#post-ck

kaz randomly shows up outside wylan's bedroom window and scares him. wylan's sends tidbits of info about the merchers from his meetings to kaz. kaz writes letters to jesper and includes drawings for wylan, depicting a heist with stick figures. kaz taking wylan to university lectures because he's always wanted to go but was scared of people finding out that he was 'defective' and kaz taking notes for him for jesper to read back. wylan doing the crow club expenses when kaz has a big job to take on.

kaz being the first person that wylan tells about his father trying to kill him the first time, and the whole musical school in belendt hoax. because even though he knows that jesper will be kind and caring about it, something in him wants kaz to be the first to know, since he first told kaz he couldn't read. wylan and kaz sitting in kaz's office, in the dark, as wylan recounts the whole story. kaz sitting in silence for a while after, then saying 'my brother died when I was nine'. and wylan being shocked but not showing it before saying 'tell me about him'. and kaz slowly talking about jordie and the farm and the money swindle. kaz speaking until he's hoarse and wylan not saying anything. kaz not saying thr name of who killed his brother, but wylan knowing it was pekka anyway. kaz and wylan staring out at the sky as wylan puts two and two together of why kaz doesn't want to touch people, that brekker probably isn't his real name. both kaz and wylan realising that they've both had such a similar experience, almost drowning and being reborn in the barrel, and both of them being the first person that the other confides in.

wylan eventually passing out because he's tired, and waking up to find kaz's coat draped over him, and a note that has a little stick figure with a cane and an arrow pointing outside, to let wylan know he's gone out. and at the bottom, the same stick figure with his stick cane, another arrow showing him coming back inside, and a time, to show when he'll return. and wylan turns over the note to find a little drawing of two stick figures, one taller with a cane, the other smaller with curly hair. and they're kind of hugging and wylan knows it's a thank you.

Written for @kanejweek 2022: day 2, prompt: 5+1 trope

‘Come back to me, Inej,’ Kaz said, quietly. ‘If it’s not too much, to come back here. Come back to me.’

Inej didn’t think much on his words, then, too buoyed up with her freedom and her family and the glittering blue horizon calling her home.

Kaz Brekker was never paternally minded. It was a simple fact of life.

so, i do not know HOW this ended up not turning into something more, but it’s not long enough for ao3. so here you go. <3

Healing was something that he couldn’t quite explain.

There was a time where it felt like drowning. It felt like a constant, dull and buzzing version of what happened in his nightmares, what ate at him during the day and made him want to scream and cry and send himself flying into some kind of safe place.

But after a while, it became something else.

Days were still hard, and he doubted there would be a time when there were never bad days -- there had simply been too many things to occur that would send the water rising to greet him.

But now, there were more good days than bad ones.

He was no longer drowning. He had found his way onto land and begun trying to navigate it, trying to find a way to be around the people who had been there for various amounts of time; some for longer than him, some for shorter.

He was alive. He was alive, and it was painful sometimes. It was hurting and suffering, waking up at night and forgetting that he’d ever known how to breathe properly. It was nightmares of his brother’s death, his mind having to catch up with the idea that Jordie had been gone for years.

But for as much as it hurt, it was exhilarating. It was freedom and light. It was waking up in the morning with the sun streaming through the curtains. It was Inej lying asleep beside him, and him forgetting how to breathe for entirely different reasons. It was dreams of Lij and fields and honey and Inej and the family they’d managed to find all on their own.

She’d tease him sometimes, too. “You don’t seem like a man named ‘Dirtyhands’ right now, my love,” she’d say as he’d hold Jesper and Wylan’s squirming child on his lap. She could only say that because the child was young enough to not yet have heard the stories of Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands. If they had, the poor thing might have gone wriggling and shrieking all the way out the front door.

He could tolerate the teasing, though, at this point. Earlier, when he was just getting the hang of being something else, something softer, a comment like that may have set him off the edge entirely. He would have had to be roped back into kindness with apologies and take-backs.

Now, it was almost like a show of respect. Because despite the teasing tone, or the small, silly smile she had on, she was acknowledging it.

He’d done it.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Book 2: Crooked Kingdom, POV Inej Ghafa, Soft Kaz Brekker, not as soft as i usually have him but yk, more book kaz i guess, Art, Kaz Brekker Is an Art Thief, Healing, Recovery, Lij (Grishaverse), Light Angst, Falling In Love, Banter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant Summary:

"“You know, there are more legal ways of admiring art,” Inej commented, perched in the windowsill and absolutely, terrifically smug as she watched Kaz Brekker, the almighty Dirtyhands, struggle to carry in a seven-foot-tall painting."