#the farmhouse in lij | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

auroravictorium · 6 months

Text

high infidelity (pt. 3) (k.b.)

you know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love.

Summary: kaz and the crows arrive at a safehouse after rescuing reader, where kaz is confronted by his past. reader wakes up and starts the long trek to recovery. Pairing(s): kaz x fem!reader (established relationship) Word Count: ~3.1k Warnings: brief allusions to SA (inej expressing concerns about reader), mentions of injuries (head injury, severe wound on reader's arm, bruises, scrapes, etc.), mentions of blood, lots of grappling with trauma, mentions of sibling & parent loss/death Genre: angst? a bit of fluff? Author's Note: hello hello!! i'm so sorry about my long absence. college and life happened, BUT i have a birthday in the near future (libras unite!!) so have the final part of high infidelity as a lil birthday celebration :)) pinky promise next part is already in the works and it should be a lot less heavy!! enjoy <33

part one / part two / masterlist

Kaz gently pulled you back into his arms as Jesper navigated the exhausted horses toward a small, two-story farmhouse tucked away in a remote field a few miles from Lij. In the distance, a few farmhouses stood like faint silhouettes against the night sky. Beyond that, nothing for miles. The perfect place to hide, heal, and plot before their return to Ketterdam.

The air was clean, untainted by manufacturing smoke, and stars glittered above Kaz as he carefully stepped out of the carriage with you in his arms. He thought hard about the stars as he approached the porch of his childhood home; he thought about how much you would love them when you awoke and how your eyes might look as they caught their distant glimmer.

It was easier to ignore the stirring ghosts of his past if he thought about his present, the future he hoped to have. That present and future rested in the sleeping woman in his arms, her head against his shoulder and her weight a strangely comforting presence against him. The comfort was foreign to him, a sensation he could distantly remember if he reached far enough through the fog that had plagued his life since Jordie died.

The stars disappeared from view as Kaz stepped under the porch awning and turned to face Inej, silent as ever behind him. "The key is under the board with a split down the middle," he said quietly, jerking his chin to the end of the porch.

"Whose house is this?" Nina questioned as she arrived, pale and exhausted from working on you for most of the ride. "And do you think they'll mind if I sleep here for an eternity?"

Kaz shot her a glare and answered neither of those questions. He didn't feel like telling any of them about whose house this was, nor about the phantoms waiting inside. He had enough to worry about without fielding their questions, and his concern rested solely with you, unconscious in his arms. "Jesper, remove the furniture covers. Inej, Nina, help get Y/N settled." His eyes flicked between the Wraith and the Heartrender, a troubled face and an exhausted one. "Then rest. All of you. Jesper, on the couch. Nina and Inej, take the large room upstairs."

He didn't plan to sleep until he was sure you wouldn't die on him. He'd had enough of death in his life.

Inej unlocked the door and pocketed the key, moving inside and holding the door out of the way for everyone to trickle inside.

The room was spotless, remarkably untouched by dust. As Jesper started to remove the cloths over the couch, table, chairs, and small kitchen surfaces, not a single speck of dirt puffed into the air. "I was expecting more... dirt," Jes admitted, wadding up the cloths and tossing them in an empty corner. "For a farmhouse."

Kaz didn't respond, turning on his heel and marching up the stairs toward the small bedroom to the right. He nudged open the door to his and Jordie's old room and held his breath as he carried you in and settled you in the made bed. If he didn't breathe, he couldn't let the past settle in his lungs and choke him.

His gaze remained solely on your face as he carefully unlaced your bloodstained, beaten boots and set them aside. But his thoughts were elsewhere, on a presence he could feel breathing down his neck. The hairs there prickled, and Kaz pursed his lips, fighting the growing tremor in his hands as he tucked the blankets around you.

Jordie was there, in that room. Present, though he'd been dead for years. His father sat on the rickety old seat beneath the window, watching Kaz brush your hair from your face before jerking his hand back. His breathing was coming fast now, and though he longed to stay with you, he had to get out. His lungs burned and ached, unable to pull in the oxygen he needed.

Kaz had to get out of that room, escape the ghosts' eyes on him, their hands reaching toward the exposed skin of his neck, the small gap between his gloves and his sleeves that exposed his wrist. Anywhere there was skin for their cold, bloated, marred, dead hands to grab.

"I'm sorry," he breathed to you, the words barely audible. Kaz stumbled back and then fled like the coward he was. His lungs struggled to expand in his chest, his breathing shallow as he moved down the stairs and back into the living room. He walked past Jesper's unconscious, snoring form on the couch and grabbed a metal bucket from beside the back door with a trembling hand.

Coward, he thought, opening the door and stepping out into the cold winter air. It nipped at his cheeks and neck, but he didn't bother grabbing a coat. He deserved to brave the cold, to have to break the thick layer of ice in the well with his bare hands. He should be brave enough to stay with you until you woke, to hold your hand and think about everything he wanted to say.

He could kill a man, but he couldn't stay with the woman he loved. It was a cruel trick of the universe, a flaw in the new person the harbor made. Brekker, where there should be Rietveld, two clashing sides of himself with the wrong half winning.

Broken, twisted coward.

You deserved better than this, than him.

Kaz slammed the door shut, his breath clouding in front of him, and he limped off toward the edge of the Rietveld property to collect water.

The door rattled in the frame behind him, but Kaz paid it no mind. Inside, Jesper's snores seized for a moment before continuing, droning on alongside the eerie, anxious silence of the farmhouse and the cold, windy beginnings of snow.

Once Kaz was back from the well, his gloves soaked and cheeks flushed from the cold, Inej took a bowl of water from the bucket and a clean rag and slipped into the room you were asleep in.

She quietly pulled the seat from under the window to the edge of the bed and got to work, carefully wiping away the blood she could see without moving your clothing. As she ran the rag down your forearm, mindful of the deep gash cutting your tattoo in half, the concern that had been heavy on her heart came bubbling to the surface. She blinked away the unexpected tears in her eyes, turning her head toward the window and staring out toward the sky as she tried to collect herself again.

Inej hoped and prayed that this was the worst of what you'd been through. She didn't want to consider the alternative where you'd experienced the same pain and horrors she had. Unwelcome hands, permanent scars on the skin and beneath it, and memories of touches that didn't belong.

She did what she could to get as much grime from your skin without scrubbing too hard or moving your clothing, and when she was done, she watched the flakes of blood and dirt melt and turn the water reddish brown. Inej shuddered and stood, taking the bowl and leaving your room as silently and quickly as she arrived. She wordlessly moved past Kaz on the steps and through the living room and stepped outside to dump the water into a patch of brown grass.

Inej stood there long after the reddened water ran over the dead blades of grass, a glass bowl dangling from her hand and her face turned toward the night sky. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and two tears slipped down her cheeks.

Please, she thought, her lips silently forming the word. Don't let her suffer what I have.

You woke up as the sun started rising, a loud thud and quiet bickering startling you into consciousness. You peeled open your eyes, fighting against the weight of your eyelids, and you blinked to clear your vision. Shivering, you pushed yourself up onto your elbows and then upright.

The room was freezing, your nose and ears numb from the temperature, and you pulled your covers tightly around you. A coat laid over you, smelling of smoke and city. Kaz. As you pulled it around your shoulders, ignoring the bloodstains on the front, you turned up the collar to inhale his scent again.

As you turned your head to investigate the room around you, the world twisted, and you squeezed your eyes shut to steady yourself, your fingers curling into the silky lining of Kaz's coat. Once your head stopped spinning, you opened your eyes again.

The room was small, sparsely furnished with only the bed, a rickety chair beside it, and a chest in the corner with a thick layer of dust on top. The wallpaper was yellowed from age, and there were rectangular outlines on the walls where paintings had once been. Once, this had been someone's home, and the thought made the hairs on the back of your neck prickle with the sense that you were intruding. Distantly, you heard a quiet conversation from below, and the voices were too soft, the background too quiet for you to be in the city somewhere.

Where the hell am I?

You slowly swung your legs over the edge of the bed, determined to poke around further and determine where you were. Standing and pulling Kaz's coat tighter around your shoulders, you managed one step. And another. Your legs trembled and threatened to go out from under you, but you took another step. The door was almost within reach, and you stepped forward to place your hand on the doorknob.

A board creaked beneath your weight, and the voices you'd heard below went quiet.

Footsteps thundered against wood, and the floorboards creaked. The sound grew louder, and you took shaky steps back, your head already swiveling in search of a weapon. Your hand made contact with a glass of water left behind on the bench beside your bed, and you lifted it, ignoring the liquid sloshing over the rim and onto your hand. Your grip slipped slightly, but you held on.

The door screeched open, and you raised the glass as if you might throw it. Your heart raced in your ears as you took in the faces of your friends in the doorway, and it took you a moment to process that you were safe and they would not harm you. Your team. Your friends. Your family.

"Y/N," Jesper said, already stepping into the room, and you set the glass back onto the bench as he came toward you and wrapped his arms around you in a tight, bone-crushing hug.

You let out a quiet sob as unexpected tears sprung to your eyes, and you wrapped your arms around him, too, despite the spasms of pain running up your bandaged arm and throughout your body. You hid your face in Jesper's chest, breathing in his smell of gunpowder and metal, and he held you tightly against him, swaying back and forth a bit.

Jes pressed a teary kiss to your sweaty, bloodied hair. "Saints, Y/N," he whispered, and he didn't have to say anything else. You understood. I thought you would die, he was thinking.

You couldn't blame him. For a while, you thought you would too.

You pulled back and looked up at him, brushing away his tears. "Stop crying," you told him, your voice raspy from emotion and disuse. "You'll make me cry too."

Jesper laughed shakily and squeezed you in a hug one more time, and then a small hand landed on his shoulder, pulling him back. Inej was there, her warm, brown eyes alight with concern. There were a million questions, a million worries there, and you knew she was terrified for you. It wasn't hard to guess what she was thinking.

"I'm okay," you said. "They didn't."

Inej's fear deflated, and she pulled you into a hug. Her grip was gentler than Jesper's, wary of your injuries, and she pulled back to grip your shoulders. "Thank the Saints," she whispered. Her eyes brimmed with tears. "If they had..."

"They didn't," you repeated, knowing she needed to hear it. You could feel the guilt and worry weighing down on her, and you didn't want her to shoulder that. So you pulled her back into a hug, even as the world tipped under your unsteady legs.

Nina didn't say a word as she joined the embrace, wrapping one arm around Inej and the other around you, pressing her fingertips against the nape of your neck. Her touch eased some of the stiffness and the persistent throbbing there, and you sighed, your head drooping onto her shoulder as you let your friends support you for once.

"I'll pour some hot water and grab some clean clothes," Inej whispered, withdrawing from the embrace before turning to Jesper and nodding, the two of them quietly leaving as Nina started to tend to your wounds without you having to ask.

"How bad is it?" you murmured, letting Nina carefully guide you to sit on the bed. She pulled your injured arm out before you and peered down at the bandages, and you averted your gaze so you didn't have to see the state of your tattoo.

"It'll scar," Nina said after a few beats, gently undoing the bandages and then running her fingers over the marred flesh. The touch would have caused pain, had it not been for the soothing rush of her magic over your skin. "When we found you, you had a bad head injury. I needed to work on that first."

There was an apology in her voice, and you looked up at her, finding her already staring back at you with so much sadness in her gaze that the tears you were barely holding back almost slipped down your face. But instead of focusing on what you'd lost, you took a deep breath and forced the tiniest of smiles.

"Thank you," you said softly.

Nina nodded and smiled back. For once, she didn't press. She didn't say what was undoubtedly on her mind, didn't ask about what had happened to you. Instead, she just silently started to work on repairing what she could of your tattoo, healing scrapes and bruises as she went.

And you let her support you as you did fall apart, her hands still tending to your skin as you turned your head into the black coat draped around your shoulders and let your tears mix with the smokey scent of Kaz and the city that lingered on the fabric.

The air was bitterly cold when you took your first step outside, and you breathed in as much frosty air as possible. Your lungs ached in protest, but you didn't mind. You couldn't after everything you'd been through.

Wrapping the long black coat tighter around yourself, you took slow steps toward the tall silhouette standing near the tree line. He must have heard you coming, and he turned to face you when you stopped a few feet away.

"Hi," you said, your breath clouding before you before dissipating into the dusk. You took another step toward him, then another, then another, until you stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him. Tucking your hands into the too-big pockets in the coat, you looked up at him. He was still watching you, his expression frustratingly yet understandably unreadable. "How long have you been out here?"

"I don't mind the cold," Kaz answered, his voice even raspier than usual. A typical nonanswer for Kaz, but the redness of his nose and around his eyes was anything but typical. The sight made your heart sink, and you longed to reach out to him and give him some reassurance that you were alright.

"Come inside. There's tea," you said, trying again to get him to thaw toward you. If he would say more than one sentence, you might have a better chance at finally talking with him.

"I'm alright," he said, turning back toward the tree line. His icy gaze flickered over the trees as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world, even as muddled shapes. Maybe they were when he wasn't busy looking everywhere but at you.

You were silent for a few long moments, then let out a slow sigh. "Kaz," you said softly. "Don't do that." The words tasted familiar on your tongue, like a memory shared long ago. You hoped Kaz would recognize them, would recognize what you were trying to say. He was shutting you out; at any other time, you would understand, and wouldn't push him to open up to you.

But you needed him. Don't pull away from me, you silently pleaded, looking up at him as you waited for him to react to your words, to understand what you were asking of him.

Kaz turned to you, and you saw something sparkling in his eyes. It was the first indication of emotion he'd given you, and it was precisely what you needed: a sign that he would open up to you eventually about what was running through his mind. "Do what?" he said, the words fighting to come up past the lump in his throat, the blockage formed by everything he wanted to say to you.

"The distance." The words were breathless, and you didn't follow them up with anything. You didn't need to, because Kaz let out a shaky exhale of his own and then dropped his hand from the top of his cane to his side. Your throat felt tight with emotion as you freed your hand from your coat pocket and then slipped your hand into his, lacing your fingers with his gloved ones. The leather was cool against your skin, but Kaz's touch alone warmed you up plenty.

Kaz gave your hand the gentlest of squeezes, and you felt his gaze burning into your face. It was heavy with the weight of words unspoken, and you decided that talking could wait until it was easier for both of you to bear.

Instead, you turned your head up toward the sky, taking a futile glance around for stars just as the first snowflakes began to flutter down around you and the earth continued its unaffected rotation on its axis.

taglist: @tonberry-yoda, @b3kk3r-by-br3kk3r, @futurecorps3, @statsvitenskap, @sapphiccloud, @casualladyinternet, @d34drapunzel, @noctemys, @whitejxsmine, @so6, @franzelt, @ell0ra-br3kk3r, @marlene-the-witch, @thestudiouswanderer, @lyjen, @rideacowb0y, @weasleybuns, @dal-light, @mariatpwk, @dreammgc, @elysian-chaos, @breadbrobin, @poppyflower-22, @halfofagayallofaqueer, @battleraven, @amarokofficial, @tenaciousperfectionunknown, @poppyflower-22, @madnessinwrighting, @ponyboys-sunsets, @circus-of-thoughts, @empresspenguin18, @mediocrestuff, @stonksman8, @alanis-altair, @thefandomplace, @alohastitch0626, @the-royal-paintbrush, @just-here-for-ff, @whos6claire, @jodiereedus22, @be-lla-vie, @despoinapav05, @arianyo, @willowpains, @geekmom3, @dark-academia-slut, @aeslenya, @directioner5life, @notjustsomeblonde, @osteopsycho, @travelingmypassion, @tiana76, @angelhxneyy, @princessatoru, @urlocalgeek, @lonelywitchv2, @bookloverfilmoholic, @taerae515

please note that if your username is struck through, i was unable to tag you!

241 notes · View notes

fantastic-nonsense · 1 year

Text

going to be quietly controversial on main and say that I don't think Kaz and Inej would live in and/or retire to Kaz's childhood farmhouse outside of Lij

Besides it being an incredibly impractical decision from a travel/communications standpoint and frankly a probably traumatizing experience for Kaz to live in a house where there's nothing for him but the ghosts of people he watched die, I just don't see either of them wanting to live there even semi-permanently. Give them a cute townhouse or apartment in a nicer district of Ketterdam, or have them renovate the Slat and make it super nice, or have them retire to the Suli caravans in Ravka, even, but a country farmhouse life just doesn't seem like a future either of them would want.

Kaz spends a significant portion of Crooked Kingdom refusing to abandon "his" city even though he'll be arrested and killed if he's caught. By the time of the duology he's spent nearly half his life in the city and will certainly be spending many more years there as leader of the Dregs. Ketterdam is his home; he's recreated himself as a Barrel Boy and even after stripping away his armor for Inej and his friends I don't think he'll ever want to go back to being the farmboy he once was. Do I think he probably needs to acknowledge his past and stop mentally separating "Rietveld" from "Brekker" at some point? Yeah. But you can't recreate the past after growing up and experiencing trauma. There is no back; there is only forward.

Meanwhile, Inej isn't "fit for a normal life" any more than Kaz is (which is something I think a lot of people forget), and we get at least two instances rejecting the idea of Inej "settling down" somewhere:

Inej noted that Matthias’ mug sat untouched before him, slowly cooling as he stared out the window. “This must be hard for you,” she said quietly. “To be here but not really be home.” He looked down at his cup. “You have no idea.” “I think I do. I haven’t seen my home in a long time.” Kaz turned away and began chatting with Jesper. He seemed to do that whenever she mentioned going back to Ravka. Of course, Inej couldn’t be certain she’d find her parents there. Suli were travellers. For them, ‘home’ really just meant family. -Ch. 21, Six of Crows

So he wasn’t fit for a normal life. Was she meant to find a kindhearted husband, have his children, then sharpen her knives after they’d gone to sleep? How would she explain the nightmares she still had from the Menagerie? Or the blood on her hands? -Ch. 27, Crooked Kingdom

Granted, Inej is 16 here and your perspective on what you want your life to look like can and will change a LOT as you grow older, but I think it's worth noting that the narrative supports the idea that Inej isn't built for a "white picket fence life" and doesn't want one anyway. She also refers to Ketterdam as "home," for all that she resents the circumstances that brought her there in the first place:

She’d called the ivory-and-amber girl her shadow, but maybe she was a sign as well, a reminder that Inej hadn’t been made for this life. And yet, it was hard not to feel that this city was her home, that Dunyasha was the intruder here. -Ch. 32, CK

Inej’s foot caught the edge of one of the metal scrolls, and then she understood. She didn’t have her opponent’s training or education or fine white clothes. She would never be as ruthless and she could not wish to be. But she knew this city inside out. It was the source of her suffering and the proving ground for her strength. Like it or not, Ketterdam—brutal, dirty, hopeless Ketterdam—had become her home. And she would defend it. She knew its rooftops the way she knew the squeaky stairs of the Slat, the way she knew the cobblestones and alleys of the Stave. She knew every inch of this city like a map of her heart. -Ch. 35, CK

Inej is Suli and an acrobat and a spider and a pirate. She's built for high places and close quarters and close-knit familial ties and freedom of movement...none of which are things that are easily accessible on a pre-industrial farm in the middle of nowhere countryside of a country not her own, far from the rest of her family and friends.

And this is all without factoring in Kaz's disability, which realistically would make him incapable of doing most of the work required of a small, family-owned farm owner. He could certainly do some of it without many problems, but the chronic pain and somewhat limited movement he experiences because of his leg would necessitate hiring farmhands to do the vast majority of the hard labor a working pre-industrial farm requires of its inhabitants. Which, granted, he certainly would have the money to do, but it does kind of defeat the practical purpose of moving Kaz and Inej out to a farm in the first place.

I get it. Cottagecore!Kanej is adorable, and so is Farmboy Kaz; there's a lot of really lovely stories that have been told using those tropes and I'm not trying to pick on them at all. But I do think that the fandom largely wants these things for them without understanding the lack of desire Kaz expresses for it within the books and the practical implications of what that would look like, especially given that neither of them are portrayed as being particularly suited for a quiet farming life, even in retirement.

#now WESPER on the other hand......ideal retirement life asdfghjkl #six of crows #crooked kingdom #kanej #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #otp: on the seas and in the city #soc meta #honestly I want to go more into Kaz's disability and how it canonically affects him #and how that would impact any life he wants to live outside of a city/community setting (bc I live in a rural area and KNOW farmers)#but it's not like.....strictly relevant here? so I'm not going to

340 notes · View notes

sankttealeaf · 11 months

Text

race to the finish line

fandom ; six of crows

summary ; While laying low from the law, Jesper and Kaz partake in a (sort of) friendly horse race.

other info ; part of the @grishaversebigbang's mini bang event! find the art from @maxe-murderer HERE and from @beani-ed HERE

Also posted over on AO3

Luck had refused to be on their side that night. It wasn’t even in the room the crows gathered in to plan out their sting of heists, which was the first sign that things were going to go wrong. The second sign things were going to go bad were the increased patrols of Stadtwatch in the area they were staking out. A few loud noises, broken glass and a lost hat later, the crows were hightailing it out from the city, chased out by the law. At some point in the chaos they had stolen a few horses, so their escape was quicker than on foot.

Kaz knew of a place where they could lay low for a while - he always did. It was near the south of Kerch, on the outskirts of Lij, a small farmhouse he had purchased a while ago. His family home to be exact, and the rest of the group had no idea.

“The owners of this place aren’t home, right?” Jesper asked, dragging a finger through the thin layer of dust that had settled on the table. “The last thing we need is to be on the run again.”

“Of course they are.” Kaz pulled out a chair, amused at Jesper’s face falling in shock. “Who do you think owns the place?”

Jesper blinked at Kaz, piecing together what he had just said in his mind. “Wait, you’re a homeowner?”

“I’m everywhere.” He hadn’t planned on revealing this place to the group this early on, or ever, actually. But times called for a hideout that was unknown by the law, so this card had to be played.

Nina shut the doors of the cabinets with a heavy sigh, sliding into the seat Jesper was about to take. “You didn't stock up on food, though. I missed out on dinner for this heist.”

“I hadn’t planned on needing to use this space. You should’ve packed some snacks.”

“I didn't know we would be in hiding, Brekker,” Nina huffed. A small box was placed in front of her, and she gave a look to Matthias, who shrugged.

“You get hungry during heists. I packed some cake.”

There wasn't much to do in the farmhouse or the surrounding area, and with Ketterdam on high alert after their plans went awry the crows found themselves looking for anything to do. Which is how Wylan found himself being thrown head first into riding lessons, taught by Jesper.

“I’d rather just watch you ride,” Wylan said, turning back to Jesper who was ushering him towards the horse with glee. “Really, Jes, I’m much better at watching.”

“No, no, I refuse to leave here until I’ve taught you all I know about horse riding. Now, up!” Jesper gestured to the saddle, ignoring Wylan’s look of disappointment. With a defeated sigh, he hoisted himself up onto the back of the horse, already regretting this decision.

Jesper knew a lot about riding, but not enough about teaching. He called out commands and ways Wylan should adjust in his seat, only to be met with confusion and frustrated yells from the other. It had taken them half an hour for Wylan to even consider walking, and even then he was telling Jesper that it was enough for him.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Jesper?” A voice spoke from behind them. Jesper turned, spotting Kaz standing by the fence.

“What do you mean? He’s learning.”

“You can’t keep still in the saddle. Last time I saw you on horseback you fell off.”

“Shut up. I’m a great teacher. And an even better rider.”

“History proves otherwise.”

Jesper glared at Kaz, the comments to his riding abilities bruising his ego. He adjusted his waistcoat as he stood upright. “I could beat you at a race.”

Kaz raised an eyebrow. “No, you couldn’t.”

“So, any bets on me?” Jesper asked, looking down at the rest of the group who had settled themselves along the fence by the makeshift starting point. Silence. Jesper frowned. “Thanks, really, I appreciate it.”

“My bet’s on Kaz,” Nina said with a nod of her head in Kaz’s direction. “Look at him. If a man ever looked at me like that, I’d follow his orders. And I never follow orders.”

“I’m also with Nina on this one. Kaz has my bet,” Inej added, giving an apologetic look to Jesper. “Sorry, Jes.”

“I’m wounded. You’re awful, the lot of you!” He exclaimed, a hand over his head in mock hurt.

"You have my vote," Wylan said with a smile.

" Finally . Someone knows a winner when they see one!" Jesper gave Wylan a wink, as Kaz mounted his horse, ready to get the race started.

"Just don't fall off." Wylan gave Jesper a supportive thumbs up, as everyone slowly turned their gaze to the only person who had yet to place a bet - Matthias. Nina gave him a nudge, and he sighed heavily.

"Neither of you are worth placing actual money on to me-"

"How honourable of you to not take part in a friendly bet," Nina interrupted, rolling her eyes at how he always seemed to find a way to take the high ground.

"Fine." Matthias looked between Jesper, who was eagerly awaiting a vote from him, and Kaz, who was waiting for the race to hurry up and start. Matthias pointed. "Kaz."

"What? Why?" Wait - don't answer that, I don't think I can take it!" Everyone knew Jesper was exaggerating the hurt he was feeling, it wouldn't be a Jesper problem without big theatrics and an attempt at making a tear roll down his cheek for extra points. Luckily for the group, Kaz moved to place himself at the starting point and began to list off the rules of the race. One: no cheating. Two: stay on horseback for the entire race. Fastest wins.

Inej gave a countdown, and on 'go' the two galloped off down the dirt path, leaving the rest of the crows in the dust. They watched the two race off and once they were both out of sight, Wylan spoke up.

"Shall I make some tea while we wait?"

The road diverted off into a small forest, as Kaz has mentioned during the pre-race talk. At the moment they were neck and neck, but as the road narrowed Jesper managed to pull ahead, letting out a loud cheer as he passed Kaz.

"I told you I'm going to win!" Jesper exclaimed, not noticing Kaz slow down as he rode off ahead, brimming with excitement at being in first place.

Kaz knew this area well, having grown up here as a child. He remembered a little trail off the beaten track he and Jordie used to explore, and how it would loop around towards the end of the main trail, close to the finish line. Kaz clicked for his horse to move towards the bushes, knowing this would be faster for him. Jesper would not see it coming.

The overgrown branches were becoming a bit of a bother as Jesper struggled to keep them from hitting his face, and he turned around to see if Kaz was having the same problem.

The road was empty. Kaz was nowhere to be seen.. Did he take a wrong turn already?

"This is really nice tea, Wylan," Nina said, lounging back on a lawn chair she had found somewhere, the tea poured into a whiskey glass she had also found somewhere , topped with a tiny umbrella. "Would pair well with some ginger biscuits."

"Are you sure you didn't want it in a teacup?" Wylan asked, giving Inej a smile as he finished pouring her a cup.

"No way! This makes me feel fancy, like I'm at the races watching actual horsemen riding and not… those two," she replied with a wave of her hand towards the general direction Kaz and Jesper rode off towards. “We should go to the races one day. I will make it happen.”

“Kaz is banned from the racecourse,” Inej said, and Nina raised an eyebrow at the statement.

“How do you get banned from the races?”

Inej knew the real answer - he had attempted to steal one of the winning horses and replace him with an untrained horse and let the chaos ensue. Somehow his plan was uncovered, and now he was not allowed back. Nina was waiting for a response. She shrugged. “He never told me how.”

The conversation ended there as Matthias rejoined the group with some more chairs. He and Nina had checked the small shed earlier, and she left the moment she found a chair for herself.

"I found another one of those chairs under some boxes." He placed it down for Inej to sit on. Under his arm were two fold out stools, and he gave one to Wylan.

"Wonderful! Now it feels like a real party." Nina grinned, handing her plate of cake and her drink to Matthias as he sat down so she could lay back.

The trail twisted and turned through the forest, and Jesper could only assume he was still in first place. It was hard to pinpoint when Kaz disappeared; he was going to bring this up to the rest of the group to see if it came under the “no cheating” rule. He had to be cheating. The trail began to straighten out now, the treeline becoming less dense as he approached the end of the forest. If he sat a little taller, he could make out the farmhouse in the distance. The final stretch, and Kaz was still nowhere to be seen.

“C’mon, girl. We’ve got this,” he mumbled, spurring his horse to go faster. He could taste the win. Out of nowhere, breaking through the treeline came a familiar black horse, a smug Kaz on his back. He was a good few feet in front of Jesper now, much to his dismay.

“Hey!” he yelled out with a frown. “That’s not allowed!”

“There was nothing in the rules about taking a shortcut. It’s useful to know the area you are racing in, Jesper. You might just find an advantage,” Kaz replied, amused to see Jesper get so worked up over a loophole.

“No, no! That was cheating, and you know it! I’m going to tell the others.”

“You have no proof.”

Kaz was now past the break in the treeline, and Jesper knew if he didn't close the space soon he was going to lose. He couldn’t lose. Not to Kaz. Not to stupid Kaz and his stupid loopholes.

“They’re close,” Inej said softly, rising from her chair to look down the road. She was right - the faint sound of hoofbeats running down the dirt path could be heard. The four were quick to set down their cake and tea, rushing over towards the finish line to get a good look at who would be crowned the winner. From their position, it seemed like Kaz and Jesper were neck and neck, neither managing to get ahead of the other.

“Who looks like they’re winning?” Wylan asked, looking at Matthias as he was the tallest and had a better view.

He shrugged. “I can’t tell.”

“Kaz has to be. He hates losing,” Nina suggested.

“So does Jesper,” added Wylan.

The horses grew closer, and the four stepped back to give them enough room to pass. Inej was crouched by the finish line, ready to take note of who passed first. It’s not too long before they both cross the finish line.

“I knew I would win!” Jesper proclaimed loudly, pointing over towards Kaz. “How does it feel to lose, huh?”

“Ask yourself that, I clearly crossed first,” Kaz replied, confident that he was the real winner. He didn't need to exclaim it like Jesper was.

“No way, I won.”

“I planned to be a head in front of you. I won.”

They both turned to Inej.

“You crossed at the exact same time.” How they managed to do that, she had no idea. Jesper began exclaiming how unfair that was, and how he was demanding a rematch. There was no way they crossed together like that!

“The horses are tired, Jesper,” Kaz said as he dismounted, Jesper following shortly after. “And I refuse to ride anyone else’s horse.”

With a sigh, Jesper gave Kaz a defeated look, knowing there was no way they were going to settle this without a rematch. “Call it a draw?”

Kaz waited a moment, just to make Jesper worry he was going to say no. “Draw.”

With them both accepting the title of winner (and loser, but neither of them said much about that part), they joined the rest of the group in drinking tea and eating cake. A good way to lay low from the law.

#gvbb23 #gvbbminibang23 #gvbbmb23 #six of crows #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #inej ghafa #wylan van eck #nina zenik #matthias helvar #six of crows fanfic

20 notes · View notes

aneiria-aesthetics · 2 years

Photo

Kaz x Inej: Cottagecore AU

#kaz x inej #kanej #cottagecore #cottagecore au #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kaz rietveld #the farmhouse in lij #six of crows #shadow and bone #my aesthetic #aesthetic #moodboard #fanart #graphic #soft kanej

78 notes · View notes

aneiria-writes · 2 years

Text

Day 27 prompt: Ringing bells

The bells, loud and ringing and haunting, tore Kaz from his sleep. He was trapped in the in-between, one foot still in a nightmare, as the bells carried on ringing; jarring, discordant.

Inej. He grasped blindly, found Inej’s warm, comforting form next to him. He pushed down the shiver of revulsion from the sudden touch of skin, even when it was his wife’s: no time now, to let his demons win.

Inej was safe.

Kaz’s next thought, blind and blazing and desperate, as his mind scrambled to wake fully, to act: their children.

Mila was five, she would hear the bells, maybe call for her mama in alarm. But Micha… their son wasn’t yet two, he could only toddle on his tiny legs.

Kaz needed to get to them: needed to protect them, not let them fall ill to the plague, unprotected and alone, like Jordie had to Kaz, all those years ago.

Kaz was already partway out of the bed, tangled in the sheets, cursing as his bad leg hit the floor first, when Inej’s arms came out to hold him.

Kaz swore and struggled, the waters threatening to rise, but Inej was strong. She pressed her body firmly against his back, tightened her arms around his torso, placed a kiss on the back of his neck.

‘Kaz, sweetheart,’ she tried to soothe him, ‘you’re safe. We’re all safe.’

He struggled against her again, but weakly, this time. The firmness of her touch pulled him back a little. ‘Inej—’ he gasped, his eyes finally adjusting to the grey light of dawn. ‘The bells…’

She had been there, the second time. When they’d rung the plague bells themselves, back in Ketterdam. She knew the danger they heralded.

‘They aren’t plague bells, Kaz,’ she whispered, as if reading his mind. She gently pulled him back onto the bed, holding him close. ‘It’s just the kerk calling for tax day, remember?’

Kaz’s mind was clearing, with torturous slowness. He blinked several times, taking in his surroundings. They weren’t in the Slat, or the house on Zelverstraat. Instead of the panicked cries of a plague-ridden city outside, there was a lone wood pigeon, cooing bravely against the din of the bells.

‘We’re in Lij,’ Inej said, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. She was still pressed against his back, her body familiar, comforting. ‘We’re in Lij, at the farmhouse, and the children are safe and sleeping in their rooms. The church bells are ringing for tax day. We’re safe. You’re safe, Kaz.’

His panicked mind calmed then, like a squall dropping at sea. He could hear the bells more clearly, the soft bronze tones of them, gentle and rhythmic.

As he relaxed further, and Inej kissed his neck again, his ears picked up another faint sound.

Two of them, actually, he realised.

Micha’s sleepy cry, the soft, sweet precursor to the horrible howls he would build to if he didn’t get fed soon.

Mila’s questionable singing voice, loud and confident and tuneless, as she sang nonsense words happily in pace with the bells.

Kaz let out a shaking, trembling breath, and felt the adrenaline trickle from his body, Inej’s presence and the sounds of their happy, healthy babies grounded him fully.

‘We’re safe,’ Kaz echoed Inej’s words, and he felt her smile into his neck.

‘At least until Mila gets me to join in with her singing and Micha realises how long it’s been since he was last fed,’ Inej joked grimly, pulling gently away from Kaz and already reaching for her robe.

Kaz let her go, a fond smile slowly spreading on his lips, and carefully pushed himself out of bed to help her with the children.

Safe.

It was all Kaz had ever wanted for his family.

94 notes · View notes