Hey Sunshine

Extra - A Shot from the Prank War

"TY CHE BLYAD!"

Matthias' loud cursing filled the hall and Inej quietly swung straight back inside the vents, quickly crawling back toward the JIN base (made up of Jesper, Inej, and Nina and was more commonly known as Jesper's room). His voice covered up any sounds Inej might have made (though she already knew that she was and would always be silent). Coming up to the vent she'd once marked with some red paint to tell where it was, she quickly loosened it and swung down, lowering herself gracefully next to Nina and Jesper. Jes was playing some kind of game on his phone, while Nina was making strange faces at herself in the mirror. She coughed to alert them of her presence.

"I hooked it up and he got the brunt of it," she told them. Jesper and Nina exchanged mischievous looks as Jesper hiked off the bed and carelessly threw the phone onto the soft bed. "Kaz is next."

"Where even is Kaz?" Jesper asked. "Inej did you see him?"

Inej nodded, remembering seeing the black-haired boy in Haskell's office. Their guardian, Per Haskell, often asked Kaz for help with taking care of the money it took to run an orphanage.

"Alright, so the plan goes that while we take it out, we need you to distract him," Nina ordered Inej. Inej arched an eyebrow.

"I know. But wouldn't it make more sense for me to take it out with somebody else? That way if you need an escape, you can just swing into my room. Which is only a couple meters away from his."

Jesper bit his lip. "I know, but Kaz'll think we're distracting him if we try. You're the only one he won't suspect."

Inej raised her eyebrow higher. "And why is that?"

The two exchanged looks. "No idea," they chorused and Inej remembered something wise her father once said.

When there are people annoying you, take vengeance but hide your tracks!

It was actually her nine year old cousin Rai who had said that, but she took it as good advice either way.

She considered only distracting Kaz for a while and letting him know of their plans, but she figured that death was a little too extreme and it didn't bother her that much.

"Alright," she finally agreed. "I'll go and distract him while you two begin your work."

As Jesper and Nina began gathering their supplies, Inej quickly crawled straight back up the vent and headed for Haskell's office.

*

"Inej," Kaz nodded as she leaped down from the vent, not even looking up from his papers. She frowned - Kaz was never the least bit startled when she appeared out of nowhere.

"Kaz," she said with a small smile as her heart skipped for no reason. She hoped it didn't show on her face. "Doing Haskell's paperwork again?"

Kaz arched an eyebrow as he finally raised his gaze to look at her. "If I do his paperwork then I get to learn laws about orphanages that Haskell might not be keeping," he offered. Inej wasn't impressed.

"And what evidence do you have saying that Haskell is trying to cheat you out of something?" Inej asked.

He paused. "I don't. I just don't trust him."

She rolled her eyes to the sky and looked at the clock while she was at it. She had to keep up the conversation for a few more minutes.

After a pause, she finally asked. "What kind of papers are you looking through?"
Kaz shrugged, the gesture looking oddly loose on his tight figure. "Mostly financial," he said shuffling through a couple. He handed one to her and she scanned the adoption sheet.

"Are you getting rid of the adoption requests for Jesper, Nina and you?" she asked incredulously. He shot her a rare dazzling grin, the smile reaching his eyes before he managed to pretend it hadn't come to life.

"Yes."

Inej laughed, bumping into his shoulder. "You care about them."

"No," he denied. "It'd just be inconvenient to have to travel miles to talk to them."

"So you like talking to them?" Inej challenged, raising her eyebrow.

"No!" he said. "I'd just rather have the people I use close to me."

Inej nodded, pretending to wholeheartedly believe him. "I understand," she said sagely. His face was relieved for a while before she finished. "I understand that sometimes you just want some love and enjoy believing that Jesper and Nina are yours."

His face grew stormy and she pulled away, laughing. Something unknown sparkled in his eyes, making it the coffee brown shade she'd known she liked ever since she first saw it across from her window.

"You misunderstand," Kaz protested vainly. "You're wrong."

"I agree two hundred percent," Inej said laughing. "I completely understand."

Kaz made a face that vaguely resembled a pout and Inej felt like she did when she walked on the tightrope during one of the shows her family made.

Free.

But not as free as she felt when she laughed herself hoarse at Kaz's reaction to seeing every single spare cane of his spray-painted in hot pink and covered in One Direction pictures.

***

a/n: happy fourth of july people! i think i missed this one by a couple of days, but i was recently told that canada day was july 1st, so if you celebrate that then happy belated canada day! 

this isn't technically an official update, but it is a shot from the prank war they mentioned earlier. wylan isn't in this because he meets them all much later (when they're all twenty-one and sarcastic assholes in college) and right now they're fourteen. all the characters might be a little ooc, but that's because they're meant to be. if you're confused then here's the highlights of their childhood:

- matthias' hometown (a small town in russia) was attacked and so he moved into the ketterdam orphanage run by haskell

- nina, jesper, kaz, and matthias all live together in the orphanage

- inej lives next door, and she has a window that looks right into kaz's room. they're all really good friends so inej basically known the orphanage by heart

- all these people are still building up into who they are in college, so inej isn't really good at her climbing (or very wise and calm) and kaz isn't as cut off as he becomes (because he's trying to be that person, but hasn't quite gotten there yet)

i hope you enjoyed this!

thanks for reading,

mercy

ps: we got TWO HUNDRED FUCKING VIEWS!!!!