AU - Rat

[everymonstrousthing]

In the days after she goes, he's Dirtyhands more often than not. He stalks Darrow, sharp enough to cut. So little soft left in him. It's worse, because he'd let himself soften. He'd let too much of Kaz Reitvald come back and now reminding himself how to be the man he was in Ketterdam is hard work. It hurts.

Still. There's rough work to be done. So here he is.

The air in the club is close with tobacco, the smell of bodies. Kaz's mouth makes a moue of distaste as he slips up to the bar and orders gin, neat. He leans his back against polished wood, looks up at the stage. He's in time to catch the tail end of the performance.

Comments

[plaguedrat]

Rat isn't careful around people like Kaz. Not because he doesn't care but because, in a frustrating way, he does and he knows that Kaz Brekker does not want to be handled carefully but to be feared. He can't offer up fear either, because he has too little for his own good, but he can walk across the stage and make eye contact, his slate gray eyes visible through the fall of his loose hair and the sparkling trails of glass crystals falling from his tiara.

His song can offer peace and comfort, but tonight he tells jokes, makes up funny stories, and disappears almost perfectly into someone else.