"Wait, we have met before, haven't we?" "Yes, but-" "And you brought me stroopwafels" "You remember that now?"

"How do you know what mixes with what?" "It’s just chemistry. And I had a tuto— Uh, just trial and error."

“I need to get to high ground. Keep them back and distracted as long as you can.” “Jesper—” began Wylan. “No one gets past you. If they take down this schooner, we’re done for.”

Wylan nodded dumbly. His eyes were dazed and wide enough to drink from.

“Fine. I’ll come fetch you, because clearly I don’t have anything to do with my time but squire new lilies around town.”

“Hey. Your father could have made a lot of choices when he found out you couldn’t read. Hell, he could have said you were blind or that you had trouble with your vision. Or better yet, he could have just been happy about the fact that he had a genius for a son.”

“Jes,” Wylan said, “did you mean what you told my father? Will you stay with me? Will you help?”

“I took it when we were at Saint Hilde. I thought it might come in handy if Genya’s going to try to put you back to your old merchling self.”

Flirting with him might actually be more fun than annoying him, but it was a close call.

“If only you could talk to girls in equations.” There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they’d created in the link, Wylan said, “Just girls?” Jesper restrained a grin. “No. Not just girls.”

Wylan gestured to the guards. “Is it safe to leave them, you know—” “Alive? I’m not big on killing unconscious men.” “We could wake them up.”

“Close your eyes!” “You can’t kiss me from down there, Wylan.”

“Why does it matter?” “I don’t know!” Jesper said angrily. “Maybe I liked your stupid face.”

‼️‼️what you can do to HELP palestine (YES. YOU.) ‼️‼️ a 🧵

Kuwei turned to Jesper. “You should visit me in Ravka. We could learn to use our powers together.” “How about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?” Wylan said with a very passable imitation of Kaz’s glare.

He hated that Jesper was seeing him cry, but there was nothing he could do, not about the tears, not about any of it.

“Again,” Wylan said, and when Jesper opened his mouth to take another breath, Wylan leaned forward and kissed him.

“Close your eyes!” “You can’t kiss me from down there, Wylan.”

“Hey. Your father could have made a lot of choices when he found out you couldn’t read. Hell, he could have said you were blind or that you had trouble with your vision. Or better yet, he could have just been happy about the fact that he had a genius for a son.”

“I’ll come home, Da. When the city is open again. After Wylan gets settled.” “He’s a good lad.” Too good for me, thought Jesper.