"Worst as in bad or worst as in good?" he asks with a faint smirk as he looks up to meet her gaze. Kaz slides his suspenders off his shoulders before he attends to the buttons on his shirt. Every time they're together again, there's a few hours, a day, in which Kaz needs to reset himself. Needs to relearn and remember that touch is not all bad. He craves it from Inej regardless of how much he fears the consequences. And he is getting better. He knows he is.

He hasn't fainted on her yet. That has to mean something good.

And Inej is patient, maybe because she has to be or wants to be, or because she understands. Kaz is careful when he touches her, too. Because he wants to, his fingers itch to, and the last thing either of them wants or needs is to dredge up painful memories in the other.

Kaz pauses when his torso is bare, as if waiting for her nod to continue or stop.