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[everymonstrousthing]

There is shit going on in the city, but the Crow Club stays open. Kaz is of the opinion that there is nothing more valuable in a storm than the perception of a safe harbour. It's quiet, but that doesn't mean it's not worth being open. With his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his gloves still firmly in place, Kaz cleans. He empties the back bar and he cleans. Yes, he could pay someone to do this but, honestly, there's never a job done as well as he would do it himself.

Unless Inej does it. And he won't ask her to clean for him.

Comments

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy didn't like all this hubbub around the city, but to his benefit, he and Goodnight still had their guns. He'd had to purchase more bullets, but that was fine. Worth it, for the sense of security that game with carrying a pistol on his hip, like it belonged there. And nobody was about to stop him, either.

He ducked into the quiet bar, the dog just at his heel. They'd been out running, but things had gotten a little too hectic, and Billy was willing to let things calm a bit before he headed back to the apartment.

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz looks up when the door opens, raising an eyebrow when Billy Rocks' familiar face walks in. He takes note of the dog at his heels.

"How is it out there?" he asks.

[assassinwithahairpin]

It hadn't been conscious, Billy realized, but he was oddly comforted to find himself in the presence of Kaz Brekker. The boy was solid, at least; he'd proved himself such the last time they'd spoken.

"A mess and a half," Billy said with a shrug. He approached the bar, looking over the array of bottles, and the tattoo visible on Kaz's arm. "We've dealt with worse scrapes, but this is definitely one of the stranger ones."

[everymonstrousthing]

"You're telling me," he says, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Give me thugs any day. What'll you have to drink?"

[assassinwithahairpin]

"Thugs, cheats, and a bar fight. Whiskey, please," Billy said, the same as he'd ordered last time. He'd pay this time, even if Kaz made some token protest. He sat at the bar, and the dog sat at his feet. "And water for the dog, if you've got a bowl for it."

[everymonstrousthing]

Wordlessly, Kaz pours the measure and sets it on the bar in front of Billy before he turns, disappearing into the back of the bar before he reappears with a bowl that he sets down in front of Billy, too.

"Are your people safe?"

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy put the bowl down beneath him, careful not to slosh the water onto the floor. Mercy Beau was patient, and relatively dainty, for being a relatively big dog.

Billy nodded when he straightened back up. He turned the glass in his fingers. "Yours?"

[everymonstrousthing]

"I'd pity anything, human or otherwise, that ran into Inej in the dark," says Kaz, and his smile definitely has an edge of pride to it. "Helvar, too."

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy chuckled and nodded a little. He didn't know any of Kaz's compatriots, as far as he knew, but people who would be in the presence of this boy likely had to have their wits about them.

"Either way, let's hope this business all blows over quickly. I don't appreciate it messing with my routine."

[everymonstrousthing]

"This place has been dead for days," says Kaz, his face dispassionate as he takes in the empty bar. "No matter, though. It'll pick up. Business always does."

[assassinwithahairpin]

"I'm surprised," he said a bit honestly. He was surprised by a lot of things about Kaz Brekker, but at the moment, there was just one thing in particular that was particularly surprising. "There seem to be quite a few bars and those sorts off things. But you seem to do comfortably enough."

[everymonstrousthing]

"Profit's a God, of sorts," says Kaz, with a sharp grin. "I like to pay worship to him daily." He wipes at the back bar, his hands still fastidiously gloved. "i find a way."

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy watched Kaz work. He was a curious creature, that was for sure, and Billy could never quite decide if the menace that seemed to live under the boy's skin was one that would have made him a help or a hindrance back home.

He'd long stopped judging people on the fine cut of their clothes and any apparent weaknesses. Everyone had hidden depths they could mine.

"What does it cost me," he asks speculatively, "to ask about the gloves?"

[everymonstrousthing]

"More than you've got," says Kaz, his voice level. He takes a sip of his drink. "So don't."

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy nodded, understanding. He didn't need to know, but it was a curiosity that would be interesting to figure out. He wasn't sure he could, but it would give him a mystery to puzzle over the next time he saw Kaz Brekker.

Instead, he took in the rest of the bar for a moment. Mercy got up from drinking and put his paws on Billy's knee so he could look over the bar and watch Kaz curiously.

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz eyes the dog dispassionately. He's never been especially fond of mutts; he's always had more of an affinity with winged things.

"Another drink?"

[assassinwithahairpin]

Mercy seems to realize that this was someone that wasn't going to fawn all over him; he gave a small little boof of displeasure over the look that Kaz pinned him with, but then put his feet back on the floor. Billy just snorted vaguely.

"Yes, please," he said, shaking his head a little bit. "You allow smoking in here?"

[everymonstrousthing]

"You can smoke," says Kaz, turning to pour Billy another drink. He's always been dubious of dogs. In Ketterdam, dogs are either accessories or they're weapons. He's never really approved.

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy pulled out and lit a cigarette, watching the way that Kaz almost pointedly ignored the dog. He could speculate on that. He'd been a bit surprised at first to find that Goodnight had one, but it had grown on him. If the whole city hadn't have gone mad from whatever was going on, he probably would have left Mercy tied in the shade while he drank.

Then again, if the city hadn't have gone mad, he might have stopped. Fortuitous coincidence all around.

"He took some getting used to at first," Billy admitted. "I hadn't had the best experience with dogs until I was--well, older than you are, at least."

[everymonstrousthing]

Some days, Kaz feels about a hundred years old. He nods, though.

"Dog would just be another mouth to feed," he says.

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy nodded in understanding and agreement. Sometimes, the horses had made that bad enough, but there was no avoiding that sort of thing. Without the horses, they weren't likely to get very far at all.

"Easier here," he admitted. "Everything's a little less hand-to-mouth."

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz hasnt lived hand to mouth in a long time, but he understands the sentiment. He nods.

"People are much easier to predict."

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy hummed at that, taking a drag off his cigarette. He didn't think that was entirely true, but dogs took a different skill in reading than people did. Like horses. Each had their own way of letting it known how to read and predict them.

"Never had a dog pull a gun on me in an alley." It was said with an ironic twist of his mouth.

[everymonstrousthing]

"Got enough friends with bite scars, though," says Kaz. He's avoiding that himself, but he''d seem some nasty, nasty injuries gotten from Merch's guard dogs, over the years.

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy nodded in agreement. He had a couple of his own, though they were old now and mostly faded, but they'd also never been the worst of the scars he'd gotten in the first place. He understood that wariness. If the city hadn't been a shitshow, he would have left Mercy on a line; he wasn't risking that for any man's comfort.

Luckily, Mercy stayed down at Billy's feet, seeming to realize that he wasn't going to get any attention out of the boy behind the bar.

"Is it just you in today? Keeping this place open for people like me?"