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Inej looked at the expanse of buildings around her from her perch on the roof of the slat. She had seen this view hundreds, possibly even thousands of times, yet something seemed different about today. Then she felt it, the breeze that picked up, causing an involuntary shiver and goosebumps to form along her skin.
Winter had finally arrived, and along with it, new opportunities lay just beyond the horizon.
—-
Inej walked into the entrance of the slat, from the ground this time, and immediately relaxed her muscles a bit when she felt the warm air from inside hit her.
“Inej! How is my favorite spider doing today?” Jesper exclaimed, walking over to her from across the room.
“So much for the element of surprise,” Inej thought to herself. “I’m doing perfectly well today Jesper.”
“Did you feel the weather outside today? It’s getting cold again,” Jesper grumbled. “I hate the cold.”
“You hate when it’s hot too, Jes,” Inej said, smirking.
“You can’t wear suit coats when it gets too hot! And while I look great in anything, I’m not a big fan of limiting my wardrobe.” Jesper countered.
“Well there you go then, you can wear suit coats in the winter,” Inej responded.
“But in winter it’s so wet, and clammy, and freezi-,” Jesper was cut off.
“Stop your bellyaching, will you? It’s really getting quite annoying.” Kaz interjected from the stairs, coat, gloves, and cane in hand. “It’s not even that cold out yet.”
Inej felt her heart leap when she heard Kaz’s voice, but then it sank when she saw him fully. Lately, Kaz had been working on not wearing his gloves around the slat, something he was doing pretty well at if she said so herself. But his gloves were back on today, which meant something must have happened, or someone must have touched him, or-
“Wraith, I need to see you in my office,” Kaz said, tone even.
Inej shook herself out of that train of thought and followed him into his office.
Kaz waited for her to pass through the door, and then shut it. For a moment, Inej thought he might lock the door, and a brief flash of panic shot through her. Then she realized that he left the door unlocked, and her senses returned, and then she remembered that this is Kaz . She was safe in a room with him, door locked or not.
By the time her brief spell of anxiety had come to an end, she and kaz had both assumed their normal positions. Him at the seat of his desk, and her with her legs crossed on a chair to the side.
“What business, Kaz?” She asked, ready for her new set of tasks for the day.
Kaz looked over her, then back at his desk. “Inej, I–,” he stopped to clear his throat, something that Inej thought was very odd, as Kaz didn’t normally fumble his speech. “I was wondering if, tonight, you’d like to come to my room for dinner?”
Inej hesitated. Was Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrel , asking her out…on a date? Sure, they’d had dozens of deep conversations, had each other's unwavering trust, Kaz had bought her a boat , and they’d held hands a few times, but this…this was new.
Kaz, noticing her hesitation, said, “You don’t have to. There’s absolutely no pressure.”
Inej took a breath and then said, “No, no, I’d love to. It’s just…I’ve never had a man take me to dinner before. Not unless…”
She trailed off, knowing that Kaz knew exactly what she meant. She and Kaz were like that. When two people had seen so much suffering, together or apart, they tended to know what was on each other's mind.
She looked over at Kaz to see him clench his gloved fist, a hard expression on his face before he slowly released the tension in his hand and softened his gaze. “I can’t promise you safety in a fight, Inej, but I can promise you that nothing like that will ever happen to you again, not under my watch.” He looked at where the knives were stashed in her top. “Or yours, now that you're the deadliest spy in all of Ketterdam.”
Inej uncrossed her legs and walked over to Kaz, taking his gloved hand in hers. “And for that, I will be forever grateful to you, Kaz Brekker.”
She walked out of his office, neither of them saying another word. They would see each other tonight. And besides, she was the Wraith.
She had work to do.
—-
The sun had gone down, and Inej, the picture of dedication and patience, was tired. She had spent the day training new recruits to the Dregs, some of them as young as twelve, and though she was only eighteen, she felt at least 35 at that moment.
The wood and stone of the buildings she climbed were rough and cold, but Inej squared her shoulders, took a breath, and channeled what little energy she had remaining into forcing her muscles to move. One hand after another, and then she was at the top. Nearby, she could see her favorite window, lit with candles and inviting her to come in.
Inej crept quietly over the rooftops, opened the window, and slipped in, just as she had countless times before. When her feet were planted firmly on the ground, she took in her surroundings and was quickly taken aback.
Where Kaz’s makeshift desk used to be was now a table, and the fireplace, which was almost never in use, was lit and welcoming.
“Kaz?” Inej called out, not seeing him in the room, but sensing he was there.
Kaz strolled out of his bathroom, tightening his tie. His coat and gloves had gone, and he was left wearing his white dress shirt and tie. He leaned his cane against the wall and gestured toward the table. “Shall we?”
Inej followed him to the table and sat down, looking at the spread of food on the table. There were Kerch staples, as well as some Ravkan favorites.
Inej took a closer look at the food when suddenly a smell hit her square in the stomach and transported her all the way back to when she was thirteen. It was winter in Ravka, and her mother had made kulkuls , a traditional winter sweet among the Suli. Looking at the plate now, she could almost taste the scent of her parents’ caravan that night.
“Inej?” Kaz said, looking as concerned as Kaz could.
Inej snapped out of her memory. “Sorry. I got lost in my head for a bit there. Shall we?”
They both sat in silence for a while, the only sound in the room chewing and the occasional scrape of a fork on a plate. Saints , were all first dates this awkward?
“So…Kaz, was there a reason you chose tonight for us to have dinner?” Inej asked, knowing it was a stupid question but, hey, someone had to start the conversation.
“Not particularly. I was able to get away and put everything together today, which is why I asked you to dinner tonight,” he shrugged.
After an hour of chitchat and good food, Inej and Kaz migrated over to the small sofa next to the fireplace.
“Kaz?” Inej asked, “This morning when you came downstairs, you had your gloves back on. Did..did something happen?”
Kaz looked away, the tips of his ears turning a light pink. “No, nothing happened.”
Inej was confused. “So…why were you wearing the gloves then?”
Kaz’s ears turned even more pink. “Well, it was…I…I was just cold, okay?”
Inej stopped for a moment, her brain processing the information. Then, she smiled and started laughing. “You were just cold? Saints Kaz, I was really worried about you. And didn’t you just tell Jesper to stop his whining because it “wasn’t even that cold”?”
The tips of Kaz’s ears were red by this point. “Saying that it’s cold outside doesn’t exactly fit the big scary barrel boss persona I’m trying to maintain here, wraith.”
Inej took a few breaths to calm herself before saying, “Okay, okay. Well, I’m glad you’re alright.”
Kaz looked down at his hands, saying nothing. Inej looked at him, looked at the boy that somehow she had fallen for, the boy that had somehow fallen for her. She took a breath, steeling herself, and softly rested her head against Kaz’s shoulder.
She felt him still, taken aback by the sudden contact, but not drowning because of the layer of fabric that separated them. After a few seconds, she felt him relax.
Peace didn’t exist in the barrel. It was a filthy, sinful, broken place full of filthy, sinful, broken people, but if there was something close to peace that existed there, Inej was sure this was what it would feel like.
She was still surprised when Kaz gently leaned his head against hers.