Brontide (Six of Crows x Male Reader)

The Linguist

"Woah. You alright there, princess?" You asked with a raised brow as you had just been pinned to the wall. Once you registered the features of the person in front of you in the comparative darkness of the alley, you grinned. So it was the infamous dirtyhands at last, and he sure did live up to his reputation of a short temper. 

"Say one more word out of line and I'll pull your tongue out and tie it around your neck." He growled as he pushed the cane deeper into your chest using which he had pinned you to the wall. "What, you think it's cool to come 40 minutes late to a meeting?"

"Not really, not cool." You said, looking deep into his eyes. But your attention was really at his jawline, if you were to be honest. "Just fashionable."

You saw his jaw tighten as he clenched his teeth. He glared, looking right through your eyes, before he finally took his cane off your chest and took a couple of steps back. "Let's just get this over with." He said and handed you a bunch of papers. Per Haskell had wanted you to translate a bunch of papers that were clearly important enough to not send through some messenger. 

You looked through the papers before you whistled, "Where'd you get this from?" You asked.

"None of your business, just do what you're told." He said and moved in a way that his jacket brushed past and you saw guns lining his waist. It was clearly meant to say that he didn't want to hear another word out of work for you. 

"Typical." You rolled your eyes and got back to rummaging through the papers. You finally found a sequence and placed the papers in order before you went through them, translating each sentence to Kaz as you went on. They weren't in just any language, it was a cryptic language the owners of the papers had made for their own security. For your own sake, you were Kerch's best logician and linguist. It wasn't difficult for you to crackdown on a fictitious language. You had only made it through the second sheet when you stopped.

"What?" Kaz asked as you eyed the paper but had stopped speaking the translation out loud.

"Twenty per cent." You said finally and looked up, staring right through his eyes. Kaz just looked at you, unamused, with a poker face that though blank, was still somehow supposed to be frightful. "Come on, Brekker, Haskell's not this smart, nor this stupid." You said and saw a slight shift in his countenance for a couple of seconds before he switched back to his blank face. "How much are you getting out of this job?"

"Enough to hang you in front of your mansion and walk right through the scene." He said and glared at you. "Continue." He added, gesturing towards the documents in your hand.

You scoffed, "You know, Brekker, you pretend to be a lot tougher for a guy who walks around with a pet." You said and narrowed your eyes at him, your lips curling into a smile.

He glared at you before he waved his hand, "Fine." he said after a while and though nothing was evidently audible, you were able to hear the faintest sound of receeding footsteps from the terrace of the buildings that flanked the alleyway. 

"Enough with the bluffs, Kaz." You said, eyeing his hand at the guns. "We both know you're not going to kill me. Cut the crap and talk business, I'm not here to play pretend with you."

"Mind that tongue." He said and you didn't really bother his tone much because you saw it on his face that he was thinking. He was figuring out what to do with you, how to go about the plan if you were to be involved. "Everyonein my crew who's involved gets an equal part of the loot, you get 20% from mine."

"What the- If everyone's getting equal parts then-"

"I said everyone in my crew." He said. "If you can't be professional enough to work for me, then you get the scraps like the passerby you like to play."

"Alright then, get your crew to decode the fucking document then. I'm not-"

"Say what, daddy cut your little allowance?" Kaz cooed, a cocky grin plastered on his face. "Can't buy those precious little gifts for your love anymore?" He said and your body stifened.

"I'll kill you." You said, your fists clenched. 

"The papers." Kaz said, "Now." 

You glared at him for a couple of minutes before you backed down and got back to translating the papers. You took deep breaths between you spoke just to calm your nerves down. Not only were you mad at Kaz, you were afraid of him. You knew he wasn't going to do anything to you but... if he knew about Travis, then it was nothing but bad news. You sighed heavily as you got to the last page when it all summed together. The information that you had just decoded for Kaz could potentially bring the entire stocks of Ketterdamn down, and from what you could deduce Kaz might want from it, whatever was to come after would fetch him filthy loads of money. You gulped before you finally read the last page aloud and handed the documents back to Kaz.

He handed you a small bag which had the promised fees for the task that "Per Haskell" had given you. Kaz had just turned on his heel to leave when you grabbed his arm but his reaction was swift, and especially after Kaz's last warning which had thrown you off completely, you were caught off guard and you almost slipped but Kaz grabbed the hem of your shirt and pushed you hard across the wall before pinning you to it. 

"Touch me again." He said, his voice in a dangerous growl. 

"Kaz, please." You finally said, looking into his steel-cold eyes in hopes to find that spark of ambission that you had once fallen for. Alas, it was nowhere there. "I need the money. For old time's sake, just-"

"Forget the old times." Kaz let go of you and you had to lean on the wall to keep you from falling. 

"Like you did?" You asked and saw him turn away again but he did not stop this time. He had almost walked out of the alley into the mainstreet, "I know how Ryker died." You said and he finally stopped. He only stopped for a minute and you thought he'd say something before he started walking again and once he was on the mainstreet, he disappeared within seconds.