The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 8 - a moment of intimacy

A week went by since then, life was good. Cara took her time to learn more about herbs and plants during the day and worked at the crow club in the evenings. She and kaz had few interactions since that one day.

She didn't know what to think of the man anymore, one second he put his guard down and opened up to her and another time he was harsh and cold. But she understood, Kaz brekker was a mysterious man and she would never push him into something he wasn't ready for.

she knew that tonight him, inej and jesper had another heist planned. It was a small one where they didn't need her with them so she kept watch over the crow club. She didn't mind, it showed kaz trusted her enough to watch over the club.

Tonight was a night as any other in the club, lots of drunken men spending more money than they should and loosing it all at a flip of a card. There was little trouble and Cara was actually enjoying the night when jesper stumbled into the club.

She immediately knew something was wrong by the look on his face. "what's wrong jesper?" she said a little worried as the man approached her. "its kaz, he's hurt but he is not letting inej clean his wounds. He's bleeding pretty badly..." Cara shook her head "that stubborn man, jesper look over the club will you I will go over to the slat." Jesper nodded and Cara took off towards the slat.

She was grateful for the fact that the slat was close to the club as she hadn't been this worried in a while. When she entered the slat she was almost immediately greeted by inej. "he has a cut on his arm and side, he won't let anybody in his room to help him. it was bleeding pretty badly but didn't let me or jesper in to help him .."

Cara nodded "I will help him, thank you for letting me know" she quickly made her way further into the slat preparing a bowl of warm water. She went upstairs and quickly entered her rom to gather some more supplies before heading over to kaz's room.

She knocked on the door but received no answer. 'this man and his stubbornness' she thought to herself as she opened the door. "get out! If I wanted help I would ha-" kaz was sitting on his bed holding pressure on the side of his torso but stopped talking when he saw Cara walking towards him.

"you know you cannot scare me away with your attitude." Cara said as she set the bowl and supplies down on his nightstand. "what happened?" she asked simply as she kneeled in front of him to examine him. he slowly removed his hand from the wound so Cara could examine it.

"I got stabbed." He simply answered. Cara nodded and knew by the place he had been stabbed that it looked worse than it was. "okay I don't think anything was hit internally, we are going to have to clean it and .. stitch it." She knew that stitching it was going to be the hard part.

Kaz nodded. "can you remove your shift please." Cara stood op and walked over to the night stand where she took the bowl of water and some clean cloth. When she turned back to kaz he had removed his shirt, Cara tried her best to keep her eyes focused on his wound as she kneeled in front of him again.

"I will try my best to not touch you directly." Kaz looked at her for a moment and nodded before looking up to the ceiling. Cara knew this would be hard for him but this needed to be done. She took some cloth and dipped it in the water before slowly cleaning the wound, making sure she did not touch his skin directly.

the next step was the stitches. She knew she would have to touch him for this to properly stitch it. He seemed to know as well but did not complain, he did however close his eyes as he prepared himself for the panic attack. Cara took the needle and worked as quickly as possible. Not noticing that kaz had opened his eyes after the first stitch.

Kaz had prepared himself for the panic that would surely come but when Cara touched him he focused on her warmth, he could feel her heart beating almost as fast as his was. She was alive, not dead. He took comfort in her warm touch and instead of panic he felt ... warmth, comfort, love?

meanwhile Cara had finished the stitches. She quickly took the bowl of herbs and put them in a mortar to grind them into a paste. Once she was satisfied with the mixture she held out the bowl to kaz. "do you want to apply it yourself? That way I don't have to touch it again." But kaz shook his head

"you can do it, you are the expert here." It was an excuse and he knew it. He just wanted to see if the feeling would come back. And as she applied the mixture it did. His mind was working overtime trying to place the feeling while trying to decide if it was wrong of him to feel this way or if he should give in to it.

Cara was done applying the mixture and had taken a bandage and was now slowly bandaging the wound, making sure to not touch his skin again. Once she was done she reviewed her work and once satisfied she stood up.

"show me your arm." Kaz cocked an eyebrow at her command. "come on" she said while she motioned to his arm. Kaz slowly extended his arm to her. She glanced at the tattoo that was on his arm. A crow with a cup. Before she looked at the wound.

This one doesn't need stiches she said. She quickly took the bowl and a clean cloth again and started cleaning the wound. Once she was done she applied the mixture and bandaged his arm.

"all done, see that wasn't so hard now was it." Kaz looked at her and as she was putting her supplies back on the tray she brought in he almost whispered "not with you." Just loud enough for her to hear it.

Cara left the room to put away her supplies and met inej downstairs again. "he's alright his wounds are bandaged and taken care of." Inej nodded and smiled. "he cares about you a lot you know, he would never let us as close as he has let you. He might not show it but we can all see it. Take good care of him." and with that she left the slat.

Cara quickly made her special thee before going back up to kaz. When she entered he had put on a new shirt and was standing in front of the small mirror cleaning off his gloves. "I brought you a thee" Cara announced as she walked over to his desk and put the drink down.

Kaz put his gloves down next to the bowl of water he was cleaning them with and walked over to his desk standing a little away from her. "thank you ... for everything." Cara nodded and turned around to leave again but before she could kaz grabbed her arm. He wasn't wearing his gloves but lucky for him Cara was wearing a coat with long sleeves. "wait" he said.

She turned back to look at him but he did not let go of her arm. He was trying to find the words when Cara started talking. "kaz what are we?" She didn't want to push him but she needed clarification on this. Kaz thought for a moment. "I want you to be my partner."

Cara looked a bit confused. "your partner?" kaz looked a bit in conflict with himself trying to find the words. "yes, not like my partner in crime but my partner.. I want ... I" he let out a sign not able to speak the words he wanted to say to her and looked down to his feet.

But she understood and rested a hand on his shoulder making sure not to touch his neck. "I would love to be your partner kaz." His eyes shot up to hers as she continued. "I know this is new for you kaz and I will never push you into things you don't want so you will have to let me know what is okay and what isn't. I will wait for you to be ready, we will work on this together." She smiled at him.

And then she saw something that made her fall in love with the man before her even more, he smiled. It wasn't a big smile but it was enough. Enough for her to know that in this moment kaz brekker was truly happy.

It was at this moment that a knock came on the door and Cara immediately jumped back from kaz. Kaz walked over to pick up his gloves and quickly put them on before giving the signal that they could come in.

The door opened to reveal jesper. Sorry to bother you but there is somebody at the crow club that would like to see you. He did not want to tell me why. Kaz nodded and quickly put on his coat and followed jesper outside leaving Cara behind.

Cara looked at the untouched thee and picked it back up. "I can definitely use this now." She said to herself after taking a sip.