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"Found something new on Pekka's assassin"
It was the second day since Leo found Inej in her room that night, after the ambush. Since then, Leo vouched to help Inej look for intel on this assassin on the side of her work for Pekka.
Leo huffed as she shrugged off her jacket and hung it on the coat rack near the door, looking over at Inej who was sharpening her blades.
"What did I tell you about sharpening blades on the bed, we'll get bloody metal shards scratching at our skin when we sleep-"
Although Leo was reprimanding her, Inej couldn't help but feel the butterflies in her stomach as Leo practically addressed the bed as theirs.
It almost distracted her from Leo's first sentence. Almost.
"What did you find on the assassin" she asked eagerly as she watched Leo huff as she took a seat at her desk. She sat up, straightening out her back, ignoring the cracking it made from being slouch all day, and placing her daggers on the bedside table. Watching Leo desperately, she needed this assassin gone.
Leo sighed and she barely spared a glance at Inej before looking at the parchment letters on her desk, all from her spies or her watchful eyes through the Barrel. Intel she needed to keep her reputation afloat.
"Nothing you should concern yourself with, I'll sort it"
The sentence almost made Inej angry, "what?!" She huffed, "Lee, I need to after him. I need to go after him. I don't need you to protect me"
Leo turned to finally look at Inej, though Inej didn't feel the familiar relief that came when their eyes made contact. "I don't want you going after him alone, he's a shifty asshole but he's smart and has it out for your head. I'm not saying you can't protect yourself, I'm saying you don't always have to" Inej didn't have a reply for the last part,
"You know who he is?" She questioned, and Leo nodded, "where is he?"
Leo gave her a deadpanned look, Inej huffed "I don't need your protection, I can handle one man-"
"Inej, he nearly killed you up on that roof. I don't want to have to stitch another gash on your arm when he gets a hit on you-"
"Then I'll stitch it myself-"
"Not when I can prevent it in the first place! Not when I can actually be there for you this time!" Leo cried out, she wasn't the best with overflowing stress. Pekka's still not off her ass with suspicion, one her contacts has gone silent and now she finds out the man after Inej is a full blown psycho, one she wasn't there to protect her from.
"I don't need you there!" Leo was silent at them awful words, cut deep like a hot dagger to her chest.
She breathed in a calm breath, dragging a hand over her face to some hope of relieving the painful frown lines that littered her face.
"His name is Mogens" she finally supplied, pursing her lips tight before she carried on. Inej listened on with guilt pooling in her stomach. "He regularly visits the blade smiths by the old crow club, gets personally made bone-cutters and fillet knives. He's a psychotic taxidermist with a vendetta and a debt to Pekka, he wants you back at the Menagerie" Inej took easy notice of Leo's walls back up, the business voice stern and at the forefront of each syllable spoken. Leo didn't look at Inej. "He owns the Taxidermy sell out, near 5th harbour. Do what you want with what I gave you"
Leo's face is sour as she turns to her paperwork once again, silence filling the room. Inej didn't know what to do, she's never had to do this. Yes she's said the wrong things Jesper before, but this silent treatment was more painful that any dagger wound.
Slowly, Inej stood and walked towards Leo. Her mouth open to speak yet no words were spoken. It was like someone had her in a chokehold preventing any words.
She reached a hand out to place a hand on Leo's shoulder, but froze. Skin barely hovering over the touch material of Leo's clothes, Inej could almost feel the warmth Leo radiated from her position. Something she desperately craved but couldn't grasp.
Inej quickly retracted her hand, taking no time at all to bail out the bedroom door. She had a feeling Leo was watching their reflection in the window as Inej reached out, she would be right. She would also be right in thinking Leo was disappointed beyond relief.
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"Jesper"
Said sharpshooter spun round in a flash, the voice scaring him half to death from his time with his reflection.
His eyes widened as he faced Inej. "Don't... do that... hey." He paused, his eyes squinting as he examined Inej from head to toe. His eyes widened and he gasped. Inej watched in confusion as he practically squealed like a little girl.
"What?" She questioned, her face scrunched in utter confusion as Jesper pointed to her face repeatedly.
"You're glowing!" She was even more confused, "you've got a sex glow! Oh my saints! Inej Ghafa has a fucking se-"
Inej surged forward, hand clashing over Jespers mouth in panic, eyes widened and fury written on her face.
"Shut up Jes!" She hissed, and she felt Jespers face squint under her hand. His eyes brows bunching and eyes squinting as he held his hands up in surrender.
She reluctantly removed her hand and subconsciously fiddled with the hem on her shirt... Leo's shirt.
"Okay-" Jesper began, dragging out the word as his eyes squinted impossibly more, "for someone with a sex glow... you look incredibly dull"
She rolled her eyes at him, "I need help. I messed up"
He smirked, he had given advice to many about dating. Never once in his life would he believe that he'd be giving Inej Ghafa dating advice as she radiated with a sex glow. His day was getting even more interesting.
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Safe to say, Inej was in a terrible mood once she was back at their hideout. Angrily arranging her daggers and barely making it through a conversation with Kaz. She was wrong. She did need Leo.
As she arranged her daggers and picketed the ones she'd need, she couldn't help but thing of the consequences if Mogens took her alive. If she didn't have Leo as backup, hell, if she didn't let Leo easily beat him herself. She felt like an idiot.
It wasn't as if the words were meant to come out that way. She didn't actually mean to say the words. She didn't think them, she didn't once think she didn't need Leo. But she wasn't used to people fighting her battles, she wasn't used to this type of protection.
She craved it for so long, and now she had it, she blew it up. Into pieces.
"He intends on taking me alive. So he can put me back in the Menagerie" the words made her sick to her stomach as she told Kaz,
"I won't let that happen" he insisted, she didn't believe him.
"Why should I believe you? We were ambushed Kaz. Whatever this is, this blood feud you have with Pekka Rollins, I don't believe it's about some Saints-forsaken club." She hissed out, all her frustration and fears now tumbling into words towards Kaz, "you are gambling with our lives and I deserve to know the reason... you owe me that much" she sighed as she turned back to her daggers and knives.
"I assumed Leo would have told you" it was a simple statement that sent confusion down Inej's spine yet shivers from hearing the name.
She turned back to look at Kaz, "why would Leo tell me about yours and Pekka's feud?"
Kaz was silent, he figured he could keep a secret for the safety of his crew and Leo. Connections of family get your killed, or used as leverage. But he trusted Inej, he was more surprised Leo didn't tell her. But he would argue that their story was an equally touchy subject to her as it was to him.
"Because Pekka Rollins killed our brother"
Leo talked in riddles of sorts when they first met, all but confirming Inej's suspicions to be true. But hearing it from Kaz still managed to send a wave of even more guilt through her body.
Inej understood Leo. That's why it was so hard to understand why she had spoken the words she had.
Leo couldn't protect her brother... brothers. The only people she had let close to her, and now Inej was closer than close and all she wanted was to protect her. But all the progress of walls being broken down had all been for nothing by Inej's killing words.
"Then we destroy him"
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Oof tea.
You didn't expect it to be that easy did you?
Hehe
I can imagine there are many spelling mistakes in this, but I have just finished a hell of a day in work and am currently falling asleep at the screen. And I'm to lazy to proof read so...
There's that
I haven't got much to say but I'm so excited for the Pekka confrontation!!! Ahhh it's gonna be good.
Anywhoooo,
Btw I find all of these memes on tumblr. My second home.