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Liv Leeflang was 15 when she saw Kaz Brekker for the first time. Oh-, how she remembered it well.

It was one of those endlessly dreary days in the Barrel; the rain hadn't stopped slamming down since the sun had risen above the buildings of Ketterdam that morning, and the heavy clouds that always seemed to choke the city seemed to taunt the young girl that sat drenched in the rain.

She looked ill, more like a ghost than a living human being, with her white-blonde hair, wrapped underneath a cloth and pale, sunken-in face. Her tattered clothing clung to her like glue, the heaviness of all the layers of cloth she had assembled to warm herself almost made it impossible for her to move.

But yet, against all odds, Liv was still very much alive.

She was hunched behind a few barrels, out of sight of the many people that wandered up and down the market, all angry, annoyed and impatient with the weather, rather being anywhere else.

Blue eyes scanned the several stalls, filled with food and other goods that she so desperately needed. As if on cue, a hunger pang shot through her stomach, which she stifled with her hand.

The girl couldn't remember when she ate last, but it had been at least a few days. The winter had been harsh, and the shopkeepers had been eying their small amount of goods like hawks.

Liv sighed, continuing her quest on finding any distracted shopkeeper or unaccounted discrepancy that would lead to chaos, allowing her to sneak in and take some of the bread she had her eyes on for at least three days.

Hours ticked by, and nothing of note happened, nothing that was good enough anyways, nothing big enough that could cause an actual distraction.

That was, however, until a few minutes after one of the clock towers had hit its fourth bell, and Liv spotted a blue-eyed boy down the street, followed by distant shouts and screams.

Liv didn't waste a moment, she left her hiding spot and moved forward, crouched low to the floor, pocketing a piece of bread displayed in the stall, as the plump shopkeeper had gotten distracted by the commotion.

She stuffed the piece in the front band of her trousers, which she immediately hid with the multiple tattered tunics she wore, before making her way back to the shadows of the barrels again, unnoticed and unseen.

That was until the boy she had seen running down the street slammed into her side, right before she could disappear completely, sending both of them to the ground with a grunt.

For a moment their two pairs of blue eyes met, but only momentarily, as Liv's attention redirected to the piece of bread that had fallen from her waistband, and the boy jumped up from his position next to her, a startled look painted on his features, and ran off again.

Liv had little time to react to the whole ordeal, as only a few moments later, two Stadwatch men ran in her direction, no doubt pursuing the boy she just encountered.

The blonde had to duck to the side in order not to be trampled by the two, to her, enormous men. As they passed, however, she couldn't help but stick out her leg in front of her, slamming it into the ankle of one of the guards, and sending him to the ground.

The man yelled as he hit the ground with his hands first, the sound of a nasty crack protruding from his wrist as he had used them as support.

"Shit", Liv muttered before scrambling from the ground, regretting her impulsive action.

Mud caked her hands and knees as she ran off into one of the many narrow alleys of the Barrel, trying to evade the pursuit of the guard whose wrist she had most definitely broken.

It turned out that it wasn't that difficult to do so, as she knew the many twisty streets and alleys like the back of her hand, far better than the Stadwatch anyways, who rather avoided the Barrel altogether.

After Liv was sure she had lost the guard, she slid down behind an abandoned cart, trying to catch her breath as she thought about the boy she had encountered.

—

The second time Liv Leeflang saw Kaz Brekker was only a few weeks later.

For the first day in over a week, the constant downpour of rain had ceased its offence. Instead, the normally dark clouds held a light grey hue, almost like the sun tried to make an effort to present itself.

The day had started out normally, with her waking up in one of the many crates that were littered around the harbours. She knew her situation was appalling, but the wooden crates provided a dry space and sheltered her from the many criminals that stalked the night.

The blonde rebounded the cloth she had wrapped around her hair, attempting to dilute any attraction from herself, having found out long ago that her unique hair colour was only a source of attraction and not a good kind at that.

Walking through the Barrel, as she did almost every day, she passed the citizens of Ketterdam with disdain behind her eyes and envy in her stomach– why did it have to be her?

After settling down between one of her many vantage points around the markets, which coincidentally doubled as a hiding place, she started her routine of scouring the stalls and looking for her next meal.

It was only around the time when the sun supposedly had set, and the shopkeepers had become fatigued with their day of work, that Liv decided to approach.

Quietly, she made her way down from the stack of barrels and crates she had hidden on and blended into the crowd, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

She continued her movement until she reached a stall that sold bread, and she removed herself from the crowd, just as the shopkeeper turned his back to her.

A pale hand reached out to the stale-looking bread, and quickly took a piece away, making sure not to make any noise.

The triumphant feeling of success rushed through Liv's veins, for the smallest of moments, until the shopkeeper started to turn around again, too quickly for Liv's calculations.

Heat rose to her cheeks, and she knew she was in trouble. She froze and closed her eyes, fearing what would come next. The angry shouts that would come her way, the Stadwatch that would take her away and cut off her hands for her crimes. She could see it all too vividly in front of her, she couldn't move.

A loud clang from behind where the shopkeeper stood made her open her eyes, however. It must have done the same for the shopkeeper as he turned around again, leaving the young blonde out of his field of vision.

The shopkeeper shouted something about a street rat, waving his fist in the air.

Liv looked up as well, following the tilt of the shopkeeper's head and came to see the brown-haired boy she had seen before, their eyes meeting again. But again, just momentarily, as he tilted his head, signalling Liv to get out of there, and disappeared from the rooftop he had been sitting on.

Liv did not have to be asked twice and made her way back to the street, disappearing into the sea of people.

—

Such little encounters continued for a long time, sometimes Liv helped out the blue-eyed boy, and sometimes he helped her out.

The curious thing, however, is that they never exchanged a word, never coming close enough to start anything like a conversation.

They had an unspoken agreement to help each other out whenever one of them found themselves in peril.

At some point, the young girl started to look forward to her next encounter with the boy, curious about what kind of situation she would spot him in.

She was curious about the boy in general. About his life, and family, although through his appearance, Liv suspected that there was not much of it, but mostly, she was curious about his name.

Every time they saw each other, Liv wanted to ask, she wanted to know so badly what she could call the boy that basically kept her alive. But every time, the boy had left too quickly after they interacted, disappearing from her sight every time she opened her mouth to speak.

Liv would like to have a friend. A friend like him.

___

The encounters continued for over a year, and every time Liv spotted the boy again, she would feel a sense of relief, a relief where she knew that he was still alive and passing by, able to hold himself in such a cruel world. It was almost like an inspiration to the young girl; it gave her a reason to go on.

So when the boy stopped showing up, Liv was crushed. Her heart broke a little for the boy she had never been able to properly meet. She grieved for him as well, her list of people to grieve for growing too big for such a young girl to carry, but still, she moved on.

Without the protection of the blue-eyed boy, she got caught more often and received enough scars from it to learn from her mistakes and get better at her stealth and misdeeds.

After deciding she was good enough at stealing food, she turned her eyes to the pockets of the merchants that walked up and down the streets of the Financial District.

She would run into them, eyes big and features soft, apologising profusely, and touching their arms, fawning at their statues. She would charm them, using her feminine features to guide her as she took ownership of the contents of their pockets, all while holding their eye contact. It would always take them just long enough before they would realise they had been relieved of their belongings, long enough for Liv to disappear into the shadows of the alleys.

Once she had gathered enough kruge to feed herself, she bought paint and parchment, for painting always had been her favourite past time, and started to make paintings of the streets and buildings of Ketterdam, selling them to the tourists that kept coming to the saint's forsaken city. Why they would come to such a place, Liv never understood.

She liked the architecture, she supposed.

So she continued on, painting and charming and stealing, day in and day out. Rising with the murky sun and falling with the rise of the moon, retreating to the harbours to find refuge in the crates that lined the docks.

The blonde was always careful to pick the crates that were labelled in such a way that they wouldn't be taken away with her in them, something that had haunted her dreams for quite some time. Her father had taught her how to read the labels, it was one of the few things she could remember of him.

She would lie awake for long hours at night, staring at the darkness that seemed to stare back at her. Always careful for footsteps that could ambush her and take her away, and deep in thought about the things that could have been in her life.

—

It was one of those quiet nights where everything was calm. It was the day before Liv's 17th birthday, and she had decided she would spend the money she had saved up on staying at one of the inns that were littered around the Barrel as her own birthday present.

The blonde stalked through the streets, trying to go as unnoticed as possible.

A shiver ran down her spine, and she placed her hands over her arms, stroking them, in an effort to keep the last bit of body heat to herself. The wool of her coat felt soft to her fingers and a small smile tugged on her lips, that triumphant feeling, the feeling of owning something.

Liv hadn't actually stolen this particular coat. Instead, she had made a deal with a baker's wife, who she painted a portrait of– alongside her children– as a gift to her husband for their anniversary. In return for the painting, the baker's wife would give Liv one of her old coats to take her through the cold winter months.

The thought about the exchange put a bit of extra warmth in her coldened heart.

The blonde continued on walking, trying to make her way to the inn she would stay at tonight, the feeling of a warm bed and sheets already making her feel tired and giddy at the same time.

She should have paid more attention to her surroundings, however, as she passed by a firepit with two men sat around it, goggling her back without her knowledge.

"Well, would you look at that," one of the men exclaimed.

The sudden voice startled her, but she decided to ignore the voice and continue her way past the men, the smell of the fireplace digging through her nostrils.

She couldn't take more than a few steps, as suddenly she was pulled back by her hair. She yelped.

"Have you ever seen hair like that, Roel?" the man that had taken hold of her hair asked, eying a man that stood next to him, staring at the long strands of blonde hair.

Liv stayed quiet for a moment, not knowing what to do, before taking hold of her hair as well, trying to take it back.

"Let go of me," She said slowly.

"And an even prettier face is attached, what a welcome surprise," the man continued as if her words had been simple breaths of air. A devious look was displayed in his dark eyes, which sent a bolt of terror throughout the blonde's entire body.

At the moment she was slightly grateful for the length of her hair, which she hadn't cut in over a few years, giving her the length to maintain at least a little bit of distance from the dirty men that stood so close to her.

"Let go of my hair. Right now." Liv repeated, swallowing the fear she felt, knowing that her fear would be a giveaway to weakness.

The man huffed, looking down upon her with both greed and disdain in his eyes, before loosening his hold of her hair, "If you say so."

A small breath of relief escaped the blonde's throat, which was quickly replaced by a startled gasp as the man moved closer quickly and slammed Liv against a wall, trapping her with his arms which he placed over her shoulders, covering her collarbones.

Liv didn't dare make a sound as she looked at the man with big eyes, frozen like a deer startled by lights.

The man grabbed her cheek with a dirty hand and dark fingernails, cupping the side of her face harshly, "You know what we could get for a pretty girl like you?"

Panic set in, only now fully realising the weight of the situation, and she started to thrash around in the man's hold.

The man that stood at least a head higher than her seemed almost amused by her efforts, and effortlessly kept her in her place, much to Liv's own horror.

"Is that all you can do, Little Dove?" the man whispered, his speech slurred slightly as he eyed Liv like she was his prey, ready to be devoured for his next meal.

The blonde kept on wiggling, trying to find a way to escape, until her right arm temporarily got loose from the man's hold and she punched the man as hard as she could, right across his jaw.

"You little bitch!"

His hold on her faltered and she pushed him back as he yelled and cursed. She could feel the rush of adrenaline in every limb of her body and tried to get away from the men that moved towards her.

"You're gonna pay for that, you filthy rat." one of the other men, the one called Roel, shouted, moving in on the blonde that seemed to be trapped by a closed-off alleyway.

Panic set in once more, as Liv stepped back, desperately trying to find an escape route, only to come to the terrible realisation that there was none.

The two other men closed her in, and she made one desperate attempt to hit one of them, which she actually managed to do so, but unfortunately for her, she was no match for the other man twice her size, who punched her across the cheek in return, sending her to the dirt-covered, cobble street.

Liv hit the ground with her shoulder, sending a lightning bolt of pain. The pain made her yell out.

Suddenly, one of the men was on top of her, and punched her again, this time across her left temple.

A blooming pain shot across Liv's entire head and her vision blurred, a high tone ringing through her ears.

She continued to try and fight off the man that hung over her, scratching his arms and trying to kick him with her legs, as he continued to put his weight down on her chest, slowly suffocating her.

Liv's attempts to escape were rendered fruitless as the man trapped her arms to the ground, making her completely unable to move.

She continued to try and thrash and yell, but nothing seemed to work as the man was so much stronger than she was. The only thing she could do now was watch the man, broken teeth and dark eyes, a crooked nose as a sign of a break that never healed right.

Liv coughed as her vision spinned and blurred, the oxygen that couldn't access her lungs making her feel faint. That was until a bright light entered her vision, accompanied by the man that she had punched first.

He towered over her with, what seemed to be, a torch in his hand, blood dripping down his nose.

She looked on with frightened eyes as she tried to kick off the man that sat atop her.

"How dare you hit me, you filthy bitch?" The man questioned angrily, his speech still slurred, he sniffed and removed some of the blood that ran down his face with his free hand before opening his mouth again, "You know what happens when a little street like you does that right?"

The taunting in his voice set the blonde into a frenzy, trying with all her might to kick and wiggle and thrash as the man lowered his torch, the flame coming dangerously close to her hand that was stuck to the ground.

The heat licked at the back of Liv's palm and she yelled, "Let me go!"

The men laughed, before the man with the torch spoke up again, "Little thieves like you should lose their hands for their crimes, I'm just doing the Stadwatch a favour and get rid of one more Barrel rat."

Liv had no time to react as the man placed the torch against the back of her hand.

A blinding pain searched through her right hand and arm as she screamed, only to be muffled by the man that held her in her place. The pain was dizzying as the torch was put out on her hand.

Tears that she was in no state to hold back off fell from her face. Her ears ringed and the pain she felt in her hand made her unable to move. Her vision blurred as she continued to cry out.

The pain was blinding and she could only look at the man that held the torch as he laughed, accompanied by the other two men.

That was, until seemingly suddenly, the man with the torch's head flung to the side, a splatter of blood spraying from his mouth as he fell to the ground.

The two men stopped laughing as another figure appeared.

Liv couldn't follow clearly what was happening, as the pain she felt overtook every sense of her body, unable to comprehend what was happening around her. The only thing she could feel was the weight that sat atop her chest falter, and the sensation of blood raining down on her face.

Another scream was heard and then silence.

The figure that had fought the three men appeared in her field of vision again. His dark silhouette betrayed nothing of his identity, her blurred vision and pain not helping her in the slightest, until a rare beam of moonlight shone down upon his face, revealing those blue eyes she hadn't seen in so long.

Liv can't remember much of what happened after, only vague bits and pieces of flashing memories. She remembers how the boy had brought a bucket to her filled with water, in which he doused her burning hand. She remembers screaming from the pain at the contact. The next thing she remembers is being brought back to a building and being placed into a bed.

The last thing she remembers from that night is the fierce blue eyes that dwelled over her as she lay in that bed, eyes that looked both full of anger and passion and empty at the same time.