Work Text:
“No, you have to- it’s just-”
“Be quiet,” Inej gritted out, frustration written plain across her face. “Let me do this.”
“You just need to-”
“Hush your mouth, Kaz Brekker, before I hush it for you,” Inej snapped, dropping one of the lock picks as she whipped her head around. Her braid nearly slapped Kaz across the face.
They looked at each other, Inej’s eyes hard and her fists tight. Kaz stared at her, his eyes dropping to her mouth for just a split second before flicking back up to her eyes.
“I’m trying to help,” he said after a tense beat.
“I know,” Inej said, consciously relaxing her shoulders, her arms, her fingers. “But I am trying my best, and you micromanaging me does not help.” She leaned to scoop up the dropped pick.
“You just need to have a softer touch with the second-”
“I just,” she said in a dangerous tone, “need to keep working at this. You cannot manipulate me into a new skill, Kaz.”
“That’s not-!”
“It is, and I don’t appreciate it.” Inej didn’t bother to look at him, instead lifting the lock she was supposed to be picking to peer at it from other angles. “Let me work in silence, or get out.”
“This is my office!”
“Then I’ll take the locks and work on the roof. Let me work in peace, Brekker.”
Their eyes met and held for one moment, two. Kaz imagined how glorious she would be when she mastered this skill as well as she had her knives, how unstoppable, how beautiful- beautifully profitable.
“I just-”
“Kaz-”
“I want you to be successful, Inej,” he said softly, looking away. “I want to make this easier for you.”
Inej softened, just a touch. “I know, Kaz. But my muscles must learn this. And I want to be able to do this, even more than you want me to be able to do this. So let me learn.”
“Alright,” he said grudgingly. “I’ll try to be quiet.”
Inej gave him a raised-eyebrow look but conceded with a nod.
“I can’t promise total silence, though, and- you’re going to want to start with a different- I’ll shut up now,” he said to the knife Inej had produced.
“Thank you,” she said, sheathing the blade. “Which pick would you recommend, then?”
And so the afternoon passed.