#lawd Jesper has them for days help

[simplydifficultme]

I hear a lot of talk about "Just girls?", but can we have a second to give it up for: "The leg was asking for it." ???!!!!!

Wylan van Eck is unironically and canonically, unhinged and actually horny on main, which makes his being embarrassed at Jesper flirting even more adorable ??!!!?!

[sophierequests]

Can you write a Kaz Brekker x m!reader (or female, whichever you prefer that's easier to write haha) where the reader and Kaz are stuck together in a room until the rest of the crows free them? They confess to each other that they're into each other but it isn't until the end that the reader realizes that they could've escaped a long time ago because Kaz could've just broken the locks.

the secrets that you keep

Navigation┃Main Masterlist┃Requests

Pairing: Kaz Brekker x gn!Reader

A/N: Omg, I loved writing this request so much. It was so fun to write. I (hopefully) didn't use any gendered pronouns for the reader, so that we all can enjoy it. If I dropped a she or a he for the reader, please let me know in the comments, and I'll fix it! I hope you like this, and thank you so much for requesting this. <3

Summary: Kaz and the reader are acting as a pretend couple to get into a vault at a party. After getting locked in said vault, things get awkward and confessions ensue.

Genre: Angst, Comfort, Fluff (as far as it's possible with Kaz)

Word Count: 2.7K (I had so many ideas to fit in, lawd have merthy)

Warnings: Slight description of claustrophobia, but nothing too intense

"Ugh, I can’t believe this man is being serious!” you complained, as you threw yourself on the leather sofa in defeat.

Jesper and Inej settled down in the space beside you, looking at you with a playful pity in their eyes.

“He can’t be serious. At this point, he’s doing it on purpose.” you groaned, running a hand through your hair.

The three of you just got out of a group meeting with Kaz about the upcoming heist tomorrow, and you were not having it. It was supposed to be a quite easy mission. There was a banquet at one of the mansions in the financial district. A mansion owned by one of Pekka’s most trusted business partners. Through a trusted source, Kaz got information about the collection of blueprints hidden in a vault located in the basement of the mansion. So, of course, he concocted a plan to get to them.

And that plan was going to be the death of you.

Inej and Jesper went in first, dressed up as guards, to check out the property without riling up any suspicion. Meanwhile, you and Kaz were supposed to be a pretend couple, blending in with the wealthy merchants, successively making your way to the vault and securing the blueprints.

This shouldn’t have been as big of a problem as it currently was. You were friends and colleagues, so an utterly normal spy mission was not supposed to be a bid deal. The fact that you had been crushing on Kaz since the day you met made things a bit more complicated.

“I think you’d make a great couple.” Jesper commented with a wink, earning a death stare from you.

“This has to be on purpose. Does he know about my crush on him? Oh, Saints, that would be so embarrassing.” you spiralled, “Do you think he would notice if I’d just disappear overnight? I don’t want to do this.”

“If you keep on talking that loudly, he’ll definitely know.” Inej laughed, twirling one of her daggers around in her hand.

“Not helpful.” you retorted.

“Why don’t you just tell him about it? It’s not going to get any better, the longer you try to hide it from him.” Jesper suggested.

“Have you lost your mind, Jes?” you blurted out, sitting up straight, in shock by this piece of advice, “What am I supposed to say? Hey Kaz, I’ve had a crush on you for years now and after every tiniest bit of attention you give me, I feel like exploding?”

The sharpshooter let out a snort, shaking his head incredulously.

“What do you have to lose?” he chuckled.

“My dignity, self-worth, will to live and, worst of all, my job maybe?”

“Y/N, it will be okay. Kaz knows what he’s doing. You won’t embarrass yourself.” Inej tried to reassure you, only mildly succeeding.

“And if you do, we’re there too. And I promise you that we’ll remind you of this day until you drop dead.” Jesper added. Definitely less supportingly.

The entirety of the next morning and noon was spent planning the rest of the heist together, going over details, smoothing out the barely existing plot holes.

Kaz took his role as a wealthy merchant pretty seriously. He wore a tailored elegant suit, completely in black of course. His hair was slicked back neatly, making him look way older than he actually was. After a closer look at him, you noticed that his cane was slightly altered, the crow’s head hidden from view in order to not draw too much attention to him.

You were dressed to match him, completely in black, wearing the finest looking clothes you owned.

“Alright. Does everybody know what they are supposed to do?” he asked sternly before the four of you reached the mansion.

Jesper and Inej nodded firmly, clutching the bags with their disguises still inside.

“If we should not be at the meeting point after the set time, you come and look for us. We might be in trouble.”

They nodded again, Kaz now focusing on you.

“Everything clear, Y/N?” he asked lowly, goosebumps crawling over your arms.

After giving him a brief nod, he closed his eyes in an attempt to prepare himself for the following hours.

“Alright then. No mourners.” he began.

“No funerals.” the three of you concluded.

With that, you split up, Kaz and you entering the estate carefully. The main hall was filled with massive groups of rich-looking people, dressed up in velvet suits and tight dresses.

Mentally, you went over your alibi again. Your name was Y/N Rietveld, the spouse of Kaz Rietveld, a rather unknown merchant with connections to the Ravkan court. You’ve been married for three years and met through your uncle, who owned one of the clubs in Ketterdam.

“Don’t overthink it. You’ll only sabotage yourself.” Kaz whispered when he noticed your cloudy expression.

“Okay.” was the only thing you could croak out, your anxiety settling slightly, knowing that Kaz was aware of it.

You hated to admit it, but you did enjoy the festivities. He had chatted up a few of the other guests, talking about the market, sea travel and other important-sounding topics, while you just smiled and nodded, occasionally being asked about your relationship with Kaz.

After almost an hour of conversation, he had decided that it was time to slip away from the crowd and finally go down to the basement.

Even with a bad leg, he was moving way quicker - and swifter - through the dark corridors, than you could imagine. You almost had to break out into a jog at certain times to keep up with him.

“Kaz, slow down, there’s nobody down here, and we’re not in a rush.” you hissed, getting more and more frustrated by his hasty manner.

“Not yet at least. I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible.” he muttered.

“Am I such bad company?” you asked playfully, a futile attempt to lighten his sudden sour mood.

Instead of a witty comeback, he just turned to look at you in confusion, contemplating what he had said previously.

“No, I-” he started, an almost unnoticeable blush flushing his cheeks, “That’s not what I meant. But it shouldn’t matter anyway.”

When you finally reached the heavy vault door, Kaz pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from his breast pocket. With a few swift hand movements, he typed in the correct code, opening the sturdy door successfully. You had no idea where he had got the paper from, but you weren’t going to question it.

You stepped in after him, taking in the cramped room. It looked more like a storage unit than one of the high-security vaults of a manor. Shelves, clutter and boxes were sprawled around the entire room.

Kaz sighed. He had obviously not thought about this being an issue.

“Let’s get to work then.” he huffed, strategically scanning the possible whereabouts, with you following him like a lost puppy.

Surprisingly, you were faster than you thought. Or maybe the extreme stress of being alone in a room with Kaz Brekker just made you think harder. You found the six original blueprints in not even fifteen minutes, triumphantly presenting Kaz the last one.

Before he could give you any further instructions, a loud thud was heard and the dim overhead lightbulbs turned on.

“Shit.” you cursed, now getting slightly panicked, after seeing that you had been locked in the vault, with no possible way out in sight, “Shit, shit, shit! This can’t be happening.”

His expression did not help ease your stress. His brows were furrowed, and his eyes constantly flew from the now-closed door to your panic-stricken face.

“Y/N, calm down. We’re not in danger.” he tried to assure you, causing you to only stress more, sitting down against the cold steel of the door.

Much to your surprise, he also lowered himself down to sit on the floor opposite you, leaning against a wooden box. Even though he never really showed any sort of discomfort, or weakness as he called it, you could see that his bad leg was giving him trouble. A slight hint of pain in his expression as he massaged it.

You felt like sobbing, your whole body tensing, as the anxiety of being locked in a rather small space came buzzing through your head. Everything around you felt like it was closing in on you, the pressing silence not helping the nausea building up in your throat.

In comparison to you, Kaz only let out a stifled breath, scanning your features intently.

“Do you remember that one time, when we broke into Van Eck’s mansion?” he broke the silence, his voice calm and collected.

Seemingly, he found a certain humour in this situation, which you could not reciprocate.

“You need to be a bit more specific than that. We didn’t only break in once.” you answered, the conversation calming your heartbeat scarcely.

“The one last year. Where we tried to steal back Wylan’s book collection?” he offered the added information.

Realization set in and you remembered the mission clearly. Almost everything went surprisingly wrong, reminding you of your current debacle.

“The one where you were gone for over two hours because you got caught by guards? That was seriously scary, Kaz.” you began, reliving the fear you felt after Kaz didn’t show up at the meetup spot, “I was really worried about you not being there on time.”

You felt a sudden pang of embarrassment, the last sentence was true, but Kaz was not supposed to know that. He never openly showed any sort of concern or affection for anyone, and he didn’t really do well when receiving any himself. As far as you could imagine, he might not even feel any sort of these emotions towards anyone, even though this thought pained you, implying that he’d never be able to return your feelings.

Kaz cocked his head, staring daggers at you. He didn’t seem to feel any uneasiness at your comment.

“There were no guards.” he said, causing you to stare at him.

“I beg your pardon?” you blurted.

“There were no guards. I got locked in that one storage room, where I specifically told you not to go into, because of the faulty door. Turns out Wylan didn’t know this part of the house that well, since he didn’t tell me about the additional bolt preventing unauthorized people to leave. It took me an hour to get out of there.” he recounted calmly, surprisingly vulnerable.

“What?” you exclaimed, not comprehending where he was going with that.

“Are you starting to go deaf?” Kaz asked, sarcasm laced his voice.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” you asked incredulously, feeling like he was playing some weird prank on you.

“What would the team have thought of me, if I couldn’t get out of a simple locked room? After years and years of perfecting my lock picking, it didn’t feel right. It felt humiliating.” he said, venom present in his last sentence.

He wasn’t the kind of person to talk about these things freely, so it caught you off guard. Even though he presented himself as the confident, cold character he made himself out to be, there was a lot more going on inside his mind, which you didn’t have access to.

“Why are you telling me about this?”

“You’re claustrophobic.” he commented, a stern look painted on his face, “I know the start of a panic attack when I see one. Distraction helps.”

You only realized now that your heart had calmed down a great bit. It was as if a heartrender had slowed it down for you. It almost felt like Kaz genuinely cared about your wellbeing, but you didn’t let these thoughts cloud your sanity.

“Why does it matter to you?” you retorted bluntly, a sudden surge of confidence rushing through you.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes with one of his gloved hands.

“I’m not a monster, Y/N, if that is what you think of me. I do care about you. And the Crows.” he added.

“I don’t think you’re a monster. I never did. I just never thought that…”

“That I have feelings other than greed?” he finished.

“No! That’s not what I meant. You just never really seemed to care about these things.”

Kaz closed his eyes, fidgeting with his hands.

“Why did you care?” he asked suddenly, after a few minutes of silence.

“What?” you tried to inquire further, not understanding what he was referring to now.

“Why were you worried that I didn’t show up after the heist.”

“Oh, I uhm, I don’t feel like talking about it.” you stammered.

You knew that if you’d start that conversation now, there would be no turning back.

But seeing his questioning expression made you contemplate that decision.

“You’re my friend, Kaz. I do care about you too. Even though you can be an asshole sometimes.” you explained, as put together as possible.

“Is that all I am to you? A friend?” he shot back, no malice but genuine curiosity in his voice.

“No.” you spoke meekly, not sure how to save this situation anymore.

The following silence was deafening. His eyes never left, making you feel like the hurt prey of a merciless hunter. You hated him for not having any reaction to your implied love confession, and you hated the look of pity his eyes held. A different kind of panic built up in your chest, and you wanted to break the stillness more than ever.

“Listen, Kaz, I’m sorry. That’s why I didn’t feel like talking about it. I’m aware you don’t feel the same way, and I understand that completely. But I don’t want this to change the relationship we had, and I certainly don’t want you looking at me like you are now.” you tried to calm yourself, but Kaz just put up a hand to silence you.

“Don’t speak for me. You do not get to tell me how I’m supposed to feel.” he said, his voice untypically soft.

“What are you implying?”

“What do you think I’m implying?”

You groaned, the previous insecurity replaced by a feeling of frustration over Kaz’s behaviour.

“You’re not just a friend to me, either. That is what I’m implying. You never truly were only that.” he confessed, making your heart drop.

Before any of you could say anything more, you heard a low beeping noise, ending in a swift crack. You felt the door behind you moving open, your body almost falling backwards with it.

Jesper stood in the corridor, holding a bag of Wylan’s mini explosives. He took a moment to take in the scene, obviously amused by the view he had.

“I’d hate to disturb whatever is going on here, but we should really get going, like right now.” he exclaimed, reaching out to help you stand up.

Without any further explanation, the three of you took off running, taking one of the alternative exit routes Kaz had previously planned.

When you finally reached the main gate, Inej was already waiting for you, visibly relieved to see you alive.

“Saints, Kaz, we thought you got caught again. You should be thankful that we heard your voices through the door.” Jesper commented, making you wonder how much he heard of your conversation.

“Why didn’t you just crack the lock?” Inej asked with a puzzled expression, “You even taught me how to crack a vault from the inside, and that one back there really shouldn’t be a hard one. Especially for you.”

Kaz didn’t answer, he just continued on walking, giving her a dismissive hand gesture, speeding up to walk in front of the group.

The realization hit you like a coach. He could’ve opened the door all along, and he didn’t. He didn’t because he saw his chance and took it. Was that part of his plan all along?

You jogged up to him hastily, wanting to be out of earshot to the others.

“You knew how to open the vault all along, didn’t you?” you whispered.

“Yes.”

“Did you mean what you said?”

“Yes.”

“You purposefully didn’t crack open the door, because you wanted to tell me?”

“Don’t test your limits. We both have a few things to talk about, once we’re back at the Slat.” he answered smugly, looking into your eyes deeply.

“I think we do.”