Chapter Text
Chapter one: Inej
This is a bad idea.
Was Inej's repeated thought as she walked up the familiar cobblestone street towards the pounding music blaring out of the nearby pub. Not to say she had much choice in the matter, as her arm was clutched in a death grip by her best friend, Nina Zenik.
Yeah, I’m not getting out of this.
"I can see what you're thinking, Inej, you already promised me,” Nina said, glancing back at Inej. "Stop slowing down."
"Stop dragging me. I agreed to go there, not run there. We can take our time," Inej countered, shooting Nina a look.
Nina sighed and loosened her grip on Inej's arm before turning to face her. "Inej, please don't back out of this. You promised," she repeated.
Inej swallowed harshly, guilt rising in her throat. Nina was right. Earlier that week, Inej agreed, stupidly, to something so far out of her comfort zone that it hardly even occurred to her she would actually have to do it.
Nina asked to join her at the nearest pub to watch the showing of the Ravka V Fjerda rugby match. She recently had a slight falling out with her "friends" and had no one to go with. Inej, feeling bad for her best friend and obviously not being level-headed, agreed.
So there she was, with a large capital "R" painted on her left cheek, staring at Nina's pleading half gold, half blue face.
"I can't take you seriously with this makeup," Inej confessed.
"Inej!"
"Fine, fine, you're right. I promised," Inej straightened herself before interlocking her arms in Nina's again.
"Thank the Saints!" Nina's face split into an excited grin again, much to Inej's relief.
"I can't wait for you to meet Matthias!" Nina exclaimed before pushing open the pub's front door.
Inej mouthed a silent prayer to save her soul and help her refrain from running away. She glanced up at the pub's name —"The Emerald Palace"— and groaned inwardly.
The Emerald Palace was one of the most popular pubs in Ketterdam for the locals, and was famously known to be particularly rowdy when the rugby was on.
Saints save me.
Just as she expected, the pub was bursting at the seams, each voice raised slightly louder than the next so they could be heard over the climbing volume. Her shoes stuck to the floor slightly, and all she could smell, see, and taste was tobacco, beer, and testosterone.
She gagged.
Luckily, Nina dragged her through the crowd and reached a small high-top table close to a window. This allowed Inej to inhale some actual oxygen into her lungs. The only thing that Inej appreciated about her situation was that all these people seemed to be so extremely wrapped up in their own conversations to take notice of her.
"Luck is on our side today, Inej! Look at this view," Nina leaned forward, resting her elbows, before grimacing and peeling her arms off the sticky table. Still, she was not deterred and smiled, glancing around to look for someone.
"Is Matthias here yet?" Inej questioned, glancing around herself.
"I'm not sure he hasn't texted me..." Nina frowned, pulling out her phone.
Another reason that Nina was so adamant on going to The Emerald Palace to watch the game was that Matthias told her that he would also be attending. With two other friends, Jesper Fahey and Kaz Brekker, if she remembered correctly. He also told her he would buy her a drink.
Or more accurately, he told her, "If Ravka wins, I'll buy you a drink, because it's not happening".
"Oh. Oh! I see him," Nina waved her hand wildly.
Inej followed her gaze, which landed on possibly the three tallest boys she had ever seen. The Zemeni boy, whom she assumed was Jesper, waved back, grinning. However, the pale dark dark-haired boy did not share his enthusiasm. Jesper nudged whom Inej knew to be Matthias.
Matthias turned around, his eyes widened slightly, and he promptly turned right back around. Inej winced.
"What the hell was that!" Nina scoffed. She began mumbling some heinous comments, but Inej could see she was really hurt.
"Maybe he didn't recognise you. You know.." Inej gestured to her painted face.
"No, he recognised me alright, just too much of a wanker to stay true to his word," Nina grumbled. "You know, I don't even care."
Inej released a slow breath and decidedly did not say anything else. She glanced back to the three boys again. Jesper was talking intensively with Matthias, her eyes jumped to the pale boy who was staring directly at her. Her breath hitched. Kaz, it must be. His gaze was so strangely intense that she felt goosebumps all over her arm.
She was being silly. She was sixteen, not seven. Suddenly feeling very awkward, she tore her eyes away.
"Are you ok-"
"Are you excited?" Nina interrupted Inej's poor attempt at consolidation.
"What do you mean?" For the game? Not particularly. She’d rather be at home.
"For school, silly. You're finally getting away from that feral institution, and we'll be at the same school again!" Nina squealed and grabbed Inej's hands, shaking them violently.
Inej giggled. "I mean, yeah... I guess so. Nervous."
"You'll be fine. I'll rough anyone up if they give you trouble," Nina reassured her.
Inej had lots of trouble at her old school. She stuck out like a sore thumb; that much was obvious. She was an easy target, one that everyone seemed to like to hit. Literally. Towards the end, it seemed like it was almost every day that she was beaten up just outside of the school gates. Not to say she didn't try to fight back. But her efforts were stunted by the clear advantage they had over her. She was small and skinny compared to the boys and even the majority of the girls.
"Never stood a chance," Inej heard her father say once.
It was so bad that Inej would frequently have panic attacks in the school toilets before school ended, and her grades had dropped to an average of a C. Inej would struggle to even walk into the gates, and sitting alone in class was torture.
But it seemed no matter how many times her parents complained, Headmistress Heleen would never seem to do a thing.
Sometimes she thought that Heleen liked to see her bruised.
The only redeeming quality that the school had was its arts program. Inej enjoyed her dance classes, and she even excelled at them. Despite the other dancers avoiding her like the plague, it never seemed to matter. Sometimes she even spent her lunchtimes there, sitting peacefully before practicing what she had learnt. Those classes were a safe space.
Or they were. But even that was ruined. He had ruined it.
Inej shook those thoughts out of her head before she spiralled even further. Ketterdam College was her fresh start. She was almost finished in her schooling with two years left, and at a new college, it seemed possible to graduate. Especially when she already had a friend by her side.
She had met Nina in kindergarten, she remembered vividly. Inej had climbed to the top of the monkey bars and refused to get down, no matter how much the adults pleaded. Inej is still not sure why she did it, but Nina stomped out of their class and told her that if she climbed down, she would share her chocolate bar with her. So Inej climbed down, and Nina fulfilled her promise.
According to her Ma, they were inseparable after this.
They did everything together. Inej held Nina as she cried when her parents were divorcing, and Nina used to give half her sandwich to Inej because her parents couldn't afford lunches anymore.
They fortunately went to the same primary school, but in high school, they were separated. Nina went to a nice private school, and Inej went to literal hell.
But with her da’s new job and her obvious incapability of remaining in that hell hole, Inej was now enrolled in Ketterdam College. The sun would shine again.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Nina inquired. "You do that often, it’s scary."
"Sorry, I'm..." Inej squinted. "Remincising, I guess."
"Stop thinking about the past, Inej, just think about all the good things coming your way," Nina offered a smile.
Inej was forever grateful for her.
"Love you," Inej smiled.
"Love you right back," Nina's smile split into a grin. “After all these years, you're still my favourite person to hang with."
"Me too," Inej replied. “Although I don't have much to compare with."
Nina shoved her giggling slightly, "Don't make jokes like that, it makes me feel horrible for laughing."
"Okay, okay," Inej laughed too.
Suddenly, a roar erupted in the pub. Inej looked over at the screen and saw Ravka jogging onto the field. Against her better judgment, she looked over at the three boys again. To her surprise, Kaz was still looking at her. Or maybe she was going delusional with the smell of male body odour.
"Yes! Let's go, Ravka!" The girl beside her shouted. Inej jumped, breaking eye contact with Kaz. When she looked back, his eyes were on the screen. Inej felt disappointment but shook it off.
You haven't even talked to him. Why are you acting like this? Grow up, Inej.
She looked back on the screen and the pub filled with boo's and poor language as Fjerda ran on. She heard Nina cackle evilly.
Inej lost almost all hearing in her right ear by the time the game finished.