Kaz's voice was quiet as usual, but there was so much underlying anger, the effect was almost as if he was yelling. "That would offend me deeply. And I am not one to forget the things people have done to offend me."

------------------------------
After that chilling proclamation, Kaz ushered Inej and Anika back inside the Crow Club, promising he'd "take care of the problem".

Inej tried to protest, but he shot her a withering look and the arguments she had gotten ready for this situation fled her mind. Afterwards, when they were inside the kitchen, all Inej had left to do was wait and tend to Anika.
The girl had come out of her state of shock and now muttered angrily while Inej disinfected and bandaged the wound on her leg. Anika was furious at herself for forgetting all the self-defence lessons she had taken and just standing there, frozen.

"I don't blame you," Inej spoke up quietly, breaking Anika's angry muttering. "When you're cornered like that, all your instinct simply flee. All that is left is fear."

Anika looked curiously at Inej, so the older girl clarified. "I've been in situations like that one you just had. I know what it feels like."

Anika looked like she wanted to hear more, but any further explanations on Inej's part were interrupted by Kaz coming in.
"Are y'all alright?" He froze after saying those words, as if he had said something wrong, then corrected himself. "I mean, is anyone hurt?"

Anika piped up, telling how she was hurt by the bottle but Inej had already gotten her bandaged up. Inej herself barely heard all this. Kaz's little slip-up had thrown her into a memory from long before she had moved here.
-------------------

"'Nej! Keep up! How're you gonna catch me at all if your skinny legs can't keep up?"

-------------------
The memory had been buried so deep Inej hadn't thought about it in years. Hadn't thought about him. The voice in the memory was Inej's best and closest friend of many years, and had an accent painfully close to the one Kaz had used just now.

She hadn't seen him since her parents disappeared, since she had moved away. She couldn't even remember how he looked. Just that voice, with the lilting, catching accent she had loved. She could almost hear him say her name again, in that funny way he did, missing the first "i".

No, she could ACTUALLY hear someone saying her name. And it wasn't her childhood best friend.

"Inej! Inej!"
Inej blinked as her eyes focused on her surroundings. 'Why was she on the floor? And why did Kaz look so worried?'
"Owww, my head." She sat up and touched it gingerly then brought her fingers to where she could see them. "No blood. That's good." She re-oriented her gaze to Kaz's. "What happened? Did I fall?"

-------------

Kaz helped her up and then, curiously left, muttering something about a lot of work that needed to be done. Anika explained that while she was telling the story of what had happened in that back alley, Inej had suddenly tilted and slipped off of her spot on the counter.
"I have never seen the boss look so worried. You must be someone real' special for him to react like that." She winked at Inej conspiratorly. "You should take the evening off, seeing as you hit your head pretty hard. Don't worry. I won't tell a soul what I saw in here."

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By the next morning, the news that when Inej had fallen and gotten hurt, Kaz Brekker had looked worried were all over the club. It was Saturday, so Inej didn't have school, and worked in the Crow Club all day long. Usually it was mostly quiet, everyone doing their own work. But when Inej walked into the Club that Saturday morning, she was immediately surrounded.

"Is someone having an affair with the boss?"

"Are you two, like, relatives? Your black hair is similar..."

"Did you know him prior to joining the Crow Club staff?"

"Is he your booooyyyyfrienddd?"

Inej blinked at the flurry of questions, then her face heated as she processes that most of them were about whether or not she and Kaz were in a relationship.

"Well, no, I'm not having an affair with Ka-the boss.
No, we're not related.
I don't think I knew him, unless you mean like the 10 minutes before I joined.
And no, he is NOT my boyfriend. I do not engage in romantic ties." Inej tried to answer all the questions with as little words as possible. Her head still hurt from yesterday, and the crowding was making it worse.

"Now, can you please leave me alone? Is it not custom here for a boss to worry when one of his workers unexplicably falls and hits her head?"

The question, meant to be a finalising point so that everyone would FINALLY leave Inej alone, served as another point of conversation. The questions started up again.

"Why did you fall?"

"Is it because the boss is so hot?"

"Do you have repressed trauma?"

Despite the growing headache, Inej answered all the questions in the same way as last time.
"The reason I fell is because I was dizzy," a small lie, but a necessary one. People would want more information if they knew what had truly happened.
"I did not fall because of the boss, if that's your question,
and no, I do not have repressed trauma? How does that even relate to the topic?"

The person who had asked it shrugged, so Inej took her chance. Quickly, before everyone could recover and start asking new questions, Inej elbowed her way out of the crowd in the kitchen and into the main room of the Crow Club, where she was more or less safe. "And that's it! No more questions!" She called over her shoulder, then turned around right in time to crash into someone in a black suit.

Author's note: Wow, my chapters are suddenly getting longer and longer (this one is over 1000 words)! Maybe that will make the story progress faster (though we've still got a lot to cover). Anyway, wish me luck in writing faster and more often :)

Comments appreciated still!