⌜ chapter nine ⌟

"Inej?" Arya pokes her head out of the bathroom, but instead of finding who she's looking for, she sees a shirtless Kaz going through his things. He looks over at her as he pulls his black button-up over his shoulders, and she looks away from him. "Sorry."

Kaz smirks when he sees the faint blush in her cheeks; he then starts doing up the buttons. "She isn't here." He tells her before she can close the door. She leaves it open a crack so that she can hear him, but she isn't looking into the main room anymore. "She left with Jesper."

"Left, as in...won't be back anytime soon?" She asks.

"She's keeping him focused so they can get his uniform for the heist. I don't want a repeat of what happened when he was getting the coal."

"Damn it." She sighs.

"Is something wrong?" He asks, and she looks back out to see that he's now in his black button-up and putting on his gloves.

"There's just something that she's been helping me with, but I can do it."

He looks back over toward the bathroom and sees that she's barely visible with her back to the door. "Do you need help?"

"Uh..." She hisses and then a low groan escapes her lips. "If you don't mind." She says, but the door's already opening as he walks into the small bathroom.

"What is it?"

"Um..." Arya sighs as she turns her head to the side, her back still to him. "The woman who shoved me through the rift — she did try to kill me before that. She stabbed me the day before, and left me for dead, but I knew how to treat it. I still have to clean the wound though, and check the stitches. I usually do it every night, and Inej has been helping me, but we didn't do it last night, and now it hurts more."

"I can treat a wound." He tells her. "Where is it?"

"My side... Under my dress."

"I didn't take you for the shy type." He says, and she takes a deep breath as she shakes her head, a small smile on her face as she looks down.

"Neither did I." She chuckles, then she looks over her shoulder and sees a smirk on his face as he looks at the floor. "In case you couldn't tell by Jesper's odd interrogation the other night, no man has ever seen my body."

Kaz looks back up then, his blue eyes meeting her green ones. "I'm only tending to a wound." He says, but he can see that she's still hesitant. "I promise not to make any inappropriate comments like Jesper." He tells her, and she smirks.

"What was that anyway?" The brunette asks as she turns to face him. She holds the top of the dress together to cover her chest, and he moves the left side of her dress so that he can better see the bandages.

"Maybe he's grown to like you."

"I don't think so." She shakes her head as he carefully cuts the bandage that's wrapped around her torso. "Not in the way that I think you're suggesting anyway."

"He called you the most beautiful girl in town and then kissed you."

"He quoted my older brother and then kissed my cheek." She tells him, and he looks up to meet her eyes. It wasn't what he thought he'd seen. "When I was little and my father would...have a particularly bad day, he'd take it out on us. So Damon would walk with me and Stefan out to the apple trees, and he'd climb up into the branches to find the biggest one that he could that hadn't been touched by the birds. He'd hold it out, and bow his head, and say only the finest apple for the most beautiful girl in town." She smiles at the memory. "I didn't get a lot of compliments growing up, and I wasn't a happy child, so Damon always tried to make me smile when he could...

"So, no, I don't think Jesper was flirting with me. He seems like the type who's probably good at that sort of thing, and quoting my brother would be weird." She reasons, and he nods in agreement before returning his attention to her side.

He looks at the slice across her flesh, and she inhales sharply when his gloved hand touches the sensitive skin beside it. "It looks like it was deep." He says, and she nods.

"She went for my stomach, but I moved. She cut through the corset in my dress, and I guess she saw a sufficient enough amount of blood that she thought I'd lose it quickly. But I was able to pull the corset down some, and it slowed the bleeding until I could stitch it up." She tells him, doing her best not to move as he cleans the stitching.

"You did this yourself?" He asks, and she nods.

"Mhm." Arya hums. "I couldn't go to my brothers, and I was too afraid to go to the handmaid that worked for us. She wasn't my handmaid, and I... I have trust issues."

"You? Really?" He looks up at her, and she smiles.

"Was that sarcasm? From Kaz Brekker?" She teases, and he smirks. "I didn't know you were capable."

"I'm impressed." He says, and her eyebrows furrow. "You've been walking around with this since we met, and I didn't even know that you were injured. Even after that fight with Pekka's men."

"Physical pain doesn't bother me much." She tells him as he starts rebandaging the wound. "I've been hurt plenty, I'm used to it by now. Anyway, it doesn't last. And scars fade... Some of them."

"I'm finished." Kaz tells her, and she lets the dress fall closed on its own as she pulls up the sleeve and looks at the circle burned into the inside of her forearm. He sees the scar and then his gloved hand settles under her arm, letting it rest on his palm. "Your father?"

"It was after he sent my mother away." She starts, staring at the scar. "There was snow blanketing the land all around the house, and Stefan and I were restless. We couldn't play outside, so he started a game in the living room. I was hiding, and he started chasing me after he found me, but I was always faster than he was. I made it into the hallway, but my foot caught on the leg of a table, and I fell. A vase came down as well, shattered; there was glass everywhere.

"Our father came from his study; I hadn't even heard him until he was standing over me. He demanded to know what happened, and we got in trouble for running in the house. But I was the one who broke the vase, so... He grabbed my arm and pressed his lit cigar into my skin.

"Damon heard my screams from upstairs, and Stefan was begging him to stop. He kept telling him how sorry we were, that we hadn't meant to break anything or make a mess; he was trying to take the blame because he started the game. But our father never had to look very hard to find a reason to punish me.

"I was in tears, screaming from the pain. And then Damon was there; he shoved our father off of me. He hit him, yelled that we were only children... Our father locked him in his room for a month after that day, we weren't allowed to see him. And our father never stopped reminding me that it was my fault that my big brother was being punished so harshly.

"I haven't cried from the pain of a burn or cut...or a bullet since that day." Arya looks up, finding that Kaz's eyes are already on her face. "I know now that my father's cruelty wasn't my fault, but I believed it for so long. It really wasn't long ago at all that I learned what his cruelty really was. It was his pride, his ego, his anger for his own failures. I realized it after I met my real father, but I know I'll never see him again. And he'll never know that the teenager he saved and gave a second chance at life was his daughter. To him, I'm just a stranger who showed up in need of help...and then disappeared when he needed someone the most." She takes a deep breath as her gaze falls from his, and her watery eyes find the floor under his feet.

"I'll get you home." He promises. "I'll find a way."

"You were right, you know?"

"I usually am." He muses, and she lets out a soft chuckle as she shakes her head. "About what?"

"Hope is dangerous." She says as she looks back at him. "If you let it be your driving force, and then you lose it... But the things that people are capable of when they have nothing left to lose — that's what's the most dangerous."

"You're afraid you'll lose hope?" He asks, and she shakes her head.

"I lost hope a long time ago."

"You'll see your brothers again. I will get you back to them." He tells her. "I promise."

Arya pauses for a moment as she looks up into his bright blue eyes, and then she notices just how close they're standing. "I don't think it was my reaction that Jesper was trying to provoke with those questions." She tells him. "The way that they were worded — it was you he was trying to get a rise out of."

Kaz's eyes close as he turns his head away from her. He lets go of her arm, taking a deep breath as his own returns to his side.

"I know, Kaz." She nods. "I don't know why, but I've seen the way you react whenever someone touches you... I'm sorry for my reaction when you didn't want me so close in that crowd. I hadn't quite put it all together yet, and I was angry... But I understand."

He looks back at her, and she offers him a small smile.

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"Hey, Kaz!" Arya opens the door to their room and looks inside, finding him as he finishes putting on his disguise for his part of the plan today.

The brunette leans against the door as she shuts it behind her, and she rolls her lips over her teeth as she looks at him. He turns to face her a few seconds later, seeing her standing there with her lips pursed as she watches him.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything." She looks down as she bites back a laugh. "You look great." Arya smiles as he walks over to her, and she looks up to meet his gaze.

"I have to look the part for this to work." He says, and she nods.

"Mhm. And you look...great."

"You're very convincing."

"No, I'm kidding. I like it. The hat is...cute." She nods, still trying not to laugh. "It's cute. You look cute."

"I look ridiculous." He says, and she starts laughing as she reaches up to cover her mouth.

"I'm sorry. I just... I like your other hat." Arya says, and she can see the amusement in his eyes as he looks down at her. "It suits you better, is all. All of what you usually wear suits you better."

"Is that a compliment?" He asks, and she smiles before nodding.

"Yeah, it is." Her smile widens. "And now you need to get this part of the plan over with so that you can change. Because you do look ridiculous."

"Was there something you came back up here for?"

"Yeah, uh... Jesper got the carriage. It's ready and waiting outside." She tells him as she stands up straight, and she reaches out to smooth the cloth that's hanging over his shoulder; he can feel a light pressure over his chest where her hand is. "You know, I definitely like the real Kaz better. If you really were this...Ivanovski or whatever... I would have to kick your ass." Her eyes meet his again, and he smirks as he looks down at her.

"We should get outside." He says, and she nods before turning for the door.

"Took you two long enough." Jesper says when he sees Kaz and Arya walking over to the carriage.

"Shut up, Jesper." The brunette says, and he chuckles as he looks at her.

"There's something I need you to do." Kaz says, and she turns back to him.

Jesper, Inej, and Arken watch as he leans down toward her, and Arya turns her head away from him so that he can whisper something in her ear. She smiles as he pulls back, and then Kaz holds up some money. Arya takes the bills from his hand as her eyes meet his again, then she winks at him before turning around and walking away from them.

"Arken?" The brunette calls over her shoulder. "Walk me to the pub, won't you?"