Dregs Reunion

Part Three- Nina

Nina Zenik smiled softly as she watched Kaz take Inej's hand in his own ungloved one. She was happy for them, but sad for herself. Life without Matthias was hard. But despite Kaz's protests, Nina knew he was there in spirit, making snide remarks and calling Kaz demjin.

Demon.

The word wasn't the first one to come to mind when Kaz was around, but it was incredibly accurate. While Kaz might not have been a demon in the evil sense of the word, he was a trickster. Clever. Calculating. Hard and cruel and maniacal.

Inej was only two of those things. She shared Kaz's cleverness, his all-seeing, his constantly calculating and evaluating state of mind, but that was all that they seemed to share.

Oh, and the slightly sardonic humor.

Inej, despite her cleverness, was also incredibly kind, and funny, and witty, and nice to be around.

Basically, Kaz Brekker did not deserve inej Ghafa.

And yet he had her all the same.

Nina sighed and turned away from the scene, wanting to hurry. Kaz might not have been joking (if he could joke at all) about Jesper's flute playing, after all. And nobody wanted or needed to hear Jesper play the flute ever, much less in the morning when they were all waking up.

Except Kaz.

He never seemed to sleep.

He was like a vampire or something.

Nina picked up one of the pre-prepared breakfast meals they had and wrinkled her nose. She looked around for a sign of edible food to no avail, and debated in her mind for a bit before breaking into her meager emergency butterscotch stash. A girl, she reflected, must always be prepared.

She was popping the first candy into her mouth when Wylan appeared beside her, trying to look stern and failing drastically.

"Butterscotch, Nina? Really?" he asked.

"Want one?" she replied, innocent to a fault.

Wylan hesitated. "Sure," he finally said, taking one from the bag.

They stood in silence for a moment, chewing, acknowledging each others' existence but not acting on it. It seemed like a situation that might occur between Inej and Kaz- knowing the other was there, wanting to say something, anything, but not doing it out of fear and self-preservation.

"So," said Nina finally, "how's Jesper?"

Wylan laughed. "He's good. Annoying as ever and he's still gambling, but good. He's cut down a lot."

"And you?"

"I'm good too. It's much..." he trailed off. "Much quieter without my father."

"Quieter."

"Better," he amended. "So, how are you, Zenik?"

She laughed, but it was a halfhearted effort. "As well as I can be," she said, hoping that he wouldn't talk about Matthias. It was always hard, of course, but especially now, around these people that he loved.

Or, perhaps, hated.

It had really been quite hard to tell.

"So, you've been teaching Jesper to play the flute," she said, changing the subject quickly. Wylan raised an eyebrow, clearly catching on, but after a moment of hesitation he nodded.

"How's that going for you?"

He laughed, a real laugh. "He's horrible," he said. "Really. His stance is all wrong, he can't blow correctly..." he laughed again. "Usually I would still have him using the headjoint, but he seemed to be getting discouraged. And learning how to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' can't hurt, right?"

Nina raised an eyebrow, and he amended. "Well, it can't hurt anything but my ears. But it's a big house, so it's not like I can't escape if I need to."

A sound suddenly arose, horrible and screeching, and Nina turned, startled, to find Jesper sitting and attempting to play the flute.

"Saints," she whispered. "I thought Kaz was joking when he said Jesper would start playing."

Wylan frowned. "I don't think Kaz is capable of joking."

"You," she said, grabbing her butterscotch and hurrying away so that they could go, now, as long as Jesper would stop that infernal noise, "have a point."