glow of the mark (six of crows soulmate au)

chapter two (nina)

Nina was normally not one to question Kaz, but this whole operation seemed quite questionable.

Leaving someone in the Arctic? What'll it be next, leaving someone in an active volcano? Actually, Nina wouldn't be quite surprised by that.

When Kaz had left, everyone started talking once again.

Nina glanced down at her arm, Witch. She had only one guess as to who this was, but that was not important at the moment.

Earlier that day, Nina had been distracting men at The Crow Club— the club ran by Kaz— as Jesper and Kaz would pickpocket them. One of the men, in particular, tried to get more than just flirty talk with her, and the night ended with Nina in an alleyway, the man passed out on the ground with a black eye.

Of course, he had fought back, and Nina was already tired, this just had added to her level of exhaustion. She'd been feeling under the weather for a few days but was trying her best to ignore it. As the days went on, she started feeling worse and worse.

"Nina, you okay?" Inej asked from the other side of the room, where she was boiling tea.

"I'm fine, the cold weather is just getting to me." Nina lied.

Inej raised an eyebrow, "You're kinda pale, are you sure?"

"Yeah." Nina nodded, but it was not convincing at all.

Inej began filling a glass with water, "Nina, can you stand up?"

"Uh, yeah, sure?" Nina said, getting up from her seat.

She didn't really know what had happened, but the next thing she knew, she was on the ground, everyone surrounding her.

"You passed out, drink this." Inej handed her the glass of water as Nina sat up, leaning against the couch.

"I'm guessing you haven't had much water over the past few days?" Matthias said.

"Not much at all." She confirmed.

Wylan checked the clock that was hanging in the living room, "It's getting late, you're probably tired as well."

"Yeah, I'm gonna head to bed after I finish this," Nina said, drinking more of the water.

When she had finished, she stood up slowly, before bidding goodnight to everyone and walking off to her room.

She was lying awake in her bed, the room pitch black, when she heard a knock at her door.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed, walking towards the door. She opened it and was greeted by Matthias.

"Did I wake you up? I'm sorry, I just wanted to check on you, are you okay? How are you feeling? Do you need any-"

"Matthias, I'm okay. I don't need anything. And no, you did not wake me up. Thank you for caring."

Matthias' cheeks went pink, "Of course."

Nina took a ring off of her finger, grabbing Matthias' hand and placing the ring in his grasp, "Keep it, so that I'm always with you. Maybe it'll help you to stop worrying about me so much."

Matthias went even redder, nodding. "Goodnight, Nina, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight, Matthias."

-𓄿-

The following morning, Kaz was found sitting at the table, having nothing for breakfast but a cup of coffee— black coffee.

Nina grabbed a pastry out of the box that was on the kitchen island, pouring herself a cup of coffee as well.

She noticed Matthias sitting at the table, talking with Kaz. Matthias was wearing the ring she'd given him on a thin piece of black rope around his neck.

"Morning, Nina. How are you feeling?" She heard Inej's voice behind her, causing her to jump.

"God, Inej! You always do that." Nina laughed, "I'm good, I slept like a log."

"That's good, I see Kaz got back. His hat is gone." Inej observed, grabbing her cup of coffee and plate that had a pastry on it.

"Odd, he wears that thing all the time," Nina mentioned.

"Yeah, well, I'm going to go sit at the table, are you just gonna stay here or come join us?"

"I'll come with you."

Nina sat beside Matthias, and Inej sat next to Kaz— as always.

Kaz acknowledged both of them with a nod and a "Morning."

The room was oddly quiet... until Jesper and Wylan entered, talking about bombs.

"While you're out today, get me a new hat." Kaz took a sip of his coffee.

"Please." Inej raised an eyebrow.

"Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won't you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat?"

"Since you asked so nicely," Inej replied.

"Matthias, what's on your necklace?" Jesper grinned.

"Nothing." Matthias scowled in response.

"Alright..." Jesper said in a sing-song tone.

Matthias rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of the donut that was on his plate.