RAYA ▸ SHADOW AND BONE

20 | no mourners, no funerals

"Sit still or I'll mess it up," Raya scolded Kaz, who was fidgeting in his seat.

It was the early hours of the morning of their heist and neither Raya nor Kaz could sleep. She currently had him sat down in a wooden chair in the middle of the room, happy he had asked her to cut his hair. She figured he must've been cutting it himself all this time, resulting in a bad haircut seeing as he wouldn't let anyone near him.

But, now, here she was. She held a pair of scissors in one hand and a comb in the other, eyes glued to Kaz's uneven hair. She ran her fingers through it, lining each section up and easily cutting evenly across his head.

"Kaz," she snapped once more, seeing his leg twitch with impatience.

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized.

Still, she took matters into her own hands and straddled Kaz's right leg, successfully stopping it from bouncing anxiously. She sat on his leg then, softly humming along to a song she'd made up while she cut the front of his hair.

"What?" She asked when she felt him staring at her. "Never had such an attractive hair dresser before?"

"Definitely not," Kaz breathed out, making her smile.

She winked his way, happy to hear his comment. "You're cute, Brekker."

He blushed at that, smiling softly to himself before changing the subject. "So, what are you going to do with your share?"

Raya shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe buy Callus some new toys?"

"You're getting a quarter of a million kruge and all you want is to get Callus new toys?"

"What? You got a better answer for what you'll spend your money on?"

Kaz nodded. "I'm going to buy us a house." Raya's brows rose at that and she quickly finished cutting Kaz's hair so she could hear the rest of his answer. "Still in Ketterdam but maybe on the outskirts, far from the Barrel."

Raya's heart couldn't have melted more if she tried. "You wanna get a house for us?"

"And Callus," Kaz added.

Okay, now her heart couldn't have melted more. She had truly never felt so loved in her life, never felt so much adoration and affection for another person... not even the General.

"Kaz Brekker," she breathed out, cupping his cheek in her hand as their noses brushed. Her eyes met his blue orbs as she whispered, "I think I'm in love with you."

Kaz's lips parted to reply to her but before he could get a word out, Jesper was once again barging through the front door of the room and interrupting their moment.

Upon seeing their compromising position and proximity, he smirked. "You guys know there are locks on these doors, right?"

Raya groaned lightheartedly, tilting her head back.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Jesper mumbled. "I brought food."

Now, that piqued Raya's interest. "What kind of food?" she asked, instantly abandoning her seat on Kaz's lap and moving over to the desk by the window, upon which Jesper had placed a large bag. She searched in it, happy to find two bowls of pomdrakon inside. As she greedily opened one bowl up and began to eat from it, she turned back to Jesper, who held a foreign dignitary uniform in his free hand. "Jes, don't lie... is there a Zemeni guard somewhere in the streets of Kribirsk just missing his clothes?"