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Kaz was sat at his makeshift desk, thoughts straying from place to place. Deck of cards in hand, he couldn’t help the way he imagined and reimagined that Saints forsaken dream. The red of his cards was nothing compared to the red she wore, swishing around her long, strong legs.
A knock at the door sounded and he nearly jumped out of his skin.
Speak of the devil. Inej stood at his door frame, walking in. She sat opposite him, pulling up a chair.
He raised an eyebrow. She smiled a little. “Let’s play,” she said, voice clear but soft. She gestured to his cards.
His other eyebrow joined the first.
“And why ever would we do that?” he tried, swallowing thickly, trying to ignore the feeling in his heart.
“Why ever not, Brekker? Deal me in,” she teased. Kaz supposed her being around Nina had taught her some dangerous confidence around men.
Kaz just sighed, “What are we playing?”
“Go Fish,” Inej said, voice seemingly to waver with a badly suppressed laugh. Kaz rolled his eyes, and evened out his face. He would not give himself away by smiling.
He dealt her seven cards, and when she didn’t take them, he looked up, to her eyes. They flitted from his own eyes, down to his gloved hands, then back up. A silent question.
He got up, shut the door, locked it, and sat again. Without breaking eye contact from her, he slipped the leather from his hands, picking up his cards. He gave a tiny, shaky little sigh that anyone but Inej would have missed.
“Start, then,” he said, tone casual.
Inej’s lips quirked up into a smile. She eyed her cards, wiggling her eyebrows back up at Kaz. He gave an exasperated huff, but he knew something in his face had softened. Not nearly a smile, just… soft. Not as icy as usual.
“Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrel, do you have a….” she hesitated. “A nine?” she asked, looking him dead in the eyes, her own alight with joy.
He handed over the card, rolling his eyes.
They played like this for a while, wiggling eyebrows and rolling eyes respectively.
Though, somewhere in between the cards being passed and taken from the pile, Inej’s laughs and wails when Kaz took her whole hand of cards, and Kaz’s eye rolls and short huffs of exasperated huffs of breath had died out in favour of them just staring at each other, the game an excuse to be together. And they could both tell that that was what it was; both of them smart enough to not lie to themselves.
It was like kissing her without touching her or showing intent, Kaz thought, as his eyes flitted unsubtly to her lips. She gave a huff of laughter. Kaz almost blushed at being caught.
They weren’t conventional, not nearly, but maybe he’d tolerate her appearing at his doorframe to play more childish card games every once in a while.