#rosrequests

You were interrupted by the door opening and giggles disrupting the silence. The source of the laughing was Kaz and Alyx, who was receiving a piggyback ride from Kaz.

"She's supposed to be in bed!" Although you were slightly mad; Alyx should have been in bed by now, you couldn't help the loving smile that took over your face.

You never expected Kaz to get along with your daughter so well. Even before you and Kaz were together, he gave Alyx nothing but kindness and care. Alyx had adored Kaz since they met when she was just a few months old. When your relationship with Kaz grew, he swiftly stepped into the role of Alyx's father figure.

Kaz turned his back to face you and let Alyx fall onto the bed in front of you. The small girl erupted into more giggles. "Someone wanted to say good night to the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Hey!" Alyx exclaimed.

Kaz kissed Alyx's forehead. "Sorry. The second most beautiful girl in the world. Right after Alyx."

You pulled Alyx into your arms, cradling her. "Although I am very happy that you wanted to say good night, you need to be asleep." Your gaze went back to Kaz. "I swear to the Saints, if she's grumpy tomorrow, you'll be taking care of her."

Kaz rolled his eyes; he would gladly take care of your daughter any day, no matter what mood she was in. He scooped Alyx back up and placed a kiss on the top of your head. "I'll put her to bed now."

"Thank you."

As Kaz moved to leave the room, Alyx shouted out "good night!" to you.

"Good night, darling!" The door closed behind the two people you loved most in the world.

Shortly after they left and you continued working, Kaz came back and settled down at his desk. He removed his leather gloves, which despite making huge progress on overcoming his touch aversion, he still often wore around Alyx. Alyx was a very touchy, somewhat clingy child. Sometimes overwhelmingly so. Kaz refused to ask her to be more careful with him, or even let you ask her, so he wore the gloves.

The two of you worked in comfortable silence, occasionally asking for the other's help every once in a while until the early morning hours. As more and more time passed, you felt the exhaustion hit you harder each hour. The words on the page blended together, though you could barely focus on understanding the combinations of letters. Your eyes grew heavy as you tried to work through the tiredness.

You must have fallen asleep at some point because you woke up to Kaz shaking you and frantically saying something about Alyx. You couldn't comprehend the words coming out of his mouth.

"Slow down," you said once you were mostly lucid. "What's going on?"

"Alyx is missing."

You sighed. "She's probably just wandering around in the kitchen or something."

Kaz put a stuffed lion toy in your lap. "This was in her bed."

You picked the toy up and inspected it. As your fingers ran around the plush fabric, your breathing shook. Alyx had a stuffed crow, which she loved to death, but she never had a stuffed lion.

You started to take some deeper inhales, attempting to get into a mindspace to think rationally.

Alyx wasn't in her bed.

There was a stuffed lion toy in her place.

You had no idea where she was or when she was taken.

That's all you knew.

Kaz took the toy from your hands and tossed it on the floor to deal with later. He took your hands in his gloved ones, running his thumbs over your knuckles. You knew he was trying to calm you or ease your mind with gentleness, but it wasn't working.

He pulled you into him, resting your head on his chest. He lowered his mouth to your ear and whispered, "I will find whoever did this, and I will make them regret it."

Kaz limped into the bedroom late the next day. After carefully leaning his cane against the wall, he took his coat off and hung it up. His gaze navigated to the bed, where, thankfully, you were sleeping.

You hadn't slept the night before; you were worrying and trying to find Alyx. Before he had left earlier, he asked you to get some sleep, though at the time, you didn't seem happy at the request.

Kaz made his way to the bathroom, quickly finding the washbasin. He removed his gloves, as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Spots of dried blood decorated his right cheek. He set his gloves aside on the counter, more blood from the gloves smearing on the surface.

Hours and hours of interrogating Dime Lions and torturing Dime Lions and none of them gave any information. They all claimed ignorance. He'd sent Inej on multiple sweeps of Dime Lion territory and nothing.

Alyx was nowhere.

Kaz gripped the edge of the counter, his hands wet from washing the blood from his face. He stared into the water in the washbasin.

She had to be somewhere. Someone had to know something. He didn't care how many people got hurt in the process, he would find Alyx for you. For him.

He knew that Alyx saw him as a father figure and he knew that he cared for the girl, but her being gone made him realize the true paternal love he felt for her. Alyx had a presence that brightened up every room she stumbled into. Kaz missed her smile, her hugs, her laughter, her tears, her curiosity, her light that hadn't been killed by Ketterdam yet.

She was his daughter, blood be damned.

And he was going to find her and bring her home.

He wiped the tears from his cheeks before he went back into the bedroom and changed into clean clothes. From behind him, he heard blankets shifting around. He turned, and there you were. Eyes open, hair tangled; you still looked half asleep. You looked up at him.

He shook his head. Your eyes closed as your hand rubbed your face. "I've sent Inej on another sweep, this time of all of Ketterdam." He sat on the bed as he buttoned up his white shirt. You moved closer to him. "Knowing her, she'll find or intercept something and we'll find Alyx and bring her home to you-"

"Kaz, stop."

He turned his upper body to face you, confusion etched on his features. He removed his hands from the undone top button of his shirt and he placed one on your blanket-covered side. He silently waited for you to continue.

"Please stop sugar-coating this and giving me false hope."

"It's not false hope. Inej may actually find something."

"Kaz, it's been well over a day-"

"Don't you dare tell me what I think you're about to."

You sat up and took his face in your hands, eyes flooding with tears. His hand stayed on your side. "It kills me to even think about it, but we need to be realistic. We're in Ketterdam, for Saints sake. This place isn't known for rainbows and sunshine." Your voice cracked and wavered as you spoke.

Kaz remained silent as tears trickled down both your cheeks and his cheeks.

"Y/N, I have no idea where she is." His other hand went to her other side. "We don't deserve this. Alyx doesn't deserve this."

You pulled him into you as sobs racked the both of you.

You watched Kaz as he slept next to you. You were sitting up in your bed as Kaz's head lay on the pillow next to your lap. Despite his roughed up hair and messy appearance, you admired his peaceful beauty. Your fingers ran through his dark hair, calming you.

He had fallen asleep in your arms, which had only proved to you how deprived he was of sleep. You had to briefly wake him to move into this position, which was much more comfortable for the both of you.

Five quick taps at your window made you zone back into the world outside of Kaz. You removed your hands from his hair and you quickly got out of bed, finding Inej crouching outside the bedroom window. You opened it, letting her in.

Inej held out an opened letter to you. "What is it?" you asked as you took the letter out of the envelope.

"I intercepted it before it got to the recipient. It's a communication from within the Razorgulls."

You skimmed the letter, finding mentions of a toddler girl and Kaz, though he was addressed as "Dirtyhands". The toddler girl must be Alyx, who the letter said was "Dirtyhands' daughter". Whoever sent the letter had Alyx.

"The Razorgulls took her. But they left a stuffed lion."

"Most likely to throw us off their trail and onto the Dime Lions'. And it worked."

"Do you know where this came from?"

Inej nodded. "I wrote the address." She handed you a slip of paper.

"Thank you so much," you whispered before kissing her cheek and pulling her into a hug. "I owe you everything."

"Just focus on getting your daughter back." Eventually, Inej broke the hug and left the room through the window. You ran to the bed and woke Kaz.

He woke up, slightly delirious, but once you told him that you knew Alyx's location, he snapped into full attention.

It was a simple two-person job, with you and Kaz being the two people. When Inej scoped out Alyx's location, she found there was only ever two people guarding the building, which you could very easily take out. The Razorgulls were careless.

You and Kaz studied the building from behind the side of a wall. In front, you saw the two guards Inej had told you about. They would be very easy to take care of. The guards paced around the front of the building, chatting with each other.

Kaz turned to you. "You take the right guard, I'll take the left. Once we get in, I'll focus on finding Alyx while you deliver our message. I'll find you once I have her." He took your hand in his gloved one.

Your other hand played with the strap of the satchel that crossed your body as you nodded. "Let's go."

You and Kaz snuck around in opposite directions, making your way for a sneak attack on the guards. On the way, you picked up a decent-sized rock. You hid behind the wall of the building, watching Kaz on the other side. At his nod, you ran toward the guard on the right.

You brought the rock down on the guard's head, knocking him out fairly quickly. When you looked back up, Kaz had knocked out his guard. The both of you bolted to the front door, swiftly opening it and running inside. You ran up the staircase as Kaz searched the first floor for Alyx.

You eventually found what appeared to be the office room in the building. You stopped at the wooden desk and opened your satchel. You lined up the five stuffed gull toys on the desk. After taking your knife out of your pocket, you carefully made a slice on the throats of each toy bird. Satisfied with your work, you placed the knife back in your pocket.

Not long after you finished, you heard quick footsteps behind you. You turned, and there she was. Alyx ran to you and you scooped her up in your arms, holding her tight as your eyes slipped close.

The tears falling down your face didn't matter. The world didn't matter. Nothing else mattered in that moment.

The sound of a cane clicking against the wooden floor made your eyes open again. Kaz stood awkwardly in the doorway, watching you hold Alyx. After making your way to him, you kissed his cheek.