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Inej and Nina glared at each other. The tension in the room was crackling, something dangerous in the air. Matthias shifted subtly beside Nina, almost as if he was afraid of what would happen if he drew too much attention to himself. Jesper and Wylan’s eyes darted from each other to the pair in front of them. Kaz watched with a smirk.
“Don’t. You. Dare.” Nina gritted out. Inej scoffed.
“What’re you gonna do about it?”
“I will suffocate you in your sleep. I know where you live.”
“I should hope so, we live together. Draw four, Nina.”
Jesper and Wylan cackled at the disgusted look on Nina’s face as she picked up the cards and sighed, dropping her forehead onto Matthias’ shoulder, who used his other hand to pat her reassuringly.
“Don’t think I didn’t see that nod at Inej, Brekker.”
“I don’t doubt you for a second, Zenik.”
It was the middle of December, and their Christmas was already under full swing, even if some people (Kaz Brekker) would complain that it’s too early to be spending the whole day drinking hot chocolate under the lights and curled up next to the fireplace, but what did they know?
Right now, they were all playing Uno, which is normally banned from their game nights because of the incident last time they played that may have involved glitter bombs. Nina considered technicalities to be unimportant in the face of Christmas spirit, which Matthias had disagreed with and yet here they were, playing. Kaz had already won three games, and when Wylan accused him of cheating, he had only shrugged and told them all to get better at the game, which was obviously a challenge they were happy to rise to.
And Nina had been so close to winning! Only if Inej hadn’t betrayed her. Now she had to get rid of her five cards.
“I’ll remember this, Ghafa.” Nina said, her eyes narrowed. Inej just smiled and squeezed her hand, which Nina definitely did not squeeze back, because she was still very mad. Obviously.
“Yes, yes, dear, get revenge on your own time. It’s my turn now.” Jesper placed down his card very dramatically and got up, declaring that he needed more cookies. Wylan immediately followed him despite it being his turn, ignoring Matthias and Inej’s calls for him to come back and play the dam game, Wylan Hendricks.
“I’ll bet you five dollars they take 25 minutes minimum to come back.” Nina said to Matthias. He shook his head solemnly.
“No bet. It’ll either because they’re making out or they somehow destroyed our kitchen and are trying to best figure out how to fix it.”
Inej and Kaz nodded, so ultimately they decided to just play a game of BS while they waited. Matthias was in the middle of picking up the deck of cards after being called out by Kaz again-- Nina had half a mind to ban him from the game-- when the boys finally came back in, angelic smiles on their faces and the cookie tray sliding hazardously from Jesper’s hand.
“Bet you ten dollars it was the second option.” Nina muttered to Inej. Wylan must’ve heard them, because his face flushed almost as red as his curls as he attempted to remain nonchalant, rolling his eyes. Nina shook her head at him.
“No bet,” Inej whispered back. “I can’t wait to hear how they spin this.”
“So, we may or may not have dropped all of Nina’s cookies--” Jesper began. They all shared a smug look. “But, we managed to put them back together using the leftover frosting, so good as new!”
“Do I trust this?” Kaz asked, slowly picking up the destroyed cookie. A part of it instantly broke off, frosting getting all over his glove.
“You shouldn’t,” Wylan said, popping one into his mouth anyways. “They’re good, though.”
“Good?” Jesper gasped mock-offended, and they all braced themselves. “Good? We spent twenty painstaking moments piecing together these cookies, Wy. Good does not begin to cover the amount of thought and love that went into this masterpiece. No, one could only describe it as sensational, astonishing, momentous.”
Wylan, Nina, and Inej clapped as Jesper took a bow, nearly dropping the cookies in the process.
“Charades?” Wylan suggested. Nina didn’t even bother reminding them of their forgotten Uno game or the game that was sitting right in front of them. They would get to them eventually. They had all the time in the world.