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The secret warehouse Dregs owned a few streets from the Slat was well hidden, and today you’d get to visit there with Kaz for the first time. You tagged along purely because you were bored, Kaz just needed some documents and blueprints from heists that had been done years ago for reference - apparently one of the old heist places was under consideration again and to save time, they’d check the old blueprints and add the extra guards and towers there. Inej had been scouting the area for a few days and knew a lot about the new guard arrangements.
Your eyes wandered around Kaz’s section of the warehouse which was half-full with completely random stuff from past heists. Kaz went straight to a large chest at the other side of the room, put his cane to rest against the wall and started digging through the chest. You watched him for a while, but then continued letting your eyes wander around the room. And eventually, your gaze landed on a small, rolled up parchment and you opened it. It revealed a painting of a small boy at a porch of a farmhouse. You frowned, it didn’t look like like something Kaz would snatch on a heist, you didn’t recognize the art style and it was really small. And if it was worth something, it would already been sold and not lying around in Kaz’s warehouse. But when you looked at the boy’s features, you connected the dots.
“Aww, is this you?” you cooed and turned the painting for Kaz to see. He glanced at you, then at the painting and his face seemed to lose even more color.
“Give me that!” he exclaimed, trying to snatch the painting from you but you yanked it back, turning around to inspect it further.
“No!” you giggled. “You’re so cute, look at those pants!”
Kaz took in a deep sigh and clenched his jaw. “Put it away. Now.”
You frowned, looking up. “Why? This is really good, I just didn’t know you have been painted once. Who was the painter?”
Kaz didn’t answer, so you searched for the signature yourself. After a moment, you found it - folded behind the corner. “Jordie… uh, Rietveld? Huh. Never heard of them. Strange, I would think that with these skills, they’d be much more known.”
Kaz’s breath hitched for a moment and you looked up to him in concern. He took that as an opportunity and snatched the painting from you, rolling it closed again without even looking at it and putting it to one of the drawers of a large bureau at the corner of the room before returning to the large chest and started going through old documents and blueprints without another word or even a glance at you. Not even a glare. You knew Kaz well enough to know that he was acting like that because you jabbed something painful and now you felt horrible.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snooped like that,” you muttered and Kaz paused for a few seconds.
“No,” he then grumbled. “You shouldn’t have.”
You opened your mouth, but closed it immediately, figuring that Kaz would tell you when he would be ready - if he would ever be ready.
And Kaz wanted to tell you. But he couldn’t speak Jordie’s name without getting all those memories, all those flashbacks to that night. But still, he had always known it. Eventually, you’d be the first to hear about Jordie and who he was before he became Kaz Brekker. How Kaz Rietveld died.
Eventually. He knew you would be the one to lead him through his traumas and fear of touch. He had grown to care about you more than he thought he’d be able to care ever again, even when he didn’t exactly say it. Your friendship was peculiar, and to Kaz it was so much more than just friendship. As it was that for you too, but neither of you said it aloud.
You were his guiding light in that stormy sea he was thrown into time and time again. His anchor who pulled him back to the shore. He treasured you so much, and one day, he’d say it to you. He’d let you know how much you meant for him.
But that day wasn’t yet. Maybe it would take even years from now. But you’d get there together.