𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 | 𝐒𝐨𝐂

𝐓𝐄𝐍.

x: magic tricks 

"Eggs, anyone?"

Jesper raised his plate into the air, elbowing Nina's side as she lifted her own. Alessia carefully split the eggs down with the middle with a blue spatula - before sliding the equal half onto their plates.

Natasha sat morosely at the end of the table, poking her fork at dry toast and the scrambled eggs at the side of her plate. Wylen was on her right, chattering away about his flute and pieces he was composing.

However, her gaze divulged towards the vacated seat beside her, an empty plate and neatly placed cutlery staring back at her. "Are you listening?" Wylen said, poking the end of his knife against the back of her palm.

She turned back to him, eyes wide. "Oh," She gasped. "Yeah, definitely," Natasha slathered butter on her triangle of toast, repeatedly shifting her food around the plate. The others were joyously laughing and conversing, shovelling fresh eggs and bacon into their mouths.

Parem had left her incompetent of eating. "I think the idea is wonderful. Why don't you ask what Matthias thinks?" Wylen smiled radiantly, turning his back to begin speaking with the blonde.

"Someone pass me the butter," The other all suspended their conversation as Kaz drew up his chair beside Natasha, tucking his crow cane beneath his arm.

Wylen reached across the table, placing the tray on his plate.

Kaz helped himself to some toast, smirking to himself at everyone's incredulous looks. "Is something the matter?" He asked, spreading butter across his toast triangles. They all shook their heads, looking down at their plates.

Inej cast Kaz a concerned look across the table. Kaz countered with a mere emotionless expression, not bothering to follow as she left the table.

Alessia glanced at Kaz's way before returning to her food. "Eggs and toast to base for the Queen of Ravka?" He asked, eyes trained on his food. He was sprinkling sugar across his buttered toast with a dainty silver spoon - also stolen.

"Not hungry," Natasha said, pushing her plate anyway from her, making a show of adjusting her skirts to avoid eye contact. She couldn't understand why he had begun joining the crows at the table - if this was some cruel way of getting back at her for hitting him.

He shook more sugar over his toast, meriting the attention of Alessia. "Not enough sleep in the morning, Brekker?" She asked her voice tense.

He glanced up at her nonchalantly. "I like sweet things," Jesper chuckled, and Nina began to talk of a waffle date. Natasha looked over her shoulder insight of Inej, who was talking, head bent, with Rotty.

"She's fine," Kaz said, setting his silverware in the washing bin. He didn't bother with scrubbing it clean, letting it soak beneath a layer of foam soap. "Inej is a very ethical person,"

Natasha's brow furrowed as she watched Inej's hand instinctively rest upon her hip. She knew Inej paraded around Ketterdam and Ravka with a vanity of blades hidden across her body. "So does she carry those daggers for damage or protection,"

Kaz Brekker shrugged, wiping the sugar granules from the tips of gloves. "A little bit of both," He watched her lip curl. "Don't get me wrong," He began, walking down the deck. Natasha followed behind him. "The Wraith is delightful, one of the dregs best investments-"

"Dregs," Natasha said. "The weird lumps at the bottom of a teacup?"

He grinned as she answered her own question. "Exactly that, aristocracies vermin," Kaz was in an optimistic mood, and it put her on edge.

"What?" Brekker scoffed, turning to face her. There wasn't even a faint bruise where her hand had met his cheek last night. "You didn't expect us to steal the Queen of Ravka and be law-abiding honourable citizens,"

"I'm not something you can steal," Natasha said, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. Her head cocked against her shoulder. "I hope you're aware that I'm not an object or something you can put a price tag on," 

She turned back to the others, who were still around the breakfast table; Nina, with her head thrown back, and Wylen with pink cheeks and bright eyes. She wondered how either of them got entangled with someone like Kaz Brekker.

A vein twitched in Kaz's neck, but whatever was there quickly evaporated. 

"Let me tell you a secret, Van Doren," He leaned in, hardly enough to create tautness or intimacy. "Those silks you're wearing is worth more than this schooner. That diamond choker around your neck is worth more money than I've ever seen in my entire life,"

Kaz eyed it a moment too long before turning his head away sharply. "Then why didn't you steal these instead?" Natasha's hand protectively skimmed across the jewels on her neck, and Kaz laughed.

"You might not know it, but the head on your pretty little neck is worth a lot more to me," A shrill noise erupted, and when she turned in, Kaz Brekker's hand was her choker. Natasha hadn't even realised when his hands had touched her throat.

Kaz admired it beneath the light, tracing a gloved thumb across the fat black diamond at its centre. "How did you?" Natasha asked, her voice a husky whisper.

"You're aren't stupid," He said amiably. 

"Some people see a magic trick and say, 'Impossible!' They clap their hands, turn over their money, and forget about it ten minutes later. Other people ask how it worked. They go home, get into bed, toss and turn, questioning how it happened. It takes them a good night's sleep to forget all about it,"

He grinned, turning over her choker and admiring the luna carvings. "And then there are the ones who stay awake, sailing through the trick, again and again, looking for that skip in perception, the fissure in the illusion that will explain how their eyes got duped; they're the kind who won't rest until they've mastered that little bit of occultism for themselves. I'm that kind,"

Kaz Brekker paused, placing her choker in her outstretched palm. He had Natasha hooked on his words. "And so are you,"

He turned away with a stab of his cane. 

A/N 

- Sorry for not updating yesterday, I was at the beach during a photoshoot with some friends for her fashion blog. Anyways, if you enjoyed please vote and comment! School's starting for me in a week so updates might be a bit infrequent, but I'll try update as often as I can. 

- rosa <3