Work Text:
Your quick reflexes had saved your life at more than one occassion before, but this time it was too late, the knife had pierced your stomach before you even registered what had happened. The adrenaline made you act before pain kicked in, making you shoot the bastard right in the head before you collapsed on your knees on the cold ground.
Is this it? You thought as you felt blood pooling under your body. You knew that working as a Crow meant dangerous situations all the time, Ketterdam was merciless for people who lived within her. But somehow you didn’t expect to die like this anyway, with some guy basically teleporting in front of you and stabbing you.
As your consciousness started to fade into darkness, it was like Inej’s Saints heard your silent pleas of being saved. You heard footsteps with an extra click hurrying towards you and you tried to say his name.
“Kaz…”
No sound came out through your bloody lips, and you barely saw how his figure knelt beside you. You blinked, trying to sharpen your vision to look at the man you had unrequitedly loved since you were just a teenager, but could just make up his clothes.
“Stay awake,” you heard him say. “Stay awake. Don’t fall asleep.”
You shook your head, it was so hard to hold onto things anymore. “I’m dying, aren’t I?” It was almost funny. After everything you’d been through, here you were about to give yourself over to death, in a dirty alleyway in the worst district of the city. If you wanted irony then Ketterdam had supplied it without hesitation.
“You aren’t allowed to die.” Kaz said, and you barely distinguished him anymore from all the other blur around you. “Do you hear me?” His voice sounded just a tiny bit different with your name, you thought to hear a sprinkle of panic in there. And that scared you more than anything else did - if Kaz panicked, you knew the situation was bad.
“Please don’t let me die,” you managed to croak out past your bleeding lips. “Not yet. Please.”
You heard Kaz shuffle and he said something, before you faintly heard another pair of footsteps approaching, but before you got to know who was it, you slipped under.
***
Warmth surrounded you as your eyes flickered open into a dim room. The feeling of being alive washed through your limbs and your chest rose and fell again in response. You glanced around carefully, not even sure if your death had been a dream - but then you groaned as you felt a sharp sting on pain on your abdomen and felt bandages against your skin. You let out a whimper because of it, and immediately after that you heard shuffling from the corner of the room, hearing a cane hitting the floor.
“Don’t move.”
A voice cut through the air. You turned towards the sound, seeing Kaz’s silhouette emerging from the shadows.
“Kaz?” you mumbled and soon he was standing by your bed, taking in deep breaths and you heard leather creaking, signaling he squeezed his cane with little more force than necessary. “Are you okay?”
“Your heart stopped at that alleyway and again when we got here, but Nina managed to resurrect you.” He answered with a strained voice and you frowned at his tone. “You’re lucky you survived.”
You thought for a moment, recounting the events that had happened just before you passed out, and frowned at one particular sentence Kaz had said.
“Kaz?” you mumbled and he looked at you with an arched eyebrow. “You… I remember you saying I’m not allowed to die. What did you mean by that?”
Kaz shuffled uncomfortably at that, sighing. “You still work for me and I would have no use for you if you were dead. Our agreement on your job is still on.”
“That’s it?”
He didn’t answer to that and was avoiding your eyes, and from that you knew it had something more than him being afraid of just losing a Crow because of jobs, whether he wanted to say it aloud or not. So you just bit on your lip, feeling like your heart was about to burst. Maybe your unrequited love wouldn’t be so unrequited after all.