She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above. Climb, Inej. (for the @litjoycrate Six of Crows box set)

i want to show some fucking appreciation for amita suman. inej was most likely forced to strip in front of clients while at the menagerie. and i think amita’s acting shows that, her facial expressions in this scene show that she’s thinking of the last time she had to do this, there’s a hardness in her expression. but when she sees the kaz is turned away, his eyes averted, her gaze softens

modern au crows studying

the comfort this cast gives me is unmatched

no mourners, no funerals. [source]

wait till you see half the things that haven’t happened… YET.

That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her. That without meaning to, he'd begun to lean on her, to look for her, to need her near.

― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

the girl and the crow

kanej

The Wraith could hide from anyone and anything. Except for illness.

Winter struck Ketterdam more suddenly that year than usual and all of the sudden the temperatures went down and the city’s crooked, crowded houses got enveloped in the cold sigh of the north wind. Just like the cold, illness quickly spread through the city and by the end of that week half of Ketterdam’s citizens were lying in bed, shivering from a fever or coughing into the cold air. Luckily it all seemed to be just another common cold, not something deadly like the Queen’s Plague.

Even if it wasn’t deadly, many gang members were incapable of doing any jobs because of their fever and to make sure not to infect others and so none of the crows had much to do but sit around The Crow Club and let the time pass by.

That morning Nina and Matthias sat in the corner of the gambling room that they had proclaimed to be theirs, eating waffles and playing cards. Right next to them Jesper and Wylan sat and debated whether some new explosive Wylan had been working on would work right or not. Kaz sat by the next table, trying to get work done. He should’ve stayed in his office, but Inej’s room wasn’t well heated and so, during Winter, he let Inej sleep there. Nina and Jesper loved to tease him about it, but he ignored it. He was just being practical.

Then again, as soon as Inej came down the stairs, all rational thinking got thrown out the window. He got so caught up in just her figure and her warm eyes, he didn’t even notice her messy hair, the light grey tilt to her skin or the way she looked like she had just been in a fight with a very angry cat. She coughed and pushed the hair falling in her eyes out of the way.

“Good morning.” she said with a very raspy voice.

“Inej, are you sick?” Nina asked, arching a brow.

“I’m fine.” Inej said, very clearly not fine.

“Nope, you are definitely sick.” Jesper said.

“Go back to bed.” Matthias said.

“They’re right.” Wylan added after Inej looked to him for support.

“I’m fine, I promise. I just need a cup of coffee.” Inej said, starting to make herself some coffee. After she almost dropped the cup on the ground, Kaz stood up and walked over to her, helping her make the drink.

“They’re right, ‘Nej.” he said so softly only she could hear him as he poured boiling water in the cup.

“You too? I told you I’m fine.” Inej whispered, her throat hurting too much to speak in a normal volume. Kaz raised his brows. Inej sighed.

“Fine. Give me my coffee, at least.” she said, holding out her hand.

“Nope.” Kaz said and took a sip of the coffee. “No coffee while you’re sick. I’ll ask Wylan to make you some tea.”

Inej glared at him and if not every part of her body hurt, she probably wouldn’t hesitate to stab him.

“Come on, Inej, let’s get you to bed.” Jesper said as he and Nina each took one of Inej’s arms and led her upstairs.

That was how Kaz’s office ended up being occupied by a sick girl who kept trying to convince Nina she was fine and a Grisha with some healing education from the Little Palace, who kept replying that she is not. Kaz had to do his work down in the gambling halls, which were, since apparently not everyone in Ketterdam were sick, very loud. It was already evening when he had finally done it all. He just had to slip into his office real quick and put the papers down. Hopefully Inej would be asleep and he wouldn’t bother her.

He walked up the stairs, in the middle of which he met Nina carrying a plate with a half-eaten waffle on it and a wet cloth.

“How is she?” he asked in a voice as bemused as he could. Nina arched a brow, but didn’t tease him.

“A bit better. I left to let her fall asleep.” Kaz simply gave a sharp nod and continued up the stairs, but then, feeling Nina’s gaze on him, muttered:

“Shut up, Zenik.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

When he reached his floor, he took a deep breath. Then he opened the door of his office as quietly as he could and slipped in.

Inej was turned away from the door, seemingly asleep. He carefully approached his table and set down his papers. There, now I’ll leave. Unwilling to listen to him, his eyes slipped to Inej lying there, shivering. Just leave.

He didn’t leave. Instead he opened his cupboard and reached behind the pens and hats and random things he had stolen, pulling out an old, but warm blanket. He carried it over to the bed and carefully placed it over Inej. Then he turned around, now truly ready to leave.

“Kaz?” a voice behind him asked. He turned back again. Inej sat up, her long hair falling over her right shoulder. She did look a little bit better, but still ill.

“Hi.” he said awkwardly, then scolded himself for doing so. Inej laughed slightly.

“Hey.”

They stared at each other for a long time.

“I should go,” he said, already turning around.

“Wait!” Inej said. He arched a brow, looking at her with a puzzled look.

“I can’t sleep.” she said, shrugging. “It’d be nice to have company.”

“I can send for Nina.” Kaz said. Inej rolled her eyes and smiled.

“It’d be nice to have your company, Kaz.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh.”

“Alright.” he said, pulling out the chair by his desk and sitting down. Inej lay back down with a smile.

“I wish Nina would let me go outside, this is so boring.” she said after a pause, staring at the ceiling. Kaz was unsure what to say, so he said nothing. Suddenly she sat up again, then cringed at the dizziness it brought her. She turned to Kaz.

“Tell me a story.” she asked him.

“What?” Kaz asked.

“A story, please. A nice one?” she asked.

“I don’t know any stories.”

“Then make one up.”

“I’m not a writer.”

“You don’t have to be a writer to create a story, simply human.” Kaz glared at her, but she just leaned against the wall and waited patiently. He groaned, irritated.

“Fine.” he said. Inej grinned, excited for the story. He leaned back in his chair, thinking. He recalled the crows flying by his window this morning. He looked at Inej, looking like a beautiful fairytale character herself.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl. The girl was from a small town, where she liked to steal apples and hide in the town’s small library, which was really just a part of the Church there. One time she took a walk in the woods next to the town.

“In the woods a crow sat on a branch, looking at her in such a weird, human way. She stopped next to it and arched a brow and asked ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’. The crow opened its beak as if to caw, but instead words came out. ‘You need to help me.’ the crow said. ‘I’m actually a prince enchanted to look like a crow and every day I feel less and less human. I’m becoming a beast.’ The girl just frowned and said ‘I don’t think crows are beasts.’. The crow sighed.”

Inej laughed softly and Kaz felt slightly embarrassed, but she simply nodded for him to go on. So he did. The girl ended up agreeing to help the crow and they walked towards the enchantress’ cave. There, the girl asked the enchantress what the prince had done to deserve her wrath. The enchantress told the girl that the prince had turned into a horrible person and the only way to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone was by turning him into a crow. The only way to save him was to go on three quests where he had to show he had become better again. The girl agreed to those terms and together they went, human and crow, on the three quests. In the first they had to help a small town, which had been cursed for everyone to always be angry with each other. The second quest was to save the prince’s biggest rival from sure death. In the last one the girl had gotten kidnapped and the prince had to save her.

The problem was, the crow had gotten greedy, just like the prince had. The kidnappers offered the crow a plate of gold and silver and the crow accepted it, as it was fond of shiny things. The girl had to fight her kidnappers alone and save herself and when she got out of the camp she scolded the crow for his actions. Then suddenly, she fell and only barely caught onto a branch, hanging over a cliff. She wouldn’t last long without the crow’s help. Higher up the mountain something shone in the afternoon light. In the last possible moment the crow finally made a decision and helped the girl and as they were both safe and sound, far away from the cliff, he turned back into a prince. He offered her half his kingdom or a marriage, but she refused both.

“‘I have to get back to my town.’ the girl had answered, rejecting him. The prince nodded. ‘Very well, but let me at least escort you there.’ he proposed. ‘I can handle myself, thank you.’ the girl simply replied. ‘Thank you.’ the prince called, when the girl had already turned around to leave. ‘For what?’ she asked over her shoulder. ‘For saving me.’ the prince said. ‘I did no such thing, you realised you were in the wrong and fixed it.’ the girl shrugged. ‘Fine. Then thank you for believing in me and not giving up. And for scolding me when I acted stupidly.’ he said. ‘I’ll always scold you when needed.’ the girl winked and left, heading home.”

Kaz had realized the light in the room had almost gone out, the candles burning low. His voice had gotten raspy and he had closed his eyes while talking. Maybe there was a writer inside him.

He opened his eyes and looked over to Inej. Her eyes were closed, her breathing heavy. She was asleep. He got up and blew out the candles, then walked over, pulling the blankets over her body.

“Good night, ‘Nej.” he murmured. “Thanks for believing in me and scolding me when needed.”

And then he left, not aware Inej had heard his words and smiled softly into the darkness.

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three months and nine days

so… setbacks went down quite well. eeeek. thank you so much to everyone who read it and liked it and reblogged it (i read all of your lovely tags too). genuinely made my week. if people really like these maybe i could get into a habit of posting lil ficlets and drabbles–who knows! 

anyway, this has been sitting in my drafts for a while, my crack at inej’s pov. i guess i thought it deserved to see the light. lmk what y’all think.

~

fandom: six of crows/crooked kingdom | kaz brekker + inej ghafa, with a sprinkling, a dash, a smidgeon of wesper.

word count: 2,410

no content warnings. just fluff. fluffy, fluffy good times.

summary: inej gets a welcome surprise.

~

it’d been three months, nine days, and five hours since inej last saw kaz. they’d said goodbye on the roof of the slat, standing a hands breadth apart. separated by early afternoon sun and trauma.

“say goodbye, kaz,” she’d said when too many seconds had passed. “i don’t know how long i’ll be gone.”

he’d smiled at her. it was a miserly, crooked thing, that smile—kaz all over. and despite her best efforts, she’d smiled back before shaking her head, “no mourners.”

“no funerals.”

with that, she’d leapt to the next rooftop and the next and the next, until kaz and the slat melted into ketterdam’s tangled horizon to be replaced by the flat expanse of the ocean.

Helnik Anniversary Surprise

Nina and Matthias are my actual heart and soul. I haven’t read KoS yet so I’m still living in peaceful denial that CK ended the way it did. I want to write about them for as long as I can bc once I read KoS, my heart will be too sad to handle it.

 This is a fic about their one year wedding anniversary.

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