GRISHAVERSE X READERS

BARELY DRIED [PART 2]

A few days later, Kaz had gone missing again. After the Van Benschoten job, which had gone exceptionally well, he had retreated even more into his shell. Barely paying any attention to you during the afterparty of finding a buyer for the treasure you had stolen, gotten tens of thousands of kruge, and still Kaz acted like it didn't really matter that much. As if that had been just another one of those smaller jobs which he could do by himself and maybe someone keeping watch at most. Definitely not something this big. But now, he had been gone for two days already. Gone before sunrise, no one had heard him, no one had seen him leave.

And now, you sat at the bar counter with a shot of whiskey, wringing your hands. Your heart was pounding, your fears increasing by the second.

"What if something has happened?" you muttered as soon as Jesper slid to sit next to you. "What if... what if he, what if he's been so distraught that he has gotten caught? Or... killed?"

Jesper snorted, shaking his head. "Kaz? Caught? Killed? Come on, you know he's tougher to kill than a cockroach infestation is."

"But what if—"

Jesper shot you a look. "No, he's just... he needs time to cool off. Seeing you could shake him up even worse now."

You nodded slowly, staring at the bar counter. You knew Kaz wouldn't be happy when he'd learn that you had spilled the whole story about that letter you found and Kaz being upset about you having read it to Jesper and Inej, but he had been away for so long, you were so worried. You needed to have someone to talk to, and they had succeeded in comforting you somewhat.

But it didn't mean it made you any less worried. No matter how much they tried to console you and make you believe Kaz was coming back soon, you couldn't help but go over and over all the possible horror scenarios.

Kaz being thrown into Reaper's Barge, his body having floated away, reunited with his brother.

Kaz being imprisoned, tortured, terrified for the first time in years.

Kaz being trapped somewhere, slowly starving to death.

Kaz having left Ketterdam completely, being too overwhelmed about the fact that you had seen a vulnerable side of him, convinced he had ridiculed himself to you and that you don't feel the same.

Your last fear wasn't as harrowing as the rest of them, sure, but still... a gnawing fear that you wouldn't see him ever again loomed over you like a dark cloud. You were unable to think anything else or do much to keep your mind off it.

And after two days more, you just couldn't take it anymore.

"I need to go find him," you announced to your friends as you came down the stairs of the Slat with your coat and boots on. "I can't take this anymore."

Jesper sighed. "You do know that if he doesn't want to be found, you won't be able to find him. He surely knows you're going to look for him sooner or later, he knows to expect it."

You paused, before adjusting your scarf. "That's what I'm counting on really. He may expect me. Saints, he could even wait for me to find him."

Jesper scoffed. "Are we talking about the same Kaz Brekker here?"

You shrugged, looking at the roof for a moment. "It might be wishful thinking, I know. But I just feel like he may not come home until I go there and tell him it's okay, that he hasn't ruined anything." You paused. "And maybe I could tell him that we can forget about that letter completely if he wants that."

Jesper raised an eyebrow, but then looked back at his glass of whiskey. "Well, I guess it's your time you're wasting."

First, you headed to Black Veil, weaving through the gravestones until you reached the crypt. You knocked on the door — no answer, of course, and complete silence otherwise too. Nobody was moving inside. You peered inside the windows, but the crypt was empty unless Kaz was sitting on the floor in some dark corner where you wouldn't see him, and that didn't sound like Kaz. Cowering to hide from you, no, that wasn't Kaz.