✨ Half my soul ✨ Kaz✖️OC.

Mummified my teenage dreams

Jesper felt like little quakes of anxiety and excitement were vibrating under his skin. First the boat, then all that hiking, and now he was stuck in a cell until the guards came by to make their evening head count. Only his father had understood his restless energy. He cringed at what his father would say if he learned his son had died in a Fjerdan prison. Then again, how would he ever know? That was too depressing to dwell on.

Matthias was sitting silently on the far side of the cell near Kaz. Jesper hadn't been able to miss Kaz's little skirmish with the man. Kaz was usually unshakeable during a job, but now he was on edge, and Jesper didn't know why. The hopeful farmboy who picked the worst possible person to care about. He could have kicked himself. He'd finally seen the infamous Kaz Brekker without a stitch of clothing, and he'd been too worried about ending up on a pike to pay proper attention.

But if Jesper was anxious, Wylan looked as if he might actually throw up. He thought of Aeolian, his best friend, the only one who knew why he had suppressed his Grisha abilities at the first place. The others might or might not have noticed it, but he had, after she woke up from her coma, something had changed. He knew that this was one of the biggest heist of their lives, they all needed to stay focused, but there was something more.

Wylan whispered, his eyes trained on Kaz, who wasn't paying attention to the group. "What good is a lockpick without his picks?"

"Be quite." Jesper scolded him, he didn't have time for Wylan's childish questions. The merchling had never committed a felony before until now, and he had no idea what awaits them.

"And what good are you? A sharpshooter without his guns. You're completely extraneous to this mission." Wylan turned to him.

"I'm already in jail, so don't tempt me to commit homicide." Jesper looked at him irritably.

"You aren't going to kill me, and I'm not going to pretend everything is okay. We're stuck in here." Wylan said. Jesper thought he'd stop talking but Wylan continued. "You act like you were born in the Barrel like Kaz, but you're not even Kerch. You chose this life, too. Like me."

"I choose this life because I love Ketterdam." Jesper muttered, "have you ever even been anywhere but home, and the Barrel?"

Wylan looked away. "Yes. My father used to take me everywhere with him.Until..."

"Until. My father took me everywhere until I contracted terrible seasickness, until I vomited at a royal wedding, until I tried to hump the ambassador's leg." Jesper said.

"The leg was asking for it." Wylan clenched his jaws.

Jesper released a bark of laughter. "Finally, a little spine."

They were interrupted by a guard's voice shouting in Fjerdan just as the Elderclock began to chime six bells. "The piss bucket," the guard demanded.

They all looked at him blankly. There were shrugs and confused glances. The guard's gloomy sulk made it clear he couldn't care less. He shoved a bucket of fresh water into the cell and slammed the bars shut.

Jesper pushed to the front and took a big gulp from the cup tied to its handle. Most of it splashed on his shirt. When he handed the cup to Wylan, he made sure it soaked him as well. Jesper hiked up his pants and felt around the thin skin over his ankle. He felt along the thin stitches, he really didn't want the pellet buried beneath his skin to open up while it was still inside him.