Day 5: No need for poetry
Azriel had the biggest crush he had ever had. He couldn’t stop thinking about you. Imagining your life together and having so many date ideas he wanted to ask you out on.
The only problem is, you didn’t know him.
He really didn’t know you either, but for weeks the only thing he could think of was you.
How happy you looked working at your bookshop. How your smile made all the bad things in the world disappear. And how you made both the butterflies in his stomach and his shadows go crazy with the familiar feeling of crushing.
He definitely wasn’t playing it cool, for soon both Nesta and worse than that, Cassian, knew about his crush.
“Just ask her out!” Nesta urged him. “She’s the sweetest! Even if she does reject you, which I’m sure she won’t, she will do it kindly.”
That didn’t help his case at all.
What if he build up the confidence to ask you out and you end up rejecting him? He won’t ever recover.
“Why are you this nervous?” Cassian asked him. “It’s not like you haven’t asked out a female before.”
Of course he had asked out females before, but that was usually just to have sex. He never actually met females he wanted to date. He wanted to cook dinner with you and read with you and go for romantic walks. It was a totally new experience.
“I’m not nervous,” he grumbled back.
“Az, your shadows,” Cassian pointed towards the black blob of shadows in the corner of the room. They were shaking in both excitement and fear.
Azriel waved his hand through them and made them act more neutral. He looked back at his friends and saw both their smug smiles.
“Shut up,” he just said and started to leave the room.
“Az?” He stopped and turned to look at Nesta. “I have this book I need picked up from a certain someone’s bookshop. Can you do that for me?”
Azriel didn’t know who he was when he immediately answered yes and went to the bookshop.
It was surprisingly empty when he walked into the shop. He was immediately relaxed from the cozy atmosphere and comforting smell.
“Hello,” you said from the counter and Azriel felt his heartbeat grow faster from just the sound of your voice. “Can I help you?”
He had to pick up courage with a deep breath before he walked up to you.
“I was sent to pick up a book for Nesta Archeron,” he said and tried to keep his voice from shaking.
“Oh, yes! She’s been so excited to read this one! And I’ve really been looking forward to talk about it with someone. Give me a moment!”
You turned around and looked through the big stack of books that stood on the counter beside her.
“Ask her out,” his shadows started to whisper to him. “She wants you to.”
He just shook his head at them.
You turned around and Azriel suddenly noticed one of his shadows playing with your hair.
He immediately pulled it back.
He felt the shadows laugh back at him.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said after clearing his throat.
“No worries,” you answered with the smile that made his knees weak. He got lost in the beauty of your eyes and studied all the small details in your face that he hadn’t seen from a distance. She handed him the book. “Nesta already paid. Do you need a bag?”
“You too,” he said and his eyes widened at the realization that he absolutely did not answer your question.
He just shook his head and gave you a small smile before he rushed out of the shop.
He hid in his shadows for the rest of the day.
“Okay, I’ve had enough of this,” Cassian said as he dumped as few small books on the table in fr of him.
“Poetry” his shadows let him know.
“I don’t need a poetry lesson, Cass,” he told his brother and let his annoyance show.
“Well, you haven’t been able to ask her out otherwise and right now you are “Nesta’s weird friend”.”
Azriel got embarrassed by the amount of happiness he felt from knowing you spoke about him.
“I don’t need to resort to poetry,” Azriel continued.
“Okay then big guy,” Cassian mocked him. “Prove it.”
That’s when it started. Azriel realized Cassian wasn’t the only one that had enough of Azriel’s crush. His shadows were also annoyed.
So they started watching you. Azriel asked them to stay away multiple times, but they refused to listen.
The only problem was that this only made Azriel’s crush bigger, because the shadows told him about every part of your day.
“Smiles, laughing, singing, talking to her dog, talking to herself about what to have for dinner.”
Azriel started to wonder if his shadows crushed more on you than he did and then he remembered that the shadows acted on his emotions.
One day, the shadows gave him a particular informative message about you.
“Stupid male, mean, pretty smile cry.”
It made Azriel stop in his tracks. You were crying? Someone had said something mean enough to make you, a female that smiled and laughed every second of every day, cry? He needed to do something.
“Lonely” was his shadows only answer.
That’s when he realized that maybe asking you out would actually go well. So he started to prepare.
“Flowers?” His shadows informed him of the old flowers on your kitchen table.
That’s why he got dressed, flew down from the House of Wind and went to a flower shop before he went to the bookshop.
You stood inside dusting and preparing to close the store when he came in.
“Hello, again,” you greeted him when he walked in even though it only was two minutes until you were closing. He smiled at you. “Can I help you?”
He straightened his back and tightened his wings to try to build confidence.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me,” he asked you.
Your face lit up with an amazing smile.
“I would love that,” you answered and Azriel felt himself get ten kilos lighter. “When were you thinking?”
“I can whenever, what works the best for you?” He asked and impressed himself by the lightness in his voice.
“I’m available now if you just give me a few minutes to change,” you answered.
“That sounds good,” Azriel replied and tried not to fidget to much with the flowers.
“These are for you by the way,” he answered and handed her the yellow bouquet.
“Thank you. Did you know that yellow is my favorite color?” You asked him.
“A few companions of mine might have told me,” he said and hoped you wouldn’t freak out that his shadows had been spying on you.
“You thought so?” He asked.
“I mean,” you started. “I didn’t have shadows braiding my hair every second of every day before I met you.”
First now Azriel noticed the two small braids that had been made in your hair. And he suddenly felt his face become warm.
“Just give me five minutes,” you said with a laugh and left the room.
“I can’t believe you,” he told his shadows.
“It was either that or poetry,” they taunted him back.
