Work Text:
I’ll Answer When You Call
It’s raining.
And Nina ditched her, probably to snuggle up with the burly transfer student she’d been crushing on. They were insufferable, and Inej couldn’t tell if there was some weird flirting going on or active violence. Either way, it left her out in the rain with no ride back to the dorms while Nina snogged the hell out of the boy, or murdered him in some back alley.
Inej wasn’t going to ask.
She had taken shelter under the awning of a sandwich shop, long closed for the night, but between the wind and the run to it, she was drenched. Her teeth chattered together, and her fingers ached with the cold.
Ketterdam’s campus was a mile away, and normally that’s a distance Inej was more than happy to walk. The district wasn’t terrible, crime was relatively low, and there were plenty of streetlights in between here and there. Between those accommodations and the three knives Inej kept on her person, she felt safe enough walking alone at night, even if that night was starting to stretch towards morning.
So she looked at her phone and scrolled through the contacts trying to figure out who she could call and who would actually come.
Jesper was out. At this point, the man was either drunk and in no condition to drive, or fast asleep with no chance of waking up.
She didn’t know Wylan that well- he was a freshman and she only shared one class with him- but she didn’t think he would be up at this point either. She liked him, even had a tenuous trust for him, but that trust did not yet extend to calling him and seeing if he would pick her up.
Her parents are naturally out of the question. They are overseas in Ravka. They would no doubt love to talk to her, and her mother would laugh and her father would tell her to ask for a police officer to escort her back. Neither of those are a real solution though, partially because Inej doesn’t like the idea of an older man with a gun being in control of getting her home safely, and partially because nothing would change the weather.
She sighed, tabbing back through her contacts.
She stopped at one, cursor lingering on the three letters.
Kaz.
She had a feeling he would answer.
He was always up at this hour, either working on a paper- one of his own or one he’s getting paid for- or scheming something behind closed doors. She has no idea where he gets all of his information, even as one of his primary sources. Kaz is a mystery to her in many ways.
But he would answer the phone.
And she trusted him.
She hit dial and pressed her phone to her ear before she could think about the connotations that she trusts Kaz more than law enforcement.
It rang twice, and then a soft beep and the scrap of the receiver against his stubble.
“Inej?” His rock-salt-rasp was soothing to her, and Inej took a step back from the edge of the awning and pressed her back against the closed store windows. “What’s wrong?”
“Nina left me.” She explained.
There was a soft hum on the other end of the line before, “I’ll be there in five. It was the party hosted by Liam Newgrove right?”
She hummed an affirmative.
“Would you like me to stay on the line?” He asked.
The question is not startling because it is polite. It is startling because it is Kaz. Kaz Brekker, the sophomore that somehow had dirt on everyone, from faculty to seniors all the way down to freshman fresh off a plane or a boat from Ravka and if there is one thing that Inej knew about Kaz Brekker it was that he was not polite.
“I’ll be fine.”
His response was a grunt, and then the phone call ended.
Inej waited in the rain, listening to the drum of the rain on the metal awning above her head and the litany of it on the sidewalk around her. It was cathartic, comforting even in the frigid cold that came with autumn succumbing to winter. It made her feel like her Saints were sitting with her, voices a quiet whisper of comfort in the dark.
She heard the low rumble of a car, and looked up to see Kaz’s black SUV pulling around the corner. It was a newer model, but he’d gotten it without any additions or extra features. He never justified it, but she had learned to read certain quirks and aspects.
He didn’t have any attachment to the vehicle, nor nostalgia associated with it. It was bought and purchased for the mere reason that by statistical evaluation Ketterdam vehicle owners owned more SUVs than any other model car, and black more than any other color. As a result, Kaz’s purchase became just another faceless, unidentifiable vehicle on the road.
But she recognized it all the same by the careful acceleration as he pulled away from a stop sign down the street. She wasn’t sure if he knew he did it, but it was smooth, faultlessly smooth and it made her wonder if it was because of his leg. He always seemed more bothered by it when it rained.
The SUV pulled to a halt in front of her, the window cracking just enough that she saw Kaz’s dark eyes illuminated in the amber glow of the SUV lights. There’s the distinct click of the car doors being unlocked, and then the window rolled back up.
Inej rushed to the door, fingers closing firmly around the door handle as she pulled it open and slipped in. She had a moment of hesitation, but the seats were leather and Kaz hadn’t offered protest when she climbed into the passenger seat.
“Thank you.” She huffed.
“It’s no trouble.”
Inej hummed, shifting awkwardly as her clothing clung to her form. Kaz’s eyes don’t drift from the road, but he seemed to notice as he adjusted the heat and shifted a vent towards her.
“There’s a sweater in the back that’s yours.”
Inej frowned. “Why is there a sweater in the back?”
“It’s yours.” He repeated, “I’ve been meaning to return it anyways.”
Inej leaned back in her seat, then considered it. She trusted Kaz. Enough that she never had to worry about him, or even feel the need to have her knives on her when she saw him. There was never an instinct or flinch when he took a step closer to whisper a secret to her, or to mention he needed to see her later to relay a job.
She reached up, flipping the rear view mirror up towards the ceiling before climbing into the back of the SUV. There was indeed one of her sweaters in the backseat, along with a pair of joggers she was sure were Jespers- because she cannot for the life of her imagine Kaz in a pair of dark purple joggers.
The SUV shifted into gear, and Inej moved behind Kaz’s seat. She changed into the joggers, having to cuff them a few times to make sure they were even functional, and then pulled on the sweater.
She crawled back into the passenger seat, leaving her wet clothes in the back.
“Better?”
“Quite.” She checked the mirror, only to find that it had been removed entirely, and dumped in the cupholder. “Thank you.”
“What for?” Kaz cocked an eyebrow.
Plenty of things.
Inej had many things to thank him for. She could thank him for paying attention to her. She could thank him for listening, for digging into Madame Heleen and pulling out all of the dark dirty secrets that sent her crashing to the ground their sophomore year. She could thank Kaz for picking her up. She could thank Kaz even just for answering his phone. She could thank him for the sweater.
“For being in the area.” She said and turned the heat down.
She closed her eyes, leaning back into the seat. The dorms were a five minute drive, if that, but she still tries to relax and soak into the seat.
Kaz’s car smelled just like him. It didn’t matter what time of day she stumbled upon him, he always smelled the same. THere was always the scent of leather, likely because of his gloves, but it extended elsewhere. His apartment had the same smell, mixed with lemon cleaner because he seemed to hate chemical cleaners. His person doesn’t share the lemon scent, but it does have an undercurrent of freshness, or perhaps the rustic clean that makes Inej think of her grandma’s attic.
“It was happenstance I was nearby and available.” Kaz dismissed, a flex of his gloved hands around the steering wheel and a shrug of one shoulder.
“Oh?” Inej smiled. She knew better than to believe that, but perhaps that lie was for the sake of appearances.
Kaz cocked an eyebrow at her as he pulled up to her dorm. “Were you under the impression that I dropped everything to offer a ride to you?”
“It’s a nice thought, but I like to think I know you better than that.”
There’s a flicker of a smirk on Kaz’s lips before he reaches into his coat, producing a sealed envelope. “Job. Drop this off at Professor Zoya’s office, third desk drawer on the left before tomorrow evening. She’ll be out of the office at a staff meeting at 3, and teaches back-to-back classes from 8-11.”
None of that was information that Kaz couldn’t have given her in the morning. Which leaned more towards the fact that Kaz either made himself available for her, or he had another purpose of this arrangement.
“Is there anything else I need to know?” Inej replied, fingers resting on the latch for the door.
“Nothing immediate.” He glances at her, the first full look he’s given her since she got in. His expression is null and flat but she has learned how to read him nevertheless. “Have a good night Inej.” He nodded to her, fingers flexing on the wheel for a half second.
She saw that when he picked locks. It’s when he’d considered something but hadn’t wholeheartedly committed to it, usually when he lost a tumblr and had to reset the rake. It didn’t happen often, but she saw it now. She wondered what he was thinking, what action he had considered and then discarded.
“You too.” She smiled at him.
They were sophomores. They had time to figure things out. Both of them did.
~*~*~*~
“Hey Inej what happened last night?”
Inej frowned at Jesper, readjusting the strap on her back. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged, fingers scratching at the stitching of his jeans pocket. “I dunno. I was over at Kaz’s apartment, and he got a call from you, got up, kicked me out, and just fucking left.”
Inej frowned, considered for a moment, then shrugged. “He had to help me with something.”
Jesper pursed his lips, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Come on ‘Nej. You can tell me. Was there a fight? Did those guys try to…” He trailed off, lower lip suddenly slipping in between his teeth.
“He helped me out last night.” She said, pushing open the door to her philosophy class. “And that’s all you need to know.”