming was still dangerous, and now being awake was doubly so. Sometimes, shit just didn’t get better, and she felt like a fool for thinking it did.
“You gonna sleep on the car tonight or what?”
Lynch walked up and hoisted himself up onto the trunk next to Hennessy, the ease of it suggesting he’d done it so often it could be reflex. He didn’t care when she tilted her head in his direction and released a cloud of nicotine at him. His stony expression shifted only in a single quirk of his brow. She offered him the pack, but he shook his head.
“I want to talk about your brother,” she told him.
Hennessy felt a ripple of satisfaction at the way his lip curled up.
“I fuckin’ don’t.”
Despite him being the first and only other dreamer she’d ever met, and the fact that he’d saved her life at least twice and Jordan’s once, she couldn’t resist the temptation to antagonize him. The invitation had been engraved into every part of him, from his buzzed head to his combat boots. If she hadn’t held his hand on the overlook, felt it shaking with hers, she would have given him so much more shit. As it was, she still wasn’t above pretending to be his jilted girlfriend to get an extra plate of fritters on the road.
“Nah, be straight with me, bruv. He’s fuckin’ with something important to me.”
Ronan ducked down into the span of his own shoulders a bit. “I think he’s got skin in the game.” He blinked, then wrinkled his nose. “That’s something he would fuckin’ say. Speak of the devil and he’ll appear or some shit.”
“I know his type, Lynch.”
Ronan bristled. “No, I don’t think you do.”
“You called him a liar.”
“He is.”
“Jordan—”
“Look, you asked and I’m telling you, so either you believe me or you don’t, but I don’t owe it to you to defend him. Especially not since Jordan already used him once to break into his place.” His gaze pierced into her through another cloud of smoke.
Hennessy bristled, supposing it was only fair since the date had only existed to get The Dark Lady from Declan Lynch’s townhouse. No one said Jordan had to keep going back. There wasn’t a single other bloke on the planet who’d gotten her a jar of tyrian purple in a day. And no one else in the world had cared enough to try and save her girls. She gave it to Ronan for having the balls to call Jordan out to Hennessy’s face, and anyone else who’d done it would be choking on his own teeth right now.
“They’re using each other,” she concluded, her voice thick with something miserable and hopeful. Ronan’s gaze still drilled into her skull, and she wanted to push him off the fucking car. “That’s got a snowball’s chance of actually working out, and I think you know that too. So you can take your pissy attitude about your big brother and shove it up your arse sideways.”
Ronan scoffed. “You’re such a bitch.”
“Original of you.”
He folded his arms on his knees and looked out somewhere in the darkness. It was nearly impossible to see anything unless you were looking up. The trees were so thick, and the mountains behind them like monstrous guardians. Hennessy had spent so long in bustling cities and squatting in rich over-lit neighborhoods that she couldn’t decide if being here made her feel safe or trapped. The world in general kept that fight or flight fire alive in her blood. She should be sleeping, and yet if she could nick the keys off of Lynch, she’d probably drive and drive until she passed out. But Ronan seemed at home here, despite being on the run. He said the ley line, the source of the dream energy, was close here. She wasn’t sure if she could actually feel it, or if she only wanted to. Everything felt like a mirage after what she’d seen in Lindenmere, a shimmery thing that would disappear when she tried to reach for it. She would always wonder if she should have drowned in the ocean she’d dreamt the day he found her.
“Never seen him look at anyone like that.”
Hennessy extinguished her cigarette on the bottom of her boot, exhaling slowly. Ronan breathed it in just as deliberately.
“Yeah, ain’t that a pisser. She left me for that boring motherfucker.”
Ronan tipped his head back and cackled. “Traded one bitch for another.”
He jabbed her with his elbow. It startled her into a smirk.
“Fuck off, Lynch. I’ll stab you with my sword.”
“You wouldn’t even have a sword without me so you fuck off.”
They slid off the BMW, heading back toward the cabin. Hennessy desperately wanted to believe all this was real. She wanted to sleep and dream and wake up without being destroyed. She wanted Jordan to have the life she deserved instead of living Hennessy’s. It wasn’t until Ronan Lynch had bullied his way to them that she’d even thought those things were possible. They might have been running for their lives. They might have so many questions left to answer and more dreamers to find.
8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
I answered here, but here's one more from In One Piece.
"Because Parrish you are, more than slightly, sapiosexual. And like I said before, Tad's a dumb fuck."
"Well, I'm with you, so I'm obviously not sapiosexual," Adam retorted...
This is peak Adam Parrish - "I'm with you, so I'm obviously not sapiosexual." asdfghjkkll
And then, ofc, Ronan proves him wrong ^^
17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
Oh, definitely out of order. I have complete scenes for IOP that are now a year old. I'll have to rewrite them now, because my writing has changed so much over the course of this fic LOL.
