❤️ 😈

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After Everybody had posted up for the Night she decided to do some rounds around the slat to make sure everything was as it should be. Kaz had given the kids the room right next to his to make sure that he was close in case they needed anything.

Inej knew it was because he saw the resemblance of their situation to his own when he was younger, and he had grown fond of the two small ones. In fact he had spent 30 minutes of his time pacing and wondering aloud whether he should have them sleep in his room.

But Inej, knowing that if they had he wouldn't have slept, talked him out of it. But still Kaz insisted on keeping them close. Inej started from the bottom of the slat walking in a circle around the room, shutting off the lights and making sure the door and windows were locked.

She made her way silently up the stairs and stopped at each floor to make sure that nobody was being loud enough that she could hear them from outside the door. Inej made it to the top floor with only one pit stop where she had to forcefully tell two young recruits to shut up before they woke everyone up.

It seemed they had been loudly arguing about whether The Ice Court was possible to break into before she had stopped them. Maybe someday she would say her piece in that argument but for now she was on a mission.

There were only two rooms on the top floor, one being Kaz's and the other one a spare that the kids were currently occupying. She quietly opened the kid's door and peered in to see the kids fast asleep, cuddled up together on the single bed. Smiling softly, Inej softly shut the door again and made her way to the problem area. In this case it was Kaz's bedroom.

Opening the door she walked in and shut the door behind her with a quiet thud. Kaz was sitting at his desk, reading some paperwork and had only glanced up when she came in.

Seeing her face Kaz sighed loudly and said,"I'm fine; I need to finish this plan so I can lay it out for the group. Some people need to be able to see it before doing it."

She gave him an unimpressed expression and pointed at the bed. "Go to sleep. It's bedtime."

"I don't have a bedtime."

"You do now. The plan can wait until the morning."

"So can sleep!" Kaz protested. Inej blew air out of her nose, and started to pull on Kaz's arm urging him to get up.

He did so begrudgingly and let out a huff when she quickly pushed him down onto the bed. She laughed and fell down beside him, snorting when the springs creaked from their combined weight. Kaz went to get up again only to be met with Inej grabbing the collar of his white button down and pulling him back down.

He looked at her and saw her smiling at him but looking at him with a stubborn gleam in her eye. Kaz sighed and settled down wrapping his arms around Inej and giving her a look.

"Who's going to turn the light off?" Kaz asked her. Inej sat up a little and threw one of the two pillows at the lightswitch. The switch flipped and the lights shut off as she lay back down.

Kaz laughed softly and said,"Now who's going to get the pillow?"

"We only need one. Two pillows are for rich people." Inej grumbled and scooted the pillow over so they each could have half.

Kaz pulled her in a bit tighter to his chest and whispered a quiet "goodnight love."

Inej had buried her head into his neck so he felt her smile into him, and whisper,"Night, Kazzy poo."

Kaz groaned but did not otherwise move, simply letting it go and closing his eyes. Once Inej felt his breathing even out, she tangled her legs with his and kissed his neck. She then snuggled closer and went to sleep.

~Next Morning~

Inej was warm. Unusually warm. She opened her eyes to be met with the view of a wall.

"That's helpful." She muttered.

Feeling a weight on her waist, she looked down to see an arm wrapped tightly around her. Realizing who it was, Inej smiled as she followed the arm and flipped onto her other side where she was facing Kaz.

Seeing that he was still asleep, she smiled even wider and kissed the tip of his nose. Inej leaned up and traced the Pale Lavender circles under his eyes with her fingers.

They were lighter than normal and honestly Inej didn't know whether she had ever seen the circles ever so light. Another full nights' rest and they would be gone, only a memory. When she sat up further though, they appeared to not be the only people in the bed.

Virgil and Damian were curled up on the bottom of the bed, and Virgil even seemed to have a handful of Kaz's pants. Inej cooed softly at the sight and sat up completely.

Carefully grabbing Virgil, she picked him up and scooted over so he could lay between her and Kaz. Scooting over further, she did the same thing with Damian, making sure they were both comfortable before she lay down again.

After about ten minutes of them all cuddling, Kaz made a low groan deep in his throat and sat up. Inej sat up as well to see Kaz looking around while rubbing his eyes.

Once he glanced at her, he shot her a smile. Inej motioned towards the bed between them and Kaz turned his attention to the two kiddos that were still sleeping between them.

"When did they get here?" Kaz whispered to her.

"Sometime during the night, I didn't hear them come in." She whispered back.

Kaz nodded and brushed back the hair that had covered Virgil's face while he was sleeping. Virgil stirred at the motion and blearily blinked up at the ceiling. He slightly sat up and glanced at Kaz and then Inej, mumbling a quiet apology.

"There's no need to apologize. It was just a surprise." Kaz whispered to him and brushed more of Virgil's hair out of his face.

Virgil smiled widely and seemed to push his head into Kaz's hand like a cat. In the time that that exchange occurred Damian had woken up and was now in a sitting position. The four of them made their way down the stairs and Kaz motioned for the kids to go sit at the bar while he got them breakfast.

While Kaz was doing that Inej went behind the bar, and poured them some juice. Apparently Wylan had brought three bottles over to the bar so they didn't have to walk back to the kitchen to get it every time the kids wanted a drink. The only people who were up besides them was the bouncer and a sketchy pool player.

But then again everyone in the barrel was sketchy, so the guy was pretty normal by barrel standards. Since this was the Slat he must be apart of the gang, Inej just couldn't place him, due to how many new recruits there were. Kaz gave the kids their breakfast which consisted of Fruit and some biscuits that Wylan had made the day before.

Kaz then went into his office to finish drawing out the plans. By the time the kids had finished eating Wylan and Jesper had come down and told Inej that they would entertain the kids while she went to go plan with Kaz. She thanked them and headed back towards his office, walking in and shutting the door behind her.

Kaz didn't glance up this time, knowing that only Inej would interrupt him like that while he was in his office.

"The plan is almost done, I'm just trying to nail out some final details. But i'm having trouble with them." Kaz mumbled in her direction. Noticing that his scheming face was on, she gently poked his cheek with her finger.

Thoroughly distracted, Kaz sighed and got up and pulled her in for a hug.

"I love you but you are irritating." Kaz grumbled. Twining her arms around his neck, she laughed and kissed his cheek.

"I know."

Before anything more could be said, a giant Boom sounded through the air. Kaz and Inej instantly were on guard and ran for the office door. When they opened it, they found the front room was in Chaos.

There was screaming, Dust was thickly surrounding everything, and gunshots rang through the air. Then the gunshots suddenly stopped. Kaz and Inej fought through the Dust and started to scope around the room. Wylan was on the ground, holding his arm that was gushing blood.

Kaz leaned down to help when Wylan said,"It's just a graze. I'm fine." Kaz nodded and turned away. At this point the dust had settled and they could see the room clearly. Inej counted heads.

And two were missing.

The sketchy dude playing pool was thankfully gone.

But so was Virgil.

✌🏻

😂