Fragments *KANEJ*

What are the rules of Poker again?

Inej steps out of Kaz's room and walks down the hallway into her own. Sitting on the bed, she lets out a deep sigh. He's making so much progress... she's so proud of him. He let her touch him, without layers upon layers of cloth between them. It felt nice. His skin was cold, but it made her feel warm inside. And, as much as she doesn't want to admit, she blushed a bit upon seeing his beautiful, pale torso. It was muscular, and flawed, but it's part of him, and that's all that matters.

After collecting herself, she walks out of her room and down to the living room where she finds the two couples of the group sitting on the couch talking in hushed voices. As soon as she walked in the room, they fall silent and look at her.

Inej knows something is up. "What are you lot hiding?" She questions and crosses her arms.

"Nothing!" Jesper says innocently. But he's not convincing. Inej gives them a look with one eyebrow raised and Wylan breaks.

"We- we were just worried about you. That guy... he wanted something from you, he wanted to hurt you even. Do you have any idea why?" Wylan worries.

Inej looks down. "No... but I'm sure we'll find answers." She walks over to him and gives him a motherly kiss on the forehead.

Nina attempts to change the subject and asks, "Is Kaz okay?"

Inej turns her hide to hide her blushing face. "Y-yeah. He's feeling better... he still needs rest though, it hurts a lot." She answers.

Nina nods and leans into Matthias. The 5 crows sit in silence for a bit, just enjoying each others' company. About 30 minutes later, Kaz comes limping down the stairs. Jesper gets up and runs over to him, smiling. He grabs his friend's shoulder and Kaz lightly flinches, but accepts the contact and smiles slightly.

"Happy you're still alive, Kazzy," Kaz looked unamused and rolled his eyes.

"I don't," he mutters. But there's a warm glint in the cold man's eyes and a slight smile at his usually frowning lips.

The 6 of them sit down in the living room, and talk about anything and everything. They laugh, and they enjoy each others company. It makes Inej so happy to see Kaz Brekker, in all his scary-faced glory, smiling and forgetting his trauma for once in his life.

—————

To take their minds off of everything, they decide to play a game of poker. The not exactly happy, but perfectly flawed family starts to pretend everything is normal. Kaz and Jesper begin argue over the rules of the game.

"Come on, I gamble all the time! Hell, I have a gambling addiction! Guys, tell him that I'm right," Jesper argues and looks around at his friends.

"You don't gamble, you cheat and twiddle around your little toy pistols." Kaz counters with a smirk.

Jesper stands up and says, "You aren't even that good at poker, all you can do is swing around your cane for your crippled ass and intimidate the hell out of people," Jesper smiles, winks, and mimics swinging a cane around at people.

Inej and Wylan stifle laughs and look at each other, as if saying "what even are these idiots saying?"

"Well, maybe I'll demonstrate my specific skill set for you," Kaz raises his eyebrows and smiles.

"Okay boys break it up, how about we all go out and grab a drink, ey?" Nina offers, putting a hand on each guys' chest.

Jesper and Kaz eye each other and then the 6 of them get up from the table and head out the door, laughing along the way.