Chapter Text
Kaz
"I am going to kill you, Brekker!" Matthias shouted furiously, trying to chase Kaz down a twist of alleys.
Nina tried to calm down Matthias, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder, but he was having none of it. "Damn it, Kaz, where did you go?"
Kaz smiled to himself as he climbed the side of an old warehouse. "Hell,"
Matthias rolled his eyes. "That's where you came from, you demon-spawn," The Fjerdian went down the alley Kaz was watching from above. "Now, just where did you run off to?"
Jesper watched from behind Kaz, a smile on his lips. "He's got you now, Matty,"
"Don't call me Matty!" Matthias barked.
And . . . now.
Kaz jumped from the roof of the building, training his gun on Matthias. He squeezed the trigger, hitting the blond in the head. The blond made an outraged noise, and fell to the floor, a puddle of blood beginning to form under his blown out skull.
"Head shot!" Both Nina and Jesper announced, surprised, but still impressed.
** Game Over **
** Winner: Bastard_of_the_Barrel_30 **
** Loser: ArcticWolfSoldier **
Kaz shut his laptop, looking over at Matthias victoriously. "You're too easy to beat, Helvar."
"You're cheating. I know you are," Matthias grumbled, looking dejected.
Kaz didn't deny or affirm that. He hadn't cheated though. Matthias was just really, really bad at video games.
Jesper sipped his hot chocolate. "Maybe a board game would be better, Matthias."
Nina snorted, shoving a brownie into her mouth from the counter. "Kaz will beat us at practically any game, Jesper. We should ban him from competitive games."
"Aren't all games competitive?" Jesper asked. Before she could answer, the door flew open, letting in a flurry of snowflakes, and a very cold Wylan and Inej. Fat snowflakes covered them from head to toe. On Inej, who was wearing all black that day, it looked like white bullet holes. Wylan shut the close behind them violently, shivering like the cold had sunken into his bones. Inej shook the snow from her braid, and started to fight her shoes off. Wylan followed suit, shaking his red curls like a puppy.
Nina was the first to move. "Oh, you two look horrible. Go, change. I'll pour you some hot chocolate."
Inej smiled gratefully at Nina. "Thanks, Nina. It's freezing out there. We ran all the way back."
Wylan nodded in affirmation, already heading to the basement, which served as his room. It had several little side rooms and closets, giving him enough room to experiment his usually explosive concoctions. "It's a blizzard. I'm surprised we didn't get buried alive in the snow, or just get frozen before getting here."
Jesper laughed. "You're Wylan Van Sunshine. You can't freeze."
Wylan shot him and over-the-shoulder pout. "Don't call me that."
Inej shook her head and headed up the stairs, smiling at Kaz as she passed him, where he sat on the couch. Kaz raised an eyebrow at her in return, letting his lips quirk into the smallest sliver of a smile. She, despite the icy condition she'd entered the house, seemed to be in a really good, warm mood.
Nina fussed in the kitchen (that belonged to Kaz, Inej, and Matthias, but they had stopped paying attention about who's kitchen was who's. There were only two, but what did it matter?), grabbing Inej's favorite cup, a dark purple mug with silver writing spelling out ' Dreamer & Doer ' in cursive. Kaz had gotten it for Inej for her birthday. Nina grabbed a simple light blue cup for Wylan, and set them on the counter, pouring hot chocolate into them from the pot they had made earlier without spilling a drop. She grabbed the whipped cream and put it on Inej's, and marshmallows for Wylan. Kaz was surprised that Nina remembered everyone's favorite way to take hot chocolate. It had taken a long time for them to perfect the mixture so it wouldn't be too sweet (Matthias, Inej, and Jesper) and not too bitter (Nina, Wylan, and Kaz). They all took their differently. Kaz knew how they all liked their hot chocolate, but apparently, he wasn't the only one paying attention.
Some minutes later, Wylan came from his room, wearing a baggy wool sweater and sweat pants. He looked almost childish, but none of them really cared, like Wylan's father might've. Nina handed him his mug, and he smiled. "Thanks, Nina. Ooh, marshmallows!"
Jesper laughed, and motioned for Wylan to come over to sit by him. Sort of. Jesper was sitting criss-cross above the kitchen island, and Wylan sat on one of the cushion-y black stools next to it. "So, how was practice?" Jesper asked, sipping his M&M hot chocolate (he put M&M's and let them float to the bottom as a 'treat').
Wylan opened his mouth, but another voice cut him off. "Absolute hell."
They all looked up to see Inej, freshly changed into black leggings and a large hoodie, walking down the stairs. Kaz tried to keep his eyes from her. Inej wasn't someone people generally described as cute, despite her shorter-than-average stature. Stunning, maybe. Even gorgeous. Some people called her pretty, but there was more to Inej than that. But she wasn't cute. Except when she wore exceptionally large or baggy clothing. Then, she was something people wanted to cuddle. That Kaz wanted to cuddle.
Kaz Brekker, cuddling? Perish the thought.
Inej moved down the stairs gracefully, smiling at Nina as the red-clad girl handed her the hot chocolate. Inej moved to sit next to Kaz on the large black couch, while Matthias and Nina piled into the bean bags at the corner of the room. Despite the business that usually went around inside the house, it was a complete comfort-palace. "So," Nina bit another pastry, reminding Kaz of the cookie on his plate next to him. He offered it to Inej, who took it from him and bit into it casually. "Why was practice so horrible?"
Wylan and Inej looked at each other. Wylan was part of the music club, and Inej part of the dance club. The two often worked together to create concerts, so they often rehearsed with each other. "Well . . ."
Kaz looked at Inej, eyebrows raised in question. She sighed. "They're having us do this really cool contemporary dance, but the costumes for the dancers are a bit . . . revealing. I asked if there was anything I could wear that wouldn't be so revealing, but the director was having none of it. I had to wear the thing. It's actually really pretty, but you guys know how I feel about that stuff." She made an uncomfortable face. Nothing else needed to be said. 4 years ago, Inej had been kidnapped in Ravka after finishing a performance there. At the airport, she'd been attacked by some men. She was later sold to Tante Heleen, who owned a building in Ketterdam were she kept girls and sold them as prostitutes. Inej had been 16 then. She spent a whole year there, until one day, Kaz was walking past that particular building, looking for information on a certain person a client wanted him to get blackmail from. It had been a hot day, and Tante Heleen had risked putting the windows down. When Inej saw Kaz, she for some reason felt like he would be the person to ask. She threw a bottle of nail polish at him (Kaz remembered being baffled when it made contact. He hadn't seen Inej at the window when he passed). She had whispered to Kaz 'Help me and I'll help you'. Kaz hadn't initially reacted, but the next day, he picked the lock on the window of Inej's room, and let her live with him. They signed her up into Ketterdam University with fake papers while Inej worked to help Kaz out. She didn't like showing skin, didn't like make up, ever perfumes, and for a long time, she wouldn't even let Nina or Jesper hug her after they had become friends.
The others nodded. Kaz thought about it for a moment, before speaking. "I'll deal with it,"
Inej looked at him, skeptical, but he thought he could see the hints of a pleased expression on her face. "Does you dealing with it include breaking the law?"
He shrugged. "Maybe,"
"Kaz!"
He didn't answer, and instead, he glanced at Wylan. "And why was practice bad for you?"
Wylan bit into a snicker-doodle, crumbs attaching to his cheeks. "We had to sing,"
Matthias frowned. "Why is that so bad? You are a great singer,"
Wylan smiled a little. "Except when I'm teaching Jesper?"
Matthias nodded, tilting his head. "Yes. Except when you're teaching Jesper. He can't sing."
"Hey!" the dark-skinned boy protested. "I'm a wonderful singer!"
They all shook their heads. Nina's curls smacked Matthias as she violently shook her head. "No, Jesper, no. I swear, I almost shoved a frying pan down your throat when you started to sing "I'm An Albatraoz'."
"Kaz did punch me while I was singing that once," Jesper thought aloud. "I didn't think it was because I was bad."
Kaz just looked at Jesper. "What did you think it was for?"
"I don't know! Maybe you just wanted to punch me! Maybe Nina tried to put pink glitter all over your room again! Maybe Inej didn't put enough sugar into your coffee!" Jesper huffed. "You're always punching people, Kaz."
"Not me," Inej said.
"Or me," Nina pipped in.
"Or me," Wylan added.
Matthias and Jesper shared a confused look. "I understand you not punching Inej, but-"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Inej muttered under her breath.
"Does that mean you only punch us?" Jesper and Matthias looked slightly betrayed.
Kaz ignored them. "So, Wylan, you had to sing?"
Wylan was staring at the group. "Singing, singing lessons with Jesper, Kaz punching people, why Kaz punches people, and who he punches . . ."
"Are you trying to chart our conversation?" Kaz asked.
Wylan smiled a little. "Honestly, being on the sidelines of your conversations is either the best things ever, or the worst thing ever. It's a toss up, but either way, it's impressive. Anyway," he twirled one of his red curls in a finger. "I didn't know the song already, and they gave us papers with the lyrics. I couldn't . . . I couldn't make sense of the lyrics, so when we started to practice, I couldn't follow along and we kept having to stop and start over because of me."
"Ahh," Jesper nodded. "It's alright, Wylan. I'll help you out if you want. Do you remember the song name?"
Wylan was dyslexic, and had an endless amount of trouble reading. He could do math, draw, and play an instrument like it was as easy as breathing, but he couldn't read worth anything. They all tried to help him as much as possible, reading aloud to him, or quizzing him instead of him studying text books. He also recorded the lectures. When it came to tests, Wylan was left with another member of the faculty who read the questions aloud, and Wylan answered them vocally. Inej and Kaz totally hadn't gone around and threatened and/or bribed Wylan's teachers into letting him test that way.
Wylan smiled at Jesper. "Sure! Thanks, Jesper. I think it was Broken Glass, or something,"
Kaz smiled to himself. He'd never admit it, but he would never give up the people he was around. People said he would do anything for the right price. It was mostly true. But he'd never give up Inej, or Jesper, or Wylan, or Nina, or Matthias.
Inej bumped Kaz on the shoulder. Kaz looked over at her, wondering. He couldn't rarely stand skin-to-skin contact, but through fabric, nothing bothered him much. "What?"
"Once the blizzards over, do you wanna go outside and play in the snow?" Her dark brown eyes glittered.
Kaz hesitated. The cold always made his bad leg ache, and he wasn't much of a fan of snow anyway. Or rain. Or wind. Or sun. Kaz only liked one type of weather: Cloudy, and nothing more. But he could stand sometime out there. "Do I have to play to, or can I just watch?"
Inej thought about it. "I'd rather you play with us, but if your leg hurts too much, you can sit out . . ."
Kaz groaned internally. He didn't want to go around in the snow, making a fool of himself. But Inej was looking at him hopefully, biting her lip nervously, waiting for him to answer. And he didn't really want to disappoint her. He should. He should just say no. But . . . "Fine."
"Really!?" she exclaimed. Inej didn't really speak loudly, but she adored snow. She hadn't lived near any particularly cold places back in India, and her parents hated cold weather, so they rarely traveled during the colder seasons. Even after living in Europe for 4 years (1 of those being in captivity), she still found snow amazing.
The others, who seemed to be arguing about who would be shoveling the snow off the sidewalk later, all looked up. "What?"
Inej smiled, her eyes twinkling, a laugh bubbling up in her lips, her lips turning up beautiful. Kaz's breath hitched. Damn it . . . Kaz hated how much he loved her smile, her laugh. It made him feel giddy, almost drunk. The fact that he'd caused it only made him feel more satisfied.
"Kaz said that he'd play in the snow with us once the storm died down!" she told them.
The other's grinned, but in Kaz's mind, none of them could even begin to compete with Inej's. "Seriously?"
Matthias grinned. "Oh, this is great. I'll be getting my revenge soon, Brekker."
Kaz scoffed. "Let's see you try, Helvar. I'll have you weeping in the snow by the end of it all."
"I bet on Kaz!" Jesper immediately called out. "15 dollars!"
The others shook their head, but they all played along. "I'm putting 15 on Matthias. He's practically a snowman." Nina said.
"Kaz," Inej said "Definitely."
Wylan considered it. "Usually, I'd bet Kaz on pretty much everything, but I think Matthias will win this time."
Matthias crossed his arms, and sat back. "So, we're equal. But have no doubt about it, Brekker, I'm going to beat your filthy demon ass into the snow."
Kaz smirked. It no longer scared the crew most of the time (sometimes his glares still did), although it did give him the demonic edge Matthias was always preaching about Kaz having. "Good luck, Matthias. You'll need it,"
Matthias harrumphed.
Nina and Inej laughed, while Jesper and Wylan just shared a 'you're gonna lose,' 'no, you're gonna lose,' look.
Kaz leaned back into the couch, letting himself smile the slightest bit. It was snowing so much, the University would probably be forced to call it a Snow Day, which would give them plenty of time to try and kill each other in the snow. They didn't have any appointments tomorrow, and just in case, they'd take care of all their work that night.
Even criminals needed a day off.
Nina looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, I need knew gloves . . ."
Kaz shrugged. "We'll shoplift them later."
Inej looked at him, deadpanning. "Kaz . . ."
"What? It's just a minor felony."
The others rolled their eyes, but Kaz knew none of them really minded. It was a calm sort of moment for all of them. Inside their little house, being their own little club, it was easy. Their house was the calm, outside the storm.
Kaz had to chuckle at that. Calm during the storm.