It was a trap. Of course it was.

As soon as Kaz had laid out his plan, you already predicted the many ways it could go wrong, but did he listen? Obviously not. It was too good to be true, a trade offer that would promise them twenty-five thousand kruge if they managed to trick an unassuming merchant. It apparently didn’t strike anyone else as odd, that the transaction would happen in an old warehouse. How did Kaz not get suspicious of that? Especially since he had intended to only take Inej with him at first since he knew that they would be getting searched for pistols, and knives were way easier to hide than guns. But when you began berating him about his questionable thought process, he caved in. So after bickering with you for almost half an hour, he agreed to take you and Jesper with him.

And where did that get you?

His questionable plan landed you straight in the filthy hands of a group of Dime Lions.

The four of you were bound to chairs, hands tied behind your back so that you couldn’t see how the string was fastened. You were sitting in a straight line, Kaz and you sat in the middle, while Inej sat next to you, and Jesper next to Kaz. They weren’t as dense as you had hoped, so there was a decent bit of space between each of the chairs, stopping you from helping the others to get free. From the corner of your eye, you could see Kaz fiddling with his restraints, but his gloves and the position of his hands made it difficult to get a proper grip on them. You tried to do the same, but the tightness of the robes cut into your skin pretty harshly, making you refrain from attempting it any further.

One of Pekka’s goons entered the dingy basement room with confident strides, causing the two already present men to step back a bit. Kaz clenched his jaw as he realized that the man was walking right toward him, twisting a small tactical knife around in his hand.

“Won’t you look at that?” he jeered, a crooked grin on his lips, as he eyed the young man in front of him, “The Bastard of the Barrel himself in all his glory. I see that your outdated information betrays you, Brekker.”

“Bram, I see you’re still busy doing Pekka’s dirty work.” he spat, regretting it immediately as a firm hand struck his cheeks, causing his whole head to whip to the side as he flinched.

“Don’t get smart with me, you filthy canal rat, or I might carve that self-assured smile right off your face.”

You wanted to shoot an insult at the Dime Lion, but the glare Kaz gave you shut you up immediately. Much to your dismay, this silent exchange didn’t go unnoticed. The man that had previously towered over him, now stood up straight again, taking painfully slow steps in your direction. Just by the subtle look of panic present in Kaz’s eyes, Bram must’ve conceded exactly who you were.

“And who do we have here? Brekker’s bitch.” he mocked, his foul breath fanned across your face, “Is it true what they say? A pretty face with nothing behind it? Does he really only keep you around because of your looks?”

His head turned towards Kaz expectantly as if he awaited an answer. When he only let out a few harsh breaths, letting his eyes travel between you, the man that was now stood in front of you chuckled menacingly. You recognized the look of regret in Kaz’s expression, as he futilely tried to loosen his restraints. One of his hands grabbed your cheeks roughly, as he forced you to look at him. You could feel his dirty nails dig into your skin, but you were way too focused on the knife that was now way closer to your face than you would’ve liked.

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we, sweetheart?” he asked smugly, bringing his weapon up to your cheek.

Before he was able to cut you, you took every ounce of bravery you could muster and spat right into his face. Bram cursed as he dropped the knife, his hands frantically wiping the spit out of his eyes whilst he took a few steps back. Without anyone noticing, your unrestrained feet slid the knife under your chair quickly, moving it out of your assaulter’s reach.

“Y/N, stop it.” Kaz whispered through gritted teeth, trying his best to not let too much emotion show.

An unexpectedly heavy blow was delivered to your face, causing you to cringe at the metallic taste that collected in your mouth. Again, the man stood over you, an angry scowl on his features. He didn’t have a weapon on hand this time, but you were well aware that he’d still be able to end your life in a matter of seconds.

“Well, the bitch part is true at least.” he grumbled, taking another look at the man tied up next to you, “I bet Brekker wouldn’t particularly enjoy watching his little plaything bleed out on a filthy warehouse floor, would he? But I guess we might just check that reaction for ourselves. Let’s show her who’s in power.”

Inej and Jesper stared at Kaz, silently pushing him to say something. However, if there was any witty word left on his tongue, it died as soon as he felt the severity of the situation settle in. If he could, he would’ve wiped that devilish grin right off of Bram’s face. Instead, he was just staring glaring right at you, pleading with you to do something - anything if that meant that you would survive.

When the man in front of you tried to reach for your throat, you took a deep breath, focussing on your own strength. With a surprisingly strong kick, you went straight for one of his kneecaps, causing him to keel over with a shriek. He was knocked out temporarily after you jerked your head forward, leaving him stumbling toward the floor.

Even though you being tied to a chair was far from ideal, you decided to stand up, mentally thanking the Saints that they only tied your hands to the chair, and didn’t think about restraining your torso. The position your body was in, was deeply uncomfortable, but all that discomfort went flying right out of the window, when the other two guards advanced, forcing you to act quickly.

Another harsh kick to the groin made one of them tumble backwards clumsily, causing him to fall right on his back with a grunt. The other one tried to throw a punch at you, but you were quicker than that. Before he could even bring his fist close to you, you ducked down, instantly turning your body, so that the chair you were still tied to dug crashed into his spine forcefully. You heard Jesper gasp as the man fell to the ground with a loud thud, scrambling to catch his breath.

The guard you had brought down previously seemed to be interested in another round, as he began to approach you again. You whipped around quickly, your chair only scraping him slightly. With your back turned to him, you threw yourself back, one of the chair legs slamming down on his foot, causing him to let out a pained yelp as he slumped forward. He didn’t get much time to recuperate since you threw your head back, your hair striking his face harshly. Again, you managed to bring him down for good, when you used the chair to sweep him off his feet.

The other guard stood up again, but you knew that you probably wouldn’t be able to beat him another time with the added weight of the chair on your back. Without thinking about the consequences, you threw yourself back roughly, causing the flimsy wooden chair to break on impact. Even though you would’ve needed another moment to recover from the stinging pain in your back, you quickly shook off the now-loose ropes, trying to get back to your feet as quickly as you could, whilst grabbing one of the broken legs of the chair. However, you had been slower than you thought, since the advancing goon had already managed to take a hold of you, effectively putting you into a powerful chokehold. You were glad that you had thought about getting something to use as a makeshift weapon since the wooden leg proved to be a quite useful tool. With your back pressed against his front, you let your body jerk back, knocking the air out of his lungs and causing him to loosen his grip a bit. You held on tighter to the chair leg, bringing it towards his face with enough force to make him flinch backwards.

Since he was still hunched over slightly, he gave you the best possible position to bring him down for his good. You steadied yourself before you sprinted towards him, jumping forwards while your calves wrapped around his neck. The sudden bare force of your body weight brought him down in a matter of seconds, his own body crashing on the floor with an audible crack. The fall definitely caused some damage.

From the corner of your eyes, you could see Bram come back to life, scrambling on his knees to get to the knife you had tossed away from him earlier. But you were quicker. You broke out in a sprint, reaching him before he could grab the weapon. His arm was already stretched out when you ran up to him. With brute force, you brought your foot down on his arm, feeling the sensation of an actively broken bone underneath your shoes. He screamed out in pain, pulling his arm back as he frantically slid backwards, trying to get away from you.

“I thought you wanted to show me who’s in power?” you began, wiping away the sweaty strands of hair, that had fallen over your eyes, “Let me show you power.”

Now that your hands were finally free, you could put one of your other talents to use. Your hands flew up in the air, following familiar movements as you thrust them away from you. His eyes widened when he felt the air get knocked out of his lungs. You moved a bit closer to him, leaning over his writhing body.

“You really thought I was just Brekker’s bitch?” you inquired lowly, now working to slow down his heart, “Trust me, I eat boys like you for breakfast.”

Another controlled motion finally made him drop his head back, his whole body fell limp as he went unconscious.

You let out a sharp breath, becoming acutely aware of the forming bruises on your back. The questioning or rather shocked faces of your friends stared daggers into the back of your head, while you tried to calm yourself down. When you turned around, you saw exactly that.

Inej, who had managed to loosen her ropes a little in the meantime gave you a questioning, but impressed look, her eyebrows raised, but her lips turned upwards in an impressed grin. Jesper just stared back at you dumbfounded. His mouth stood agape as his gaze travelled from the lifeless men on the ground to you. Kaz’s expression was something between shock, amusement and awe, as he took in the scene in front of him. He had seen you use your Small Science before - of course he had - but he never knew that you were this well-trained in hand-to-hand combat.

“What the fuck was that?” the baffled Sharpshooter broke the silence, as his eyes shifted towards Kaz, “Did you know she could do that? Because I sure as hell didn’t! And now I have to admit that I am slightly intimidated.”

You only shook your head in playful annoyance, picking up the knife before walking behind the still tied-up Crows. After a few skilful strokes, you managed to cut them free, giving them a quick moment to catch their own breath.

“Jesper, Inej, go and check the west exit. We don’t want to fall right into another trap.” Kaz ordered, his voice strict, but a bit less authoritative than usual.

They quickly nodded, slipping out of the room as soon as they could. You caught sight of his cane that had previously been tossed on the floor, as far away from him as possible. Before he could stand up, you picked it up for him, handing it over quickly to give him enough stability to walk. He didn’t look at his cane when he took it, his eyes were fixed on you. Something akin to a smile - rather a crooked grin, but that is the best version of a smile Kaz Brekker can muster - flashed across his face, as he lifted himself from the chair.

“I did in fact not know that you could do that.” he said, beginning to slowly walk towards the door, “But I have to say, I’m more than impressed.”

“Good to know that my rusty fighting skills from the Little Palace are able to entertain some of you.” you joked, wiping some of the dried-up blood from the corners of your mouth, “Are you alright? That punch sounded quite harsh.”

He snorted at that, recalling the many hits you were confronted with only mere minutes earlier and how much he feared for your life whenever one of the goons stood back up.

“I was not the one that just got ragdolled around whilst being tied to a chair.” he retorted smugly, knowing that you wouldn’t be fine with that answer, “But yes, I’m fine. The pain is numbed by the satisfaction of seeing that bastard get what he deserved. You? Any life-threatening injuries?”

“Not that I am aware of. Unless I faint, and you have to dramatically drag me back to the Slat, I’ll be fine.”

Kaz paused for a second as the memories of Bram calling you ‘Brekker’s bitch’ flooded back into his mind. It made him gravely uneasy that people outside of the Dregs knew about his relationship, but what concerned him even more, was the fact that they mistook her for a defenceless little girl.

“Y/N, you know that what Bram said isn’t true? About you being my…bitch?” he started carefully, but you only chuckled.

“Of course, I know that.” you answered self-assuredly, “And judging by the way you looked at me earlier, we might have to give you the title of my bi-”

“Darling, don’t finish that sentence, or I'll never let you go on a job again.” he threatened playfully, shaking his head in amusement as he led you out of the warehouse.