(no subject)

[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

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz turns that over in his head.

"The last time I did prison time, I was fourteen. Law haven't laid a hand on me since."

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

"What were you taken in for at fourteen?" he asked, wondering. He could think of a few things a kid that age could get picked up for.

[everymonstrousthing]

"Theft," says Kaz. He reflexively looks down at his injured knee. It's a tell, but a deliberate one, one that he lets Bull see. "I fell. Didn't get up fast enough."

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

Bull noticed the deliberateness of Kaz's look down. "Good reason to never get caught again." If a man couldn't run anymore, he found ways to never need to again. A man like Kaz Brekker made sure he could stroll as many places as possible.

"Mine's a side effect of losing the eye."

[everymonstrousthing]

"Is that an interesting story?" asks Kaz, raising his eyebrows again and sipping his drink. His knee twinges, just to make sure that he's paying attention to it.

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

Bull shrugged one shoulder. "Was on the border of Tevinter and I walked into a tavern; something bad was about to happen to a young man. He was a deserter, caught by a Tribune and his men. Didn't know that at the time, just saw they had him pinned down and I hate Vints. So I decided to make the fight more fair. Got a flail to the face, lost the eye. That young man became my lieutenant."

[everymonstrousthing]

"That," says Kaz, gesturing with his glass, "Is what you get for involving yourself in someone else's trouble." Recently, Kaz knows more than he'd like about that kind of trouble.

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

Bull shrugged one shoulder. "Still have an eye left. The trouble got me a lieutenant I could trust from a country that's been at war with mine for generations." He finished his drink, pretty sure he might be starting to feel the edges of something.

"And I got to kill a bunch of Vints. Worth it."

[everymonstrousthing]

"Krem," says Kaz. "I know him." He nods. He can understand the value of a Lieutenant you can trust. "I didn't have to fight for Inej. In the end."

He had, though, hadn't he? In every way possible."

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

Bull took note that he knew Krem. He knew the stitching in Kaz's tailored waistcoat looked familiar.

"Something has to be worth fighting for. If you haven't found it yet, I'm sure you will." He wondered if Kaz was the sort of person to just abandon ship. He didn't seem like it. Maybe it just depended on the motivation.

[everymonstrousthing]

"I've found it," says Kaz, and maybe there's a flicker of warmth in his face when he says it. "Her. I've found her."

[shok_ebasit_hissra]

Bull's eyebrow slid up. Her? Well, that was interesting. But he supposed, maybe, it wasn't so different than how he'd felt for the Chargers before the Inquisitor shifted something inside him.

"As good a something as any."

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz registers the look and his chin takes on a defiant tilt, his eyes flat and brown as earth. Let Bull question whether a girl can be worth dying for. Inej is the only thing that's dearer to his heart than profit.

"Better."