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“He’s getting better,” Inej smiled, watching as the little Suli-Shu boy twirled a knife in his hands. He lined up his shot and threw, and the blade hit the wall and bounced back. His face fell when the knife didn’t stick, glancing back at her with a worried look.
“Do it again,” Kaz muttered. “Until you can get it right,”
“Yes, Kaz,” Kruge Brekker whispered. “Sorry Inej,”
“It’s okay little one,” Inej interrupted. “Adjust your grip like that, then throw,”
Kru nodded and ran to pick up his knife, then spun it around his fingers as he walked back to his spot. Inej gave him a smile, and the little boy returned it widely. At his desk, Kaz grumbled and scratched something out, ruffling his hair with his hand absentmindedly as he worked out a new plan.
Inej smiled from her perch in the window. It was when Kaz got into this mood and forgot he was supposed to be a hard and fast gang leader, when she got to teach her adopted son her skills, and when it was just the three of them together - that was one of her favorite times.
It almost felt like they were a real family during these times.
“Alright, try it now,” She encouraged Kru, who lined up his shot again and threw.
The knife sunk an inch deep into the wood, but the sound wasn’t the dull thunk of wood.
It was the crack of the doors downstairs, followed by gunshots and the surprised screams of the patrons in the Crow Club. The noise roared, followed by more shots and the laughter of more attackers.
“It’s a raid,” Inej jumped, leaping quietly to the ground and hands going for her knives.
“Razorgulls.” Kaz added, everyone hearing their call sign from below. “They’ve gotten inside,”
“And they’re armed,”
“‘nej?” Kru whispered. His accent got thicker when he got nervous, and Inej almost didn’t recognize her name.
“Come little one,” She said quickly. “Lets hide,”
The Wraith moved a painting on the wall, revealing an alcove cut out of the boards that led to the rafters over the club. She helped the baby spider up and into the cutout, then picked the painting up again.
“Stay here and be safe, alright?” She said, and Kru nodded, eyes wide in terror. Inej felt a tug at her heart - it was the first raid he was experiencing. She put the painting back to cover the hole and took off after Kaz as they entered the main part of the fight.
The Razorgulls had picked their timing well.
Of the main Dregs, only Kaz and Inej were actually in Ketterdam. Wylan and Jesper were out of town with their children, while the Helvers were in Ravka on a mercy mission. Having Nina would have meant certain death for the attackers, but the Wraith and Dirtyhands still weren’t people to mess with.
Between the two of them and the rest of the fighting Dregs who hadn’t been injured, they beat the Razorgulls back.
Kaz took the stairs, defending his office with precise strikes from his cane. Inej jumped over the railing, moving fast on the main floor. She spun her knives quickly, a new one replacing each that landed in a rival gang member's chest or leg.
The entire time, Kru watched from his spot in the rafters. The lights were strung up under the beams, leaving him in shadow and perfect safety the whole time. He held tight to the wood, watching Kaz on the stairs and focusing on Inej’s elegant fighting style.
Then he saw it.
A Razorgull in a dark corner, out of both his parent line of sight was aiming a pistol - at Inej’s back.
If he yelled, there was no chance she would hear and realize, and if he didn’t his mother was going to get shot and die and Kru didn’t know what to do, but he had a knife in his hand and suddenly he had Inej’s words in his head telling him how to aim it.
Kru hurled the knife - and it hit the man in the chest, knocking him back as he fell over a table. Inej’s head darted up, tracking the line from her would-be murderer to the little boy in the rafters, and her mouth dropped open.
The fight ended quickly after that.
Kruge shoved the painting aside (ignoring the orders that someone would fetch him) and ran down the stairs, jumping over the dead and injured bodies and shoving himself past Kaz as he hurled himself into Inej’s arms.
Tears started to stream down his face, and Kru hiccuped a little as Inej dropped her knives and did her best to calm him down.
“I-I d-do not know!” He wailed. “I d-don’t know it!”
Inej looked up at Kaz, who gave her a wide eyed shrug.
“I don’t know the word for mother in Suli!” Kru sobbed, holding Inej tighter. “A-and I can’t learn it if you die M-m-!”
Inej sank to her knees and pulled the little boy back, brushing some of his tears away.
“I always called my mother Mamma,” She smiled softly. “You can call me that?”
“I don’t want you to die Mamma!” Kru cried, then threw himself back into a hug. Inej hugged him back, and Kaz watched from afar, but slightly closer than he had been before. He still had to manage the Dregs after all, so Inej cut him some slack.
It was only later that night when she realized it was the first time Kru had called her Mom. Of course she acted as his mother when she was in Ketterdam, but it was a completely different thing for him to actually call her that.
She slipped out of bed and checked on Kru again, finding him asleep under his window, curled up in a ball and looking no different than he had before. She left his room, turning around to see akz asleep on his desk - a habit he’d been increasingly practicing.
Kaz was still Kaz, but they could work on Da later.