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Inej had always been good at keeping close to Kaz. Whether it was in the shadows or fighting by his side, she was his constant. Kaz already decided that their most recent endeavors of closeness were even better than what they had before.
Currently, that woman perched on the arm of his chair, legs curled over his lap. Something that had once felt impossible, now addicting and he couldn’t get enough of her. Kaz had known this was his fate and accepted it gleefully.
Inej crawled through his window to find him working on papers. Fresh off the sea, only for a few days, the pair didn’t have too much time to work with. They were always content to simply exist together, but as the hours went on, he found her hovering closer.
“Do you mind?” She asked, gaze revealing her desires.
Inej had just returned from bathing, hair damp and the lightest scent of fresh soap lingering on her skin, along with an herbal concoction she brought back from Ravka that made her skin tantalizingly soft.
“Of course not, ” He said, maybe too quickly.
Saints, he was going soft, but Kaz hardly could bring himself to care. Especially as Inej pooled in his lap, her smell enveloping him along with the security that she was simply there. With him.
Inej tended to sit on his left, so he started to make sure to switch his pen to his right leaving it conveniently free for her to take. His years of magic tricks and slight of hand allowed him to develop the ability to write with either hand. Sometimes she would lean against his arm, forehead pressed against his neck and braid tumbling down. Kaz liked to play with the ends while he balanced the books.
Tonight, Inej took his free hand into hers. She was terribly distracting, tracing the pads of her fingertips along the lines of his palms.
Kaz lifted their joined hands to his lips, gently pressing her fingertips one by one to kiss them.
“Almost finished,” He muttered, feeling more than hearing the sleepy sigh that escaped her lips.
Despite his best efforts, paperwork took longer than he anticipated. He felt Inej’s body slowly succumb to sleep, breath steady and warm against his neck and heart slowing down. She always had kept a better schedule than him but especially since her life at sea. Even in her sleep, Inej clutched his fingers tightly, refusing to miss out on any time spent close to him.
Maybe he could take the que from Inej and turn in for the night. Kaz smiled to himself, relishing in the ridiculous thought and the softness of the woman in his lap that, even in sleep, could convince him to make the right choice.
Bracing his leg, Kaz slipped his arm under Inej’s legs. Regrettably, he had to let go of her hand. Her eyes fluttered, ticking the sensitive skin, and Inej made a tiny grunt of protest.
“Just a moment, darling.”
With some effort, Kaz stood. Even as they had gotten older, Inej stayed tiny, carrying her had never been hard. He was grateful that their bed only lay a few short strides away.
Instead of putting Inej down, he sat. Keeping her in his arms, Kaz couldn’t seem to let her go. So different from all those years ago where he carried her for the first time, demanding her to stay with him and being unable to express just how much he needed her.
It wasn’t lost on him how much of a statement Inej sleeping in his arms was. She trusted him fully, with everything. Despite shutting her out for years, Inej fought next to him and loved him fiercely and he would never be able to repay her, despite her protests otherwise. Still, Kaz pondered, perhaps she was in need of some new weaponry for her life at sea. It was something, at least.
For now, he simply pressed a kiss to her forehead, relishing in the tangibility of their progress, trusting one another fully without armor.
Maybe tonight, he would even dream.