Shadows: A Six of Crows Fan fic

Chapter one: Jesper

A/N Thanks for reading everyone! I'll be updating once a week. If you have ideas or reactions, I'd be happy to hear it in the comments. Happy reading!

Five Weeks after the events of Crooked Kingdom...

"Kaz? Why can't we have a goat around here?" Jesper asked, heels kicked up on a dirty table and leaning back in his chair. The two of them were seated in an empty Crow Club counting the previous days earnings at 6 in the morning. Too late for anyone in their right mind to be up really, but in truth neither of them had slept anyways so who cared about the time. Kaz could have gotten someone else to count the money, but he didn't trust anyone with the books. Kaz handled all the money and frankly, Jesper believed that if he didn't have this daily task to do at the club and others like it, Kaz might just go mad from his own thoughts.

"Why in the world do we need a goat? Why do you want a goat?" Kaz asked, glancing up only briefly from his kruge to give him a witheringly judgmental look before going back to his counting.

"Because" He replied, kicking his feet back to the ground and leaning in to get serious. "I think a goat would be a great investment!"

"I don't care about making investments in goats." No, only investments in short Suli women with an affinity for knives, Jesper thought. His lip quirked at the thought, but he didn't dare say it out loud for fear of his life. He remembered Inej ranting about Kaz calling her 'an investment' a few days ago before she left. Jesper was sure she would have preferred to talk to Nina about it, but she had left for Ravka only days after they'd taken down Van Eck and Rollins. He was okay with listening though, any dish on Kaz was more than welcome, he loved knowing things about the reclusive Barrel boss that Kaz wouldn't want him to know. And boy was there a lot to learn about Kaz's ineptitudes at romance. Not having much time to talk about it all since the start of the ice court job, Inej had a lot of pent-up things to say after a few going away drinks had loosened the lid on that jar of worms.

"You should care about them though. We could start a whole line of goat milk products and sell them here at the club. Plus, cute animals could bring in lots of bright-eyed pigeons! Think of the kruge we could earn."

Kaz looked up at him with an inquisitive look on his face. The possible chance of more money being the only thing that could get his attention away from the money he currently had in hand. After another seconds pause, Kaz shook his head. "No, it would be impractical and wouldn't work with the crow theme. We'd get more questions about why we had a goat and goat products then we would get kruge."

"You boar me Kaz," Kaz lifted an eyebrow at that, almost offended. "I mean, come on! We could call it like- like Martin or something. Oh!" Jesper cried, clapping his hands together. "I know! We'll call it Wylan."

"No," Kaz said bluntly. "And I don't think our explosives expert would take kindly to being the namesake for a smelly animal."

Jesper scoffed, "Please, he'd be honored to be the namesake for such a majestic animal. Besides, it works because they're both cute and cuddly." He gave him a roguish smile, but Kaz just rolled his eyes in response.

"It would be too confusing anyways; you'd call for the goat and get the human or vice versa."

Jesper frowned at this. "Hmm, you may be right. Oh, even better! We'll name it Milo. Isn't that just the cutest name for a goat!"

"Jesper." Kaz said, elbow now resting on the table, gloved fingers rubbing his brow.

"Fine." He relented, but the idea was still rattling around in his head, and he'd be dammed if he let this one go. They continued to sit in the silence for a while longer with nothing but the sound of shuffling kruge to keep them company. Soon, Jesper's attention span began to wear thin and his knees started to bounce, his heels bouncing off the ground accompanying the shuffling money. Then the creak of his chair as he moved from position to position. Then the clinking and clacking of his precious revolvers as he spun them round and round his fingers.