Six Of Crows imagines

Like him-Marley(OC) POV- part 1

"Your free to roam about as you please" she finishes. Slowly the kids stand up and begin to walk around the deck. They're scared. I can see it in their faces. I'm good at that, reading people. I can tell when they're hiding something or when they're guilty. I look at the ocean. It stretches out as far as the eye can see. I hate it. I don't even know why, I just hate it. I also hate ships, pretty sure getting kidnapped and thrown onto a slaver ship had something to do with that.
Thanks guys.
I pull my attention to the kids who have now completely spread out. I have a decent view of the ship from up here in the crows nest. First thing I did when they let me onto the ship was climb up here. And that girl, Inej, I think her name was, I like her. She looks my age but she is a lot more flexible. And she's quiet. When I was standing on the deck after they pulled us out, she came up behind me and began talking. I swear I jumped so high I could have leapfrogged that Tolya guy. "How you doing?" A soft voice says from behind me. I scream
"will you please. Stop doing that?"
Inej laughs "sorry old habits" she comes and sits next to me. "But seriously, how are you doing?" Millions of thoughts rush through my mind. I haven't eaten in days, I really want to punch someone and I am scared out of my goddam mind, but all I say is "I'm alright." Mentally facepalming myself. She glances at me but doesn't say anything. "We haven't officially met" Inej holds out her hand "Inej"
I look at her hand then look up at her. Can I trust her? I only just met her. She smiles. What the heck. I've already been kidnapped, she can't do much worse. Can she? I shake her hand "Marley."
———
"MARLEY!!"

I whip my head around to see Nikolai storming towards me.
"You're supposed to be on vomit duty. Not reading."
I give him a sheepish grin.
"Whoops?"
He hands me a bucket and cloth. I look at him, "Nikolai a bucket and cloth ain't gonna do squat. Let the master show you how it's done" I crack my knuckles and look at the vomit dripping off the railing. I hold out my hand, and an orb of water forms. I throw it across the ship and hits the railing. He looks at me. "Why didn't you do that before?"
I shrug and turn back to my book, brushing my red hair out of my face.

'Nothing could compare to the way-'

"Hey Mar" Inej chirps dropping down next to me. I sigh, close the book and throw it across the deck.

"So we're headed to Ketterdam next to drop off the kids who live there."

"Mmmm hmmm" I say, I have a pretty good idea where this is going. She wants me to meet her friends. "I have friends who live there," she looks at me apologetically. "I want you to meet them." Called it. She glances at me hopefully. "Um no. That involves being social. I'll pass" I rant. I don't like people. Full stop. Inej looks like she is about to throw me overboard... again, but I glare at her and stand up. "Look Nej, I'm sure your friends are great or what-have you but I'm not a people person. So my answer is no." I'm now in dangerous territory. Inej isn't the captain but she's got a lot of say in who stays, and who goes overboard. She also happens to be a year older than me, 17 years to my own 16. I walk to the hammock cabin, picking up my book on the way. When I get there I close the door and flop into the hammock . The cabin is big, and contains 19-20 hammocks. Mine is at the back, so I get the most privacy. I throw my book onto the floor and wriggle around to get comfy. Then, with the comforting rock of the ship, I let sleep take me.
———
I land with a hard thud on the cold wooden floor.
"What the-"
"Get up sleepy, your on lookout" Tolya says.
"Why didn't you just call my name?"
"I did. You didn't wake up"
"So you tip the hammock?"
Tolya smirks and I give him the finger. He smirks even more.

It takes me less than three minutes to be ready and up on deck. Thanks to the fact that all I had to do was strap on my weird over corset thingie, tie up my boots and throw my flame red hair into a plait.

When I get up on deck I see Inej standing at the front of the ship telling the group of kids who were kidnapped the way docking is going to work. It never goes to plan but she may as well try.
"We will be there by tonight. Until then," she waved her hands and the kids and teens stood up and continued what they were doing. Anna hands me a biscuit. "Morning" she sings, her short blond hair bouncing up and down. "I hear you're meeting Inej's friends." She pats me on the back, "good luck with dirty hands." I look at her, "which ones that?"
"Trust me, you'll know." How would I know? How does she know? She's never met him. Anna smiles and skips over to a small boy who's throwing up overboard. "Thanks" I mumble placing the biscuit onto a random plate and climbing my way up to the crows nest. I'm not gonna lie, I'm hungry but whenever I go to eat I get this voice in my head telling me something bad I'm gonna happen if I do, and I bring enough bad luck as it is. I roll my eyes at myself, I sound like a lunatic, but it's the way it is for me so I just go with it.
———
I have quite literally been up here all day and Ketterdam has only just come into view. No one has come up other than Tolya who gave me lunch and Inej who took down the untouched plate. She looked at me with concern in her features but she let me be up here on my own, so, I've just been yelling stuff down to Mal and reading. At some point I must have dosed off because my eyes open and I hear Mal calling up to me.
"Marley, Marley, Marley"
He chants. Then he pauses and yells
"MARLEY WHAT THE F-"
"I'm up, I'm up," I call peaking over the edge of the railing. "Woah" I whisper. Mal is steering the ship into a dock space, "All clear" I say still looking at the harbour. There are people everywhere. Fisher men stick to the left side of the docks, pulling out buckets of fish and crabs then chucking them down to the people standing on the deck. Mainly to the right are the 'fancy' boats. They have people in neat, sophisticated clothing walking off them. The middle docking spaces are for people like us, the random boats. We dock and I see Inej jump off the ship and run into the arms of a tall, dark skinned boy with a top hat. Dirty hands? A girl with brown hair from that group walks over and hugs another part of the Suli girl, and she's soon followed by a small boy with messy strawberry curls. Like mine but much lighter. When they let go she turns to the only person who didn't hug her. He's a tall boy maybe a head higher than me with a big black coat and cane. Ah so this one is dirty hands, the bastard of the Barrel, Kaz Brekker. If you ask me, he looks like a teenager who grew up with siblings. He has that resting pissed face. I would know, I got seven of the brats, and I'm the oldest. Inej and Kaz share some words and I hold my breath. They start to walk into the city and away from the ship. I let out my breath, relived. Hopefully she forgot about me. Fingers crossed.
"Marley. We need your help with the kids" Tolya yells. I begin to climb down the ladder, I only make it half way down before my vision doubles. "No" I whisper and my world fades to darkness.
———
When I open my eyes I'm in Tolya's arms. He's holding me as if I'm a bride and is carrying my over to a barrel at the back of the ship.
"Did I do it again?" I ask when he puts me down
"Yup, third time this week."
I nod
"How long?" I ask
"About 30 minutes" he says looking at the children being lead off the ship. My stomach gives a loud growling sound and Tolya looks at me.
"When was the last time you ate? Your didn't touch your lunch or eat breakfast"
I consider this for a moment
"If you have to think about it then it's been too long"
He grabs the biscuit I put down this morning and hands it to me.
"Thanks" I say
"I have to go help with them" he waves a hand at the chaos that's broken out on deck,
"Let me know if you need anything"
I nod and he walks away.
I ditch the biscuit and watch the passers by for a while before I see Inej's head appear. Following after her were some other people. Alarm shoots through me followed by panic and the beginning of a plan. I begin to tiptoe away as quickly and as silently as possible. I decide on hiding behind a crate but I couldn't have been there for more than a minute before I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"Marley, did you really think you could out hide me?" Inej asks, lifting me up by my shirt and dragging me over to her friends.
"I don't wanna" I wine. She rolls her eyes and shoves me in their direction.
"Go on" she smirks.
"I'll throw your knives overboard" I growl
"You wouldn't dare"
"Never say never"
"Hello, I'm assuming your Marley?" The brown headed girl says, stopping our growling and sticking her hand out. I shake it.
"This is Jesper" she points at the dark skinned boy, "Wylan" the red head, "and Kaz" the one with the cane. I shake the first two boys hands in turn but pause when I get to Kaz. He holds out his gloved hand. What the heck is he wearing gloves for? I swear it's 100 degrees. I'm about to say something but he opens his mouth first. "Your the one Inej talks about, the one with no family."
Oh, So we're playing this game.
I smirk "and your that crow guy" I say "the one who had the audacity to call Inej an 'Investment.'" Nina suppressed a laugh and the corner of his lips perk up. Just noticeable in the dying light of the day.
"Well it was very nice meeti-"
"Nope" Nina said happily "we were specifically told that we would show you Ketterdam." I slowly turn to face Inej who's smiling bigger than I've ever seen her.
"Inej Ghafa" I hiss "I swear to my Saints," Inej just grabs my hand and drags me off the ship, the others trailing behind. They show me Ketterdam for the better part of the evening . It's not very exiting, until we walk past a street with more noise and people. A fight breaks out in the middle of the street and people rush to get out of the way.
"Can we go down there?" I ask stopping to watch the fight. Wylan shakes his head.
"We're not letting you go down the Barrel. You'll get hurt."
I glare at him but Jesper grabs my hand and pulls me away, me looking longingly back at the street. We walk until the sun has almost completely disappeared, and with it, goes the warmth of the hours before. I mostly trail behind the group with Kaz. Though we don't talk, we share eye rolls whenever Nina insists we go into a pub or Jesper drags us into a gambling den only for us to watch him to loose.
"Oh let's go here" Nina said pushing open a door to another pub. Noise and laughter floods out along with the sound of a band.
"No thanks" I say wrapping my arms tighter around me in hopes of staying warm.
"I'm done for tonight. Thanks for showing me 'round though" I began to walk away before someone grabbed my hand.
"We can't let you go alone, your smart Mar but you'll get lost" Inej says. Kaz walks over and places a gloved hand on my shoulder. This feeling explodes inside of me. I've never felt like this before. What does it mean?
"I'll go with her. I'm done walking around while Jesper gets farther into debt and Nina flirts with everyone."
They eye us carefully,
"Ok! Just don't kill each other and don't kill anyone else" Jesper says walking into the pub.
"No promises" I say snapping out of my mini panic attack. Kaz and I walk in silence until we get to the Barrel. I stop and turn to Kaz.
"Can we go down there?" I ask. He looks at me, amusement in he's black eyes.
"Why not? I for one think it was a foolish idea not to let you go down there."
We head down the street into the Lid. At least, that's what Kaz called it. The noise and people have all disappeared, being replaced by thugs and homeless people. They whisper from ally's and the sidewalk.
"Is that Brekker? With a girl?"
"I thought he had a thing for the Wraith"
"He did but he'd never admit it"
I look at him. "Guess your a big deal down here?"
He gives me a firm nod. My stomach growls and my head begins to spin. I stop. So does Kaz. I breath, in though the nose, out through the mouth. Then I walk again, but I have a burning desire to do something stupid.
"I wanna fight someone" I say. Kaz glances at me.
"You'd loose"

"No I wouldn't, I'm a pirate"

"You are no pirate, your a girl with no family who didn't have the strength to go back to the orphanage so you tagged along with your rescuers. Inej is a pirate."

Anger bubbles inside me. Who does he think he is? Scratch that how did he know all that? I begin to shake. We walk in silence for a long time and I catch Kaz looking at me every so often. My vision doubles again and that's when I hits me. I'm not shaking from rage.
I stop again, look around and run to the closest alleyway, Kaz hot on my heels.
"Marley?" He says cautiously
My breath quickens and panic seeps through me.
"Don't leave me here" I say
He looks at me. "What?"
My vision clouds over and I can't see anymore.
"Kaz" I whisper then my body goes limp again.