We Were Beautiful

Jess she/her/problem Here for a good time and to write something Ask : open | Request: open

[we-were-beautiful]

Masterlist

Eris Vanserra 

The Fox and The Hounds: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Girl dad Eris Headcannon

Azriel 

Dad Az Headcannon 

Cassian 

The Soft Moments 

Girl Dad Cas Headcannon

Ruhn Danaan

Love and Shadows: 1 2 3 4

Feysand 

Unraveled Ends: Prologue Chap. 1 Chap.2 Chap.3

Xaden Riorson

Marry me 

Iron Will: Chap. 1 Chap.2

[wolfpire15]

My Hero Teacher

Chapter One

Midoriya Akemi sits at her desk at U.A High school, head in hands as she grades class 1.C most recent English exam, pen thrown aside. Yamada, who pawned this task off on her, didn’t have the spare time to grade the assignment. Although Akemi is not sure if it was because he didn’t want to put up with his classes work, or because of his third job as a DJ was interfering with his teaching job.

She seriously considered going to that class and asking if they paid any attention at all this year. 

Picking up the pen again to continue grading, thinking to herself. ‘It’s no wonder Aizawa expelled them to teach them a lesson’.

Older sister of Izuku Midoriya, and teaching assistant to the Underground Hero Easer Head. Her own hero's name: MisAttraction. A former full time sidekick to Sir Nighteye, her quirk is that she can attract and push objects away from her. She has to be careful how big the object is. She isn’t too confident in taking villains head on in combat; instead preferring to take on a supporting role with crowd control and other tasks.

Her brother aspires to join hero course next year despite being quirkless, and Akemi does her best to support him even knowing the odds are stacked against him. He’s smart, smarter than most even with intelligence based quirk’s; and definitely smarter than these first years.

Biting her thumb nail, muttering to herself completely unaware around her. Ishigam-san (Cementoss) and Kayama-san (Midnight) stare at her in concern. Akemi lets out a very undignified squeak  as Kayama places a hand on her shoulder. 

 “Are you alright?” Kayama-san asks her. Akemi’s shoulders slump forward, not in any danger. “Oh, just my younger brother. He is too smart for his own good, Miss Midnight.” Akemi scratches her neck.

 “Oh, think nothing of it honey and how many times do I have to tell you to call me Nemuri.” Nemuri, despite her status as an R-rated, hero has always been warm and motherly toward’s her. 

“Old habits die hard, I guess,” Akemi sheepishly giggled. “I’ve only been employed here for a single school year, but you just started in the last semester before I graduated.” And Aizawa started teaching around the same time, on Nemuri’s recommendation, but she wasn’t about to bring that up.

Glancing at the clock, time had flown between the final bell of the day and now. She was shocked that she had been grading for hours. When she checked her phone, there was a news incident about a sludge villain that attacked two middle schoolers. Opening the article her heart sank, seeing an image of Katsuki or Kacchan as her brother calls him at the top of the article.

Despite the pleasant nickname, there has been some bullying from Katsuki. While it was only words, Izuku insisted that Katsuki does defend him from the more physical bullying from others. At least that’s what Izuku tells their mother. However that does not make it any less right for the boy to bully his oldest friend.

Akemi lets out a heavy sigh already having words with Katsuki before. Looks like she would be having words with him again. Being like a big sister to Katsuki came with the annoying duty of letting him know when he was out of line. His attitude was so much like his mothers. 

But she digresses; the article said that a quirkless boy ran to his friend's aid. That was what worried her the most; where Katsuki was, her baby brother always following behind…

“Hold on a moment my dear?” Principle Nezu calls out as Akemi is heading towards the main building doors of U.A.

 “Yes, Principle Nezu. How can I help?” Akemi knew his game. That soft unassuming tone that got everyone to agree to things they normally would not. She unfortunately had fallen victim to it multiple times. She swore that he had more than just his intelligence quirk.

“I have a question regarding the Entrance Exams coming up in the next ten months,” The principal rocks back on his heels. “You mentioned that your younger brother will be applying here?”

Akemi nods her head. Fearing the answer, picking at her nail beds; a nervous habit she’s had since childhood that she never could seem to break. 

“That being said my dear I expect you to not show favouritism during the exam. Also please remember  the details of the entrance exam are confidential.” Akemi could pick up the very thinly veiled threat from the rat-god.

“It’ll be another year or two until you get your quirk teaching license. I would like you to be slightly more active with Aizawa’s new Homeroom class.” She looked blankly at the floor where Nezu had stood, mind racing at what the principal just said to her.

Akemi fished her notebook out of her messenger bag which housed some food pouches, coupons, other notebooks, a random glue stick and eyedrops for the underground teacher.

“He could be quite grumpy without his food.” Mumbles to herself as she notes the date of the Entrance exam in ten months time. It felt like her head was going to explode if any more information was thrown at her last minute.

As if summoning the devil himself, Aizawa stops in front of her in the hallway heading towards this floor’s break-room. “Midoriya—Yamada can’t keep taking you off of me.” Boredom drips from his voice.

She looks up from her notebook. Immediately Akemi notes the underground hero’s exhaustion, eyebags even more prominent than the day before. Akemi reaches into her bag automatically to pull a pouch and eyedrops for the tired hero.

“The students can be hard at times, Yamada only needed help with grading. With us not having a homeroom class. It’s a little hard to learn how to do the day-to-day aspects. I know the reason you expelled the last class, because they were as you put it ‘all to willing to go for fame and glory’ which isn’t the reason why we do the job. Right?” Aizawa glares down at her half heartedly. Taking the offered pouch and eye drops.

“Let’s see how we do with the next class.” Aizawa says casually as he leans against the handrail near the window. 

Akemi sighs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “You know you could ease up on them.” She follows her shadow teacher as they watched the sun set.

“Life isn’t always so easy even with Quirks. Fighting villains shouldn’t be easy, even if they could handle it. Because something could go wrong.” Aizawa shoves his hands in his pockets, a far away look in his eyes. 

“You still care for those naïve little shits.” Akemi bluntly states as she taps her fingers on the rail to a rhythm stuck in her head.

A deep chuckle resonates beside her; she catches a glimpse of a barely there smile. For the first time in months of working together and the occasional after drinks, with both of them being dragged out by Nemuri and Yamada, she finally got a chuckle. This was the first proper laugh and smile that she got from the underground hero. Not even Ms. Joke could get out of him.

“I suppose you’re right.” He grumbles the smirk still in one corner of his mouth.

“Well, I better get this show on the road. I’ll pick you some more eyedrops and pouches up before Monday, I think there’s a new flavour that we could try and probably some of our usual stock.” Akemi mumbles to herself as the man beside her shakes his head at the muttering as he flicks her on the forehead.

“Listen you don‘t have to get me those pouches, or the eye drops.” Rubbing the spot where he flicked her, she gives him a glare back. Slowly an evil smirk grows on her face.

“Unless you want another incident with Vlad King taking your pouches from the fridge to spite you after the baseball game again. Which left me starving, might I add. I also forget to eat when I’m on shift at Sir’s office so those pouches are also for me!”

Another flick to the forehead. “HEY! I’m going to end up with a mark..” she pouts up at him. 

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t mind; plus I don’t want you to be extra cranky.” Akemi smiles up at Aizawa, while he just stares disapprovingly at the way she smiles up at him.

There was something in his eyes that Akemi couldn’t quite place. He looks back at the setting sun; before she could ask, he grunts a goodnight to Akemi. She glances at him as he walks away, the sunlight catching his silhouette in the fading light as he mingles into the dark of the night.

Her walk home was un-eventful. Not even a villain bothered to interrupt her first true evening off from either of her jobs.Sir Nigtheye has been lenient with the hours that she does along as long as she doesn’t get tickled. Akemi visibly shivers at the memory, that tickle machine was like torture as she absolutely hates being tickled. 

The trains were packed with late night office workers and people her own age going out to party. Akemi leans her head against the wall while waiting for her stop to be called. 

The shops were quiet for which she was grateful for after a full week of rowdy teenagers it was a relief. As she debated what would be best to cook for their tea as Inko was working the night shift at the hospital.

Izuku is more quiet in his teenage angst and excitement; mostly writing in his notebooks about other hero’s quirks, their application and how they best could be put into practice. She was in the first book and the first page of these ‘Hero Analysis For The Future’. He would be brilliant if he put this effort into applying to Analytics Course, but no his heart was set on the Hero Course.

While there was nothing stopping him from applying and taking the written exam; the practical exam is what worried Akemi. She didn’t want to crush his dreams; however there was the matter of him being ‘quirkless’. While U.A doesn’t discriminate against students whose quirks don’t have a physically strong aspects, the exams are not designed in their favour.

She thought about the article from earlier detailing Kats (and possible Zuku’s) incident with a villain. While not an uncommon thing for a civilian to get in crossfire, it has decreased during the time that All Might has been operating. Not just in Japan but globally; she remembered doing a report on it a few years ago… she shook her head, her own train of thought got away from her again. 

The article mention the ‘Quirkless and foolish lad’ that must have been Zuku. The boy has always idolised All Might but for him to put himself in harm’s way. It was noble of him to try to save Kats, but the thought of Zuku getting hurt or possibly losing his life made her physically ill. A deep pit of worry settled in her stomach. 

While Kats might not like it, Mitsuki and Masaru will send over something in thanks. Probably some sweets as it was rare that the Midoriya children ate a lot of sweets. Growing up they didn’t develop that sweet tooth that kids get. Keeping what happened in mind as she decided that comfort food was on the table tonight. 

The walk home was filled with the quietness of the ordinary, rustling of leaves and the small amount of traffic noise that never seemed to stop. They had moved up in the apartment building and not far from the one that Akemi and Zuku grew up in. Inko Midoriya was a stubborn and prideful woman. While she allowed her daughter to put toward the household bills and the support to move from the two bedroomed to a three bedroomed apartment, she still insisted on taking care of most of the bills. Akemi, while only being a sidekick and teacher in training (at the moment) was paid well, antried to help as much as Inko would allow.

However the matriarch of the Midoriya’s had spent the last 4 years sleeping on the pullout bed in the living room when it became necessary for Zuku to have his own space, Inko had given up her bedroom for her daughter. 

In return when Akemi had the funds to support the move six months ago to the larger apartment, she made them up without consulting her mother. Inko had initially protested for such a decision Akemi had already signed the papers and booked the movers. It was the least she could do for Inko after all the years of taking care of her. When her and Zuku’s father had moved overseas for work. Inko essentially became a single mother to both her children.

The kids in school were cruel. While not uncommon that one parent or both are away for work their father hasn’t been home in years. There were a few creative nicknames that stuck to her throughout the years.

Even though Akemi wasn’t biologically her daughter. She was the only mother that Akemi knew. Akemi was from her father’s previous marriage and her biological mother had died in the hospital after giving birth due to complications from an injury sustained in a villain attack. Despite not having many memories of her father there was no love lost between father and daughter. 

Akemi rarely if ever hears from her father; even then it was through Inko that there was any communication between the pair. It became clear when Zuku’s quirk didn’t manifest that their father wasn’t coming back, probably out of shame as his daughter didn’t inherit his fire quirk either. She was lucky that Inko had a similar quirk to her own, otherwise she wouldn’t have known how to control it.

When Akemi walked through the door. Zuku was ready and waiting for her, kindly taking the food bags off of her. She waits until they were seated and finished eating before laying into her brother. 

“Now why did I have to hear about the incident with the villain that you were involved in, not from you or mom, but from a news article?” She could feel her eyelid twitch as she felt her anger and worry began to boil over.

Zuku meekly looked down and away from his sister, like a five year old who had broken something that didn’t want to admit it. Akemi gave him an Aizawa level glare to tell the truth. 

“Well you see uhhh…. All Might saved me twice from the villain. Kacchan was in trouble and I couldn’t not help him. He looked so scared.” Zuku quickly explains hands moving as as he struggles not to mutter the rest. Akemi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“While you were extremely brave. Next time if you are attacked or get caught up in a villain attack. Please let me know your alright first; instead of me finding out through a third party. I know I’m just a sidekick, but I know many hero’s that help you if I can’t get there first. Now tell me, did you managed to get All Might’s autograph?” 

Zuku’s face brighten up at the mention of All Might. “I did. Kemi-chan.” She gives him a wide smile before leaning over to ruffle his hair. 

Akemi pushes through the need to baby her younger brother. While there was an age gap between the pair of seven years; she in some ways mothered him quite a bit growing up due to Inko having to support her family. However the kids were never alone with Mitsuki and Masaru always lending a hand, Inko had chastised her for taking on so much responsibility so young. Her mother wanted her to enjoy her childhood. 

Akemi shook her head as she remembered her old babysitter, the one who encouraged her to follow her dreams of being a hero. Being some of the  friends she had in middle school.

Obro-kun was one of her biggest supporters, even promised that when he and his friends have their own agency that they would hire her to be their first sidekick. 

He died before any of that even became a reality. She was only nine and that was her first real taste of death. That made her want to protect her younger brother from the world even though it was only a matter of time when he would be forced to face the ugliness of the world. She’d do what she can.

Eight months later

Life went on as normal for the Midoriya family. well as you can expect when Akemi’s brother started to gain major muscle mass with this sudden dietary and workout plan that he says was from the school. 

However, that didn’t sit right with her and the poor boy looked just as exhausted as his sister. For Akemi having Sir Nighteye as a boss; it was non stop. With Mirio Togata being Sir’s newest protégée as he has spent all his work studies with Sir. 

Togata was a good hero, and had a kind heart that she admired about the budding hero. It just meant that he was on her patrols and that she had to keep an eye on him as per her bosses instructions. Since she was a worrywort, she hadn’t slept much. 

While she thought it would be just a normal staff meeting with the upcoming graduating class and then exams for each of the years, it was rather gruelling. While U.A is pretty relaxed with how each teacher runs their classroom they do have to do some standardised tests that the government and the commission expect their students to do. 

Akemi sat between Nemuri and Yamada for this particular meeting. While the rest of the staff were talking to each other, she had her head laid on the table. Nemuri pokes her in the shoulder trying to get some sort of reaction out of the teaching assistant.

“Nem just don’t. Don’t even think about it.” Akemi grumbles beneath her arm, Nemuri just laughs looking over Yamada’s shoulder to call out to the other equally exhausted looking hero. 

“Well looks like she’s catching somethings from you Shota.” Aizawa just gives Nemuri a bored look on his face.

The door of the meeting room opens, standing there is Nezu with All Might. Upon hearing a few gasps, Akemi raises her head, blinking as she sees the hulking seven foot tall man transform into a skeleton. 

‘What is going on?’ Akemi mutters to herself, not realising that she hadn’t been following along. With what Nezu has been saying with how the rat’s eyes have been trained on her. 

“Yagi Toshinori , or as some of you might know him as All Might  will be joining the UA staff. He will be continuing with his hero duties; however; due to his condition he can only maintain his All Might form for three hours daily.” Nezu finished up his speech.

All Might or Yagi-san as she named him in her head was awkwardly standing in front of the UA staff. It looked like All Might is going to teach here in the new school year. She turns her head to catch Aizawa’s eyes  so they could share a slight look of shock and horror. Neither of them were huge fans of the Number One hero; feeling that he spent more time basking in the limelight while they were focusing on doing their jobs. And now they were going to have to deal with him at this job.

The rest of the meeting was just figuring out the logistics of how to work around Yagi-san’s time limit. The proposed idea was to have him for the first few lessons of the day, and for them to be only an hour or two long to fit within his time limit; altering between the classes so the commission would not accuse them of favouritism.

Returning home in the dark; with the apartment complex being quiet was a blessing. Grabbing a few bottles of beer, she headed up to the roof. Mostly just to stare off into the distance as she digests the day. Akemi’s phone buzzed with the updated schedule of patrols, fortunately she had the evening patrol which meant she could sleep in for once. Glancing up at the time 12:45am, she lets out a heavy sigh. 

“All Might teaching. The man is great at hero work, but teaching is a whole different ball game. I just know this isn’t going to end well.” She mutters to no one but herself, finishing off the first bottle.

A pair of boots land on the railing of the roof, scaring Akemi. Reflex has her hand falling to the weapon at her waist. It was the familiar swirling of a grey scarf that had her calming down, and moving her hand away from the knife.

Looking to see Aizawa, goggles being placed around his neck and fingerless gloves being taken off. The only reason she had heard his approach was because he wanted her to know, and not to scare her, after the last time that he did so he get punched by her, training exercise with 2-A. She leaned down to swap out the beer bottles, glancing up at the feeling of his stare at the bottle longingly. 

“You’re off the clock, you know.” Offering the older man a beer. Stepping down, he took the beer off from her, their finger tips brushing against each other for a moment that lingered on for what seemed like forever. 

“You’re a bad influence.” The man grumbles before leaning froward to look at the city’s skyline with all of its flickering lights. 

It had been a hard week for the pair of them between Class 2-A preparing for their licensing exam and their usual patrol schedules. Akemi had a calendar that showed both of their patrol schedules in the podium for either of them to glance at any given moment. 

There was also the matter of grading said exams and lesson planning. Akemi couldn’t really function without some sort of set schedule and Aizawa was loose in his approach to lesson planning; so they both had to find a happy medium. They had set goals for each lesson and where the students were at. They would keep a running document for their class as a whole but the lesson flowed where they needed to go. 

Akemi walked up beside him pushing his hair out of her face leaning against her colleague. 

He leaned his head against hers. She whispers “We’ve bot got fucked sleep schedules this week. I think I only got about ten hours in total.”

Aizawa grunts as he takes a swig from the bottle, she sighed. 

“I don’t know how Yamada and Nemuri do it, do they have someone with a sleep reviver quirk or something.” While she talked she got closer to the man so soak up some of his body heat, not that he minded as he listened. 

“Here I thought you had a lot of energy, Midoriya. At the school you don’t seem like you’ve only got two hours of sleep per night. Why do you think I take naps while the students do bookwork?” Aizawa monotone conveyed the teasing edge to it that could have been missed if you haven’t spent a lot of time with the man. 

She watches him as the wind reveals more of his face to her. The stubble while it would turn many off, she found it charming and his tired eyes she found full of care for his students. He had this passion for his career that went beyond any hero that she has met. 

While Akemi was distracted her mouth opened without thinking. “Unless you’d like to share that sleeping bag. You’ve got to tell me where you got it from.” 

Akemi’s face flushes with warmth, her hand slaps to cover up her mouth. He turns to her smirking. 

“I’m not sure about it having enough room, it’d be a tight fit.” This just brings more warmth to her face as she looks down, her violet hair hiding her flushed face.

 “You’ve spent too much time with Nemuri.”  She quickly snaps back, looking him in the eyes with a pout on her face. 

Her violet hair swaying the soft breeze she could see reflected in his silver eyes, her face transformed from a pouting expression to the soft smile that was always present on her face. In the past semester he’d seen her grow within her confidence in the classroom. 

Aizawa lets out a small huff. “I think Hizashi and Nemuri both have infected us with their own brand of humour.” He shrugs his shoulders before breaking their eye contact, to admire the city’s lights. 

Akemi sighed. “You’re lucky that you only live with your cats….” There was a hum of recognition beside her. 

“Stop me if I continue for ages, but with All Might on the staff—this is either going to media storm or quiet as this night. Not only do I have to contend with his smiling face at home now I have to see it at work. My younger brother is obsessed with the man. Ugggghhh he’d been wanting stuff sighed.” Akemi places her head against the railing with a thud. 

She could feel the eye roll of the man beside her not even having to look at the man as he chastised her antics. 

“Want another?” That monotone voice called to her, the bottle in her hand had somehow become empty, she gave a hum of reply as she raised her head. Using her quirk to levitate two more bottles into each of their hands. 

“Think of it this way. You’ve only got two months until the entrance exam, then you can focus on the incoming students enough to ignore All Might outside the usual stuff.” Aizawa moved closer to her as he spoke softly, bumping their shoulders to regain her attention. 

“If you can’t stand to be near him, give me a signal…” he scratches his chin with his thumb. “…like this.” 

This brought a smile to her face. Shaking her head at how ridiculous the situation was. “Got it. How’s bastard?” 

She brought her eyes up to the scratches on his hands that obviously weren’t from a villain attack, nor the general use of his capture weapon. Aizawa gave her an odd look. Shrugging as she answered.

“I’ve been rattling on for ages. Plus outside of U.A and your patrols— you end up either at your apartment, with Yamada, or having a beer with me. Two of the three of those you spend with someone who just talks.” Proving her own point as she continued to rattle on again. 

Shaking his head at her own antics, “Bastards fine, still a pain in my ass with his need to be fed all the time. I try not to give in otherwise I’ll get another scolding from his vet. That cat definitely targets me when I’m most tired.” 

Akemi giggled as she pictured a masterminded cat. “You’ve been tricked by your masterminding cat, who shall rule the day….OW!”

She spoke in the most cartoonish evil voice she could muster, but she was quickly shoved away from the owner of said masterminded cat. Rubbing her shoulder as she sticks her tongue out at him like a child as he rolls his eyes.

 “I get enough of that with Miss.Joke.”

“Oh and how is she?” Aizawa groans, rubbing his hand over his eyes, before glancing down at her. 

“Annoying as always, she’s trying to convince me to marry her.” 

Akemi bites her tongue before she could say what she was thinking ‘It’s because you’re a catch.’ Coughing as she thought about her answer.

“Tell her you’ve got a partner or something.” One of Aizawa’s nervous ticks was a hand to his neck. Either to calm himself down or distract him. She wasn’t sure, but there he is rolling his neck to look up at the night sky. 

“I’ve tried that but she never believes me.” ‘He sounds like a teenager.’ She pokes him in the shoulder, to bring his attention back to her. 

“Well, bring me next time. It might make her stop, plus you’ll need help with the students with the licensing exam. I also want to see how it’s changed since I did mine six years ago.”

Their was an uncomfortable cough beside her almost like a choking. ‘Six years ago.’ The thought rang through Shota Aizawa’s head forgetting the almost decade that separated them.

To him it doesn’t seem like twelve years since he graduated, thirteen since that day. Akemi could see the wheels of Aizawa’s brain turning, she laid her head on his shoulder to ground them both.

Hello my lovely's,

I've decided to post the first chapter of MHT (My Hero Teacher) on here because why the hell not.

I would like to dedicate this to my absolute doll of a Beta reader @we-were-beautiful. Thank you for bearing with my ramblings

Also here's the link to the rest of the chapters if you've enjoyed this.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/73896866/chapters/192744671

Let me know what you guys think

[we-were-beautiful]

Heyy will you be continuing the feysand fic? Please do continue it! It's amazing!

Hi Dear Heart

I will be continuing with my feysand fic. I just have a bad case of the too many projects and crippling writers block

[skyfallscotland]

No because has anyone else thought about this in detail? Or did you all get stuck on Imogen being there? Also how does one regulate a sleep cycle? Send help

??????????

[we-were-beautiful]

I think about this a lot actually. What Dain, Imogen and Quinn think about having one of their squad mates not bond. How that squad mate had to redo the first year without them… I have thoughts and feelings about this.

[we-were-beautiful]

A someone who cosplays mamma Sorrengail I agree with these results

I'm sorry you've been doing what without telling us??? Why would you keep such information to yourself when it's so fundamental to the wellbeing of the fandom? The wellbeing of the FANDOM--

You're doing amazing sweetie!!!!

Oh yeah. I have been keeping it kinda on the DL. But I was apart of a big FourthWing photo shoot last month put together by good friend that was a ton of fun. Part of it is that I have body dysmorphia and tend to hate most photos that I am in. (also fun note I was pretty blind the whole shoot)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by High Lady Court🌙 (@princessroyalcourt)

[nicenotkind]

“The hottest thing a man can be is a little afraid of me”

- a quote by Mira Sorrengail, Imogen Cardulo and Sgaeyl

[fandomrewrites]

Adding my OC (Y/N) Riorson

[we-were-beautiful]

I want to add my dear Autumn Melgren (oc) to this

[betss1256]

Do you think Lilith Sorrengail is a MILF? 🤔

YES

yes

Uhuh

Yep

no (wrong answer)

Voting ended onMay 3, 2025

[we-were-beautiful]

A someone who cosplays mamma Sorrengail I agree with these results

[museaway]

✍️ more fic writer asks!

reblog & your followers can send asks with the questions they’d like you to answer!

the last sentence you wrote

a character whose POV you’re currently exploring

how you feel about your current WIP

a story idea you haven’t written yet

first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

the word that appears the most in your current draft (wordcounter.net can tell you)

your preferred writing fonts

if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for…

start to finish, how long did it take you to write the last fic you posted?

what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

a WIP you’d like to finish someday

a trope you’re really into right now

a fandom you’re thinking about writing for

where do you get your inspiration?

favorite weather for writing

favorite place to write

talk about your writing and editing process

if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

in what year did you publish your first fic?

when did you publish your most recent fic?

do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?

pick three keywords that describe your writing

how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

are you able to write with other people around?

your favorite part of the writing process

your least favorite part of the writing process

how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

share a fic you’re especially proud of

[justallihere]

In light of the most recent AI scraping incident on AO3, this feels like a good time to remind people that if you don’t have an archive account yet, please make one! More and more authors are moving to locking their works to try to prevent stealing. I haven’t fully decided yet what I’ll do with my own works, but please know I’m seriously considering archive-locking at this point.

I’ll probably have more to say later, but right now I’m angry and I’m just utterly exhausted. I do have a couple AO3 invitations left, so if you need one and are cool sharing your email address with me, send me a message and I’d love to send you an invitation to join 🫶🏻

[skyfallscotland]

Ditto on the invitations—everyone from the old guard (lol) probably has some left so you can skip the line if needed, just reach out! 💖

[we-were-beautiful]

Iron Will Ch.2

Well since AO3 is being stupid and won't let me post the link to the Second chapter I have decided to post it up here like i would my regular tumblr story post

AN: Thank you to @danikasthings and lizardrunclub over on AO3 for beta reading this

Warning: Canon typical violence

Recovered correspondence From General Augustine Melgren to Cadet Autumn Melgren   

My beloved Autumn,

If you are reading this it means you have survived your first day in the quadrant. Now you will truly begin your journey to becoming a rider. Make me proud my beloved daughter I Will see you come threshing 

All my Love 

Papa 

I had to have done something horrible in a past life to receive this kind of karmic retribution. That is the only thing I can think of as I move to step towards the parapet, because at that moment the heavens decided to open up with a crack of thunder. I take a moment to give my full name to the two sitting, glaring at Riorson the whole time; if the probability of him throwing me off the turret weren't so high I would probably try and smack the smug grin he’s wearing right off his face. I take my first step out from the turret and on to the stone bridge. 

“You’ve got this Autumn.” I can barely hear Rhiannon yell over the wind and rain. 

Arms up for balance. That was the first thing Papa instructed me on when I had started training. Breath in…breath out; place one foot in front of the other and make sure that your footing is solid before moving forward. I could do this.  Fuck I had done this before at a much higher altitude on Codagh’s back. 

The first step is easy, if you don’t count the pelting rain that is now coming down in sheets.

“I’m going to kill Mira next time I see her,” I mumble taking a few more steps. If she hadn’t been running her mouth about Brennan, Aunt Lilith probably wouldn’t be contributing to this storm. 

Left foot. Right foot. One step at a time. The rain is making it hard to see where exactly I am going, but I can feel it. Eighteen inches is more than enough space to walk. What makes the parapet so deadly is the lack of handrails and the wind. But, if you are smart enough you know that when the wind picks up, you need to drop into a crouch, then stand up and keep walking. Unfortunately the  slick stones didn’t help.. Thank Malek that I have rider boots. My normal soft soled slippers would have been the death of me. I would have slipped right off.

 My left foot catches on one of the uneven mortar joints and I stumble.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” I can't correct myself in time and I fall. 

My right knee cracks against the stone. And terror fills my throat. Shit. Fuck.  My hands shoot out and grab either side of the parapet, stopping me from completely falling off. My left leg is dangling over the edge with nothing but air beneath it. My heart is pumping loudly against my chest. Pain radiates from my knee but the wraps took the brunt of it so hopefully I didn’t shatter my patella. 

“Autumn!” Rhiannon screams from behind. 

“I’m ok,” I call out loudly, barely  able to be heard over the pouring rain. “Watch out for mortar joints up here. There is one that is sticking way out.” 

I need to get my left foot back on the parapet and stand. In theory, it was easy enough, but in reality, standing would be tricky. I had to time it just right to negate the wind or I would be blown right off. I move my left leg back onto the stones and wait for the wind to die down.

“Wait for the wind and then,” I mutter the words that had been drilled into my head and, the moment the wind slows, I hop up, careful not to shift my weight too fast, keeping my core tight to keep my balance at the center of the parapet. I take a second to breathe, willing my heart to slow down before taking another step. 

I need something to take my mind away from what just happened—away from how close I almost came to dying. Violet would probably recite facts that her father had drilled into the two of us. Dad probably just walked across the parapet like he owned it. If mom had gone into the quadrant she probably would have sang or hummed to herself. But, I could strategize. 

“In the recent conflict at Samara, we lost one rider and one dragon to a drift of gryphons and their riders. The reason for the attack is unknown. Two gryphon riders were captured and interrogated. It is unknown why they attacked the outpost and the two riders wouldn’t give up any information and were since executed,” I rattle off the last incident that I had gone over with Papa. “In that situation I would have requested the use of a truth-sayer and possibly someone who could read memories if such a signet existed. I would want to know what the drift was searching for and if they were successful in retrieving it. I would follow that with questions as to why they were looking for it in the first place.” 

I look down and see that I have passed the 3/4 mark. Almost there. I chance a glance back at Rhiannon to make sure she is still behind me. I let out a sigh of relief when I can make out her form. 

“Then I would compare this conflict to others surrounding the outpost. Namely the outposts at Athebyne, Summerton and Chakir. If there has been a notable increase in attacks against these outposts and surrounding villages, I would request an increase in riders from the midland post.” 

‘What are the next steps, Autumn? You are pulling riders from the midland post so now they will be understaffed.’ I can almost hear Papa questioning my reasons. 

“I would pull third year cadets to temporarily staff the midland post. Rotating them in week-long deployments so as to not impact their studies at Basgiath.” Thirty more feet until I am at the citadel. 

“Once the attacks start to decrease, I would recall most of the riders from the midland post. I would have them fly into the mountains to see if the Poromish riders will attack again once they realise the additional riots have been pulled.” 

Ten more feet. 

“If they attack once the riot has been pulled then they are within distance to provide aid to the outpost. Should this be the case then we know that we need to permanently increase riders at these locations and should reorder the wings as such.” 

Five feet. 

Fairly solid strategy if I say so myself. I hadn’t gone into that much detail when I had been talking about it with Papa in Calldyr, but here on the parapet, I could let my mind wander. It only takes a couple more steps before I am out of the rain and in the shelter of the citadel. 

“Name,” The bored looking redhead asks, looking up at me. 

“Autumn Melgren.” I push a soaking strand of hair out of my face. Damn, I’m going to rebraid my hair once it dries. It feels like more than a few pieces escaped.

“Melgren as in...” And there it is, the connection. 

“General Melgren, yes.” Oh these next three years are going to be fun. 

“Well then Cadet Melgren. I look forward to seeing how you do in the quadrant.” Hoping to see me fail probably. 

That won't happen. I won't let it. Legacies traditionally have the training beat into them from the time they begin to walk. But with a father like Melgren, all eyes will be on me.

“Autumna” a familiar voice calls from my left. I whip around to see a familiar face. 

Dain Aetos. He hasn’t changed in the six months since I had seen him. His beard has grown out covering the scar along his chin given to him by his dragon. I weave my way over towards him.

“Dain.” A small smile grows on my face. I am quickly swept into a hug. Familiar. Safe. Dain had always acted as a protector for Violet and me. Even if I felt as though I didn’t need one, it was comforting to have his presence when my father wasn’t there. 

“I never doubted that you would make it across.” He laughs, stepping back to give me a glance over. “You look like a drowned rat.”

“Well, Mira pissed off the general and apparently she opened up the heavens.” I push some soaking strands of hair away from my face. 

“Mira is here?” Dains eyebrows hit his hairline. 

“Yeah you aren’t going to be happy about this.” I examine him as the confusion grows on his face. “General Sorrengail declared that Violet was to enter the Riders Quadrant.”

Dain quickly grabs my arm and pulls me away from the crowd of cadets. Our footsteps echo off the marble floor as we move further away from the rotunda. 

“What do you mean General Sorrengail declared that Violet was to enter the Quadrant?” He grabs hold of my bicep.

“Just that. Six months ago, she let us know that Violet would be crossing the parapet.  Violet started training the next day.” 

“No… She’ll be killed. She can’t.” Despite their dancing around each other, they were in love, but both of them were too chicken shit to admit it.

“Trust me, we tried, Dain. Nothing will change her mind. Mira tried, Dad tried. Fuck even Mom tried. Mom got into a fight with her Dain.” Mom and Lilith had been friends since childhood. For the two of them to be fighting, it had to be serious, and for mom to still not be talking with Lilith, it was catastrophic.

“Mira made a last ditch effort to get her mom to reconsider but you know how she is.” Lilith and Papa were the disciplinarians amongst our families. Their words were law and once declared, unchanged. That was how it had always been. We acted up and we ended up facing the two generals.  

“She’ll be killed,” Dain repeats, like he can’t wrap his mind around the fact. “Even if she makes it across the parapet. This place will kill her.” 

“Have some faith, Dain. I helped her train these last six months. Papa helped her train when he was here.” I place a comforting hand on his shoulder. “She's smart, Dain. She will use that to her advantage.” 

Violet can literally run circles around the rest of us when it comes to book smarts. Her father trained her well. She should have been his pride and joy down in the archives, but he passed away before we even took the entrance exams. 

“We need to get back to the rotunda, Dain, before others start talking.” Gods know riders seem to have nothing better to do with their free time than run their mouths. “She should be close to the citadel by now.” 

I offer up a short prayer to Zinhal that she makes it across safely and swiftly. She is fast, but the rain is coming down in sheets, making visibility shit and the stones slick.   

“Okay, we will get the two of you put into my squad and we can keep an eye on her there,” Dain says with finality. 

Oh good. He is doing exactly what Mira wanted him to do and I didn’t even have to tell him. 

We walk in step with one another back to the rotunda. My eyes scan the room as I look for Rhiannon and Violet. Rhi shouldn’t have been too far behind me, so she should be here. The sea of black and random colors is jarring. Those who had been here for a while mingle with those of us who had just made it across. Eventually, I spotted Rhi’s familiar form. She is standing talking to Violet. I nudge Dain and nod towards the two and start to make my way over to them. Dain, on the other hand, storms past me towards the two of them and I end up jogging to catch up to him.  

He looks shocked to see her standing here despite the fact that I literally just told him what was going on; and Violet, well, she looks up to him with the same love and adoration in her eyes even though it seems to be tinged a bit green.

“Violet!” He all but barks. “What the hell are you doing here?” 

Amari, give me strength. It's like everything I just told him went in one ear and out the other.  Dain always got tunnel vision when it came to Violet. She was the more delicate out of the two of us. 

“Dain, it's good to see you.” Violet blinks like she's trying to focus her vision. Something that typically leads to her vomiting up her guts or passing out. 

“Vi? You good?” I ask softly, trying desperately not to draw attention to us or her. We can’t afford to let others see what kind of state she is in.

“Damn it, Violet.” He hauls her up and leads her to an alcove where she can sit. We are tucked away from the prying eyes of cadets and, thankfully, it has a bench. Dain is quick to get her pack off of her and guide her to sit. 

“I’m going to be sick.” Violet is turning a concerning shade of green

“Get your head between your knees,” I tell her, moving to push her torso down. I look up at Dain who has taken to rubbing circles on her lower back. I move my pack to where I can get into it and ruffle around looking for the small baggie my mother had placed in there the night before. Locating the bag takes longer than I would like, but eventually, I am able to pull out a small bag filled with round golden pea-sized balls. I fish one out and hand it to Violet. “Suck on this, it will help with the nausea. It’s just the adrenaline working its way through your system. It should pass soon.” 

“Your mom’s honey ginger balls?” Dain asked, hand pausing for a brief second. 

“Yup.” I nod, looking Violet over. 

“Who the hell are you?” I don't need to glance up to know that Dain is glaring at Rhiannon. 

“I’m Rhiannon. I’m Violet and Autumn’s…friend.” She doesn’t sound too confident right now. 

“Listen to me, Rhiannon. Violet’s fine. And if anyone asks, you repeat what Autumn just said. It's just adrenaline working its way through her system. Understand?,” he asks. Well apparently, he fits right into the chain of command. That must make his father proud. 

“It’s no one’s business what’s going on with Violet. So I wouldn’t say shit. Especially when she is the reason I made it across the parapet,” Rhi snaps back at Dain. I groan. Once he finds out that they switched boots, he’s going to blow his fucking lid. 

“You better mean that,” he growls. 

“I could ask who the hell you are.” She matches his energy. 

“He’s one of our oldest friends.” Violet moves like she's going to sit up. 

“Nope head down.” I gently push her back keeping her head firmly between her knees. I shuffle to start unlacing Rhi’s boot.  

“And a second year cadet,” he growls. I don’t have to see him to know he is puffing out his chest. Apparently I had missed something. 

“Dain!” I snap, bringing his attention back to Violet. 

“No one can see you here, Vi, so take your time.” He moved to kneel beside her, keeping a gentle hand on her back. At some point we will probably need to shove the two of them into a storage closet and lock them in there until they confess their feelings for one another. They would make a beautiful couple. A year ago, I could have seen it: Dain and Violet getting together and getting married, me sadly third wheeling them. But in those visions I had always seen Vi in the cream robes that the scribes wore. The ones her father had worn, but now, everything had changed. Here she is, in black leathers, sitting on a bench trying not to hurl her gut out in front of the whole quadrant.

“Are you hurt?” Dain’s voice brings me out of my musings. 

“My knee is sore” Violet whispers just loud enough for the two of us to hear.

“Are you sure? Is that all?” Dain asks. Ever the worry wart. “Are you wearing daggers?” 

“No, Dain, those are rolls of parchment.” I look up at him in disbelief and roll my eyes. “Do you really think I would let her come here without anything? You think my father would have let her come without a dagger or two?” 

I feel him glare at me and I glare right back. He should know better than to try with me. 

“Get your boots switched. You two look ridiculous,” he commands Violet and Rhi. “You guys trust this one?” He nods towards Rhiannon. 

“Yeah, we trust her.” I grimace as I go to stand having to use the bench to push myself up. My knees did not like being stuck in that position. Trust is finicky here at Basgiath and wasn’t typically thrown around lightly, so I hope that Rhiannon understood that I just stuck my neck out for her. 

“Alright.” He turns to face her and I take in just how much he had changed even since the last time I saw him. “I’m Dain Aetos. I’m the squad leader for Second Squad, Flame Section, Second Wing.” 

Yeah, his father could not shut up about that when the news had reached his desk. I had thought my mother was going to stab him at our dinner table that night, because he wouldn’t shut up. It took Papa telling him in no uncertain terms to shut the fuck up or he would feed him to Codagh, before the Colonel stopped gushing about his son. 

“Parapet should be over in the next few hours, depending on how fast the candidates cross or fall. Go find the redhead with the roll—she’s usually carrying a crossbow—and tell her Dain Aetos put you two and Violet Sorrengail in his squad,” he commands. “If she questions you, tell her she owes me for saving her ass at Threshing last year. I will bring Violet back to the courtyard shortly.”

I look at the two of them and wiggle my eyebrows. Dain rolls his eyes before leading Violet away. 

“Well, I guess we should go find the redhead with the roll.” I glance at Rhiannon.

“Yeah that is probably the smart idea.” 

Finding the redhead with the roll takes longer than I would like to admit, not just because there are several redheads who carry crossbows, Dain. Eventually though we are led to the right one.

As predicted, she did start questioning us as to why Dain wanted us three in his squad, but after mentioning Threshing, she shut right up and wrote all three of our names down. Apparently, mentioning that someone had to save your ass while trying to prove that you are worthy to ride a dragon, opens a lot of doors to getting whatever the hell you want. 

Then came the waiting. Violet and I were never allowed to watch Conscription Day. No matter how much we -I- begged to do so. No one had told me how long you would have to wait after you crossed for the rest of the candidates to make their way across the parapet. While Mira’s advice to cross early came from a good place, now we are stuck sitting around and people watching. 

People watching was one of my favorite activities growing up. I used to go down to the villages wherever my parents were stationed, and find a cafe to sit. I would create fantastical stories about the villagers and their lives, but I couldn’t afford to do that now. Now I had to look at the people surrounding me and try to work out their strengths and weaknesses. To observe any little detail about them that would give me a leg up in this place. Rhi had wandered away from me to talk to a cute girl with short black hair. I made my way to the outskirts of the crowd to look around at the cadets. 

A hand lands on my shoulder and reflexes take over. The dagger that is sheathed at my ribs is out and moving towards the person's throat. 

“Autumn?” A familiar voice cries out a few octaves higher than usual. It takes my brain a few seconds to process who I have just pulled a dagger on. 

In front of me stands a familiar brunet, pressed against the wall, hands up in surrender. 

“Sawyer?” I raise a brow.

“Hey Autumn.” He smiles at me. Sawyer Hendrick. One of the bravest people I have met. Well, brave to me. He managed to ask my father if he could take me on a date to the festival in our hometown.

“Hey, you.” I smile back and move to hug him. 

“How has the quadrant been treating you? How is being a rider?” I watch sorrow grow across his face at the question. Looking at his uniform told me why. Where there should have been two stars along his collar, there was only one. A first year, a repeat. He had been passed over at Threshing and had to do it all over again. 

“Sawyer, I’m so—”  I trailed off

“Don’t,” he interrupts. “I have already heard it over and over. From my squad, from the professors. I was one they thought would bond.” He gives me a sad smile. “I’m grateful that I get a second chance to try again.”

“We will make sure you get picked this time.” He lets out a hearty laugh. The last time I heard him laugh like that was when he was walking me back to my grandmother's home after the summer festival.

“I'm shocked that the dragons passed you over. You didn’t flinch when Codagh got in your face last year. That should have given you a leg up with the unbonded dragons.” 

“Don’t remind me. I thought I was going to get eaten.” His face flushes. “So what about you? Are you excited to be here?”

“I mean, I have only been dreaming about this since I was a little girl. I’m one step closer to becoming a rider.”

“Well you have got a hell of a legacy to live up to.” He slings an arm around my shoulder. 

“Don’t I know it.” I can already feel the eyes on me. Felt them the moment I left my fathers office. I will either rise and meet everyone's expectations or I will burn in dragon fire. I will not let one of these cadets kill me. Just like the Melgren’s before me.

Sawyer and I chat as the new cadets make their way across the parapet. Having a first year who is repeating as a friend turns out to be one of my most valuable assets. Sawyer is quick to tell me what he knows about the second years. Weaknesses, strengths, signets. All information that will be helpful in the long run. Challenges, while typically kept within the year, occasionally end up with separate years fighting one another. It will be nice to know what the second and third years have under their belt to fight dirty with. 

Eventually the storm dies down and the sun comes out. That brings with it heat and humidity. I almost would have preferred the rain continue.

“Sawyer, can you help me pull my hood out? It's tucked down in my corset.” Mira had tucked the hood of my shirt down the back of my corset so that the wind wouldn't catch it, but now I need help getting it out since I don’t want to risk dislocating my shoulders to pull it out myself. I don’t need that weakness shown to the quadrant. Not yet. It will happen eventually, but the last thing I need is for it to happen in formation, in front of the entire quadrant. 

“Sure.” He walks around to my back and moves to grab the fabric of the hood from where it is tucked against my shirt and the dragon scales. 

“What is your corset made of? It feels weird. Ridged?” He works the hood free. 

“That's a secret. It was a gift from General Melgren.” I flip the hood up over my head to give me some coverage from the sun. The last thing I want is to be sunburnt the first day in. One of the crappier things about being pale. The sun seems to have a personal vendetta against me. Eventually I see Violet return and make her way over to Rhiannon, who is still with the brunette. I excuse myself before making my way over to the trio.

“You all good Vi?” I gently try to fish to see if I need to sneak her off to Nolon to be mended. 

“Yup. Right as rain.” She smiles tightly. That is definitely something we will have to talk about later. She's holding something back. The two introduce me to the brunette that they have been chatting with. Tara is from the Morraine providence, and carries herself like most of the other cadets here.  

The bells ring out as the last of the candidates make their way into the courtyard, followed by Riorson and the other two riders. 

Riorson stands out. His imposing height adds to the effect, but what catches my eye is his commanding presence. He walks into the courtyard and all eyes are drawn to him. People move out of the way like he’s a dragon and they are nothing but a defenseless herd of sheep. I can’t help but wonder what his signet is. Papa and Aunt Lilith never mentioned it. No, the only acknowledgement that Papa gave Riorson was that he liked to see him once a year, typically during Threshing, to make sure that he was still loyal to Navarre. He bonded with a dragon though and why would a dragon bond with a human who wasn’t loyal to the place where the hatching grounds is. 

Dragons are fiercely protective of the hatching grounds that resides within the Vale; they need humans to channel their magic to help protect those hatching grounds. It's the only reason dragons even bother bonding with humans. If they didn’t need to, I'm fairly certain that it would be open season on humans.

“Looks like it's starting,” Rhi whispers as I look up towards the raised dias. There, standing in the middle, is Colonel Pancheck, the commandant for the quadrant, surrounded by the professors and senior leadership. Xaden stands amongst them.

“Three hundred and one of you survived the parapet to become cadets today. Good Job. Sixty-seven did not.” Pancheck is a snake in the grass. His presence has always rubbed me the wrong way. He is willing to step on whomever to make his way to the top. It annoyed the hell out of Papa and honestly this posting had been a punishment. A way for Papa to be able to keep an eye on him and keep him reined in. You can’t fuck up nearly as bad when you’re stuck here at what is deemed an academic posting rather than on the front lines. 

“I hear this posting is a stepping stone for him. He wants Sorrengail’s job, then Melgren’s,” Tara whispers conspiratorially. 

“General Melgren’s,” Rhiannon whispers back. 

“He’ll never get it,” Violet comments. 

“My father’s signet lets him see the outcome of a battle before it's happened. It's hard to be assassinated when you know when it will happen. From experience there is no beating that level of power. Trust me I can’t even get the one up on him while sparring.” I keep my eyes trained up-front. “And Pancheck wouldn’t stand a chance against General Melgren in a fight.” 

“As the Codex says, you now begin the true Crucible!” Pancheck shouts and begins what is inevitably another one of his long winded speeches. Formal events suck when he is the one to give the speeches. Honestly, he's more long winded than some scribes. But his speech is the same one that all cadets hear. We will be taught by our teachers and put to the test by our peers and leadership. A quarter of us will not make it to graduation, and even less to retirement, but the lure of a dragon always has us, young and stupid kids, coming from across the kingdom to voluntarily sign up for this. 

“Your instructors will teach you. It's up to you how well you’ll learn.” He sweeps his arms out gesturing to the professors lined up behind him. I can recognize a few faces; some have been my teachers, others have been guests to my family. 

“Discipline falls to your units with your Wingleader having the final say.” He narrows his eyes at us in a way that is supposed to be intimidating. “If I have to get involved…Well you don’t want me to get involved.” 

It's like he is a discount villain in a romance novel. Now, if that speech came out from someone who spent a few years at Samara or Athebyne, I would be terrified, but to my knowledge he has only spent time at the midland post or one of the coastal posts. 

“With that I will leave you to your wingleaders. My best advice? Don’t die.” He leaves, taking the professors with him and leaving us to the wingleaders and their leadership cadre.

One woman steps forward, tall and built like a brick shit house with wide shoulders. Her armor is tipped in silver and there is a gnarly scar running down her face. Her presence is far more commanding than Panchek’s was while he was up there. She introduces herself as Nyra. She is the senior wingleader and the wingleader for the First Wing.

“Sections leaders and squad leaders, take your position now,” she addresses the cadets in a way that leaves no room for discussion.

The way the riders move is impressive; they quickly fall in line, standing in front of the dias. Dain is standing amongst them looking everywhere but at Violet and me. 

“Cadets when you hear your name called take up formation behind your squad leader,” Nyra instructs.

The redhead that Rhi and I had hunted down earlier starts calling out names and people start falling into formation behind their respective squad leaders.

The kid I threatened on the stairs ends up in Flame Section in First Wing. Tara is called to a different section of First Wing. Violet, Rhi and I make our way behind Dain as our names are called. Much to my delight, Sawyer is also in our squad, so I will have at least one more friendly face.  We have a few third and second years amongst us. I can't help but let out a small sigh of relief when I notice that we are not in Riorson’s wing. So at least he won't be able to come for us by pulling rank. No, he will either have to challenge us or attack us on his own time. I can feel his eyes on me as the rest of the cadets are sorted. 

Whoever decided that black leather for riders was a smart idea, never had to stand in formation in full uniform after being drenched. The humidity might actually kill me. Everything is wet and I am uncomfortable. The dragon scale corset is digging uncomfortably into my skin and, despite what papa wishes, I might not be able to sleep in the dang thing.

The commotion up on the dias draws my attention away from how damn uncomfortable I am right now. Riorson seems to be in a heated discussion with one of the other wingleaders. 

“What do you think they're talking about?” Rhiannon whispers to Violet. 

I would like to know that as well. It can't be anything good knowing Riorson is involved. 

“Quiet,” Dain hisses from ahead of us. Fucking spoil sport. Dain has always loved the rules a little bit too much for me. If I learned anything from being the general's daughter, it is that sometimes you have to break the rules to get results. And if I had to place money on it, it probably has something to do with Violet and me. Ever since Riorson got back to this side of the parapet he has been watching the two of us like a goddamn hawk. 

I chance a quick glance at Violet who seems taken aback by Dain’s reaction. I agree that it is weird to see him act so seemingly out of character. As kids, he wasn’t the leader of our friend group. So to watch him fill that role and act like his father is jarring to see.

‘Keep your eyes on your enemy.’ I can almost hear Papa scolding me. I place my attention right back onto Riorson. The pink-haired girl with the rebellion relic in our squad won’t risk attacking us, not unless she wants to meet dragon fire, but Riorson is a wildcard. He's a wingleader and they can preside over a kangaroo court for any perceived slights, and dole out whatever punishments they see fit. 

When the wingleaders finally break apart, Riorson has a snarky smirk on his face like he has won.

“Dain Aetos, you and your squad will switch with Aura Beinhaven’s,” Nyra orders. 

I furrow my brow. There was a change to the wings. Just where the fuck are we going? 

“Follow me,” Dain orders, marching through the formation. The rest of the squad follows in line after him. As we make our way across the courtyard, we pass by Beinhaven’s squad as they leave… 

Gods. Fucking. Damn. It! 

Welcome to fucking Fourth Wing under the leadership of Xaden fucking Riorson. The man who happens to loath your father, and by association you. Violet and I are dead women walking. It feels like we are walking to the gallows as we settle into the Fourth Wing. Riorson is wearing that stupid sexy smirk that I really want to slap off of his stupidly handsome face. We are now at his complete mercy; one toe out of line and he can have us killed, and nobody would question it.

I watch his smirk grow as he makes eye contact with me; I’m not going to break it. Not now, I won’t give him that satisfaction. Nyra gives him a look as she finishes up with assignments which causes him to break eye contact first. Violet grabs my hand and squeezes it. She's scared, there is no way she isn’t. He wants her dead just as much as he wants me dead. 

Xaden walks to the front of the dias, eyes scanning the room in the same fashion that dragons do when they are determining your worth. 

“You’re all cadets now.” His voice carries across the courtyard loud and commanding. “Take a look at your squad. They are the only ones guaranteed not to kill you.” That just leaves everyone else in the quadrant and a fuck ton of these cadets have grudges against the Melgren family. 

“But just because they can’t end your life doesn’t mean others won’t. You want a dragon? Earn one.” Many of the new cadets let out a cheer. My mouth turns into a frown as I stay silent. 

Absolute fucking fools. Look at how many people died today just for the shot to be here. This isn’t something you cheer for. You cheer when you survive to graduation. You cheer when you survive the four years with a combat wing. You don't cheer when you just make it across the parapet. Anyone can get lucky and walk across and live. 

Sixty-seven people were not lucky and fell two hundred  feet into a ravine where some poor infantry cadets had to collect their bodies for their parents who will never get to see their child again. And then the hundreds of cadets that will die from now until graduation. You don’t cheer. You pray to Zinhal and hope to the gods that you make it to the next day. 

Onyx eyes meet my ice blue ones and I scowl at the man. I will not let him intimidate me.. He doesn’t let his gaze linger as he paces the dias. “And I bet you feel pretty badass right now, don’t you first-years?” 

These fucking fools cheer again. There is a difference between being badass and pretending you're a badass. And that difference is not advertising it. Truly badass people don’t gloat about their endeavors. 

“You feel invincible after the parapet, don’t you?” Xaden shouts commanding the attention of every cadet in the courtyard. “You think you’re untouchable! You’re on the way to becoming the elite! The few! The chosen!”

The cheers nearly drown out the familiar sound of wing beats. Fools don’t know what's coming.  

“Oh Gods, they're beautiful,” Rhiannon whispers. I look over at the riot of dragons that is heading straight towards us.

The riot of seven dragons is flying towards us at speed. Pitching vertically at the last moments. The beating of their wings forces a large gust of wind across the formation. I have to adjust my stance to keep from being blown onto my ass in front of the quadrant. 

I spent my life around riders, but I have only ever been up close to Codagh. Dragons only tolerate their humans, the one they choose. The best thing to do is give them a wide breadth, so that they don’t torch you. Being this close to seven dragons is a little nerve wracking, given that they are using the edge of the fortress as a perch. But by the gods are they beautiful. They are representative of everything that I have wanted. Ever since I was a little girl all I wanted was to be bonded to a dragon of my own, and here I am. 

A few cadets scream. Not a good idea. Dragons don’t like weakness and they tend to thin out the herd when they sniff it out. Funny how everyone wants a dragon but, when they are face to face with one, their tune drastically changes. 

I feel a bump into my side and freeze. I chance a glance down and am greeted by a massive navy blue snout. I look at the large blue dragon who has decided to investigate me. Her long graceful neck stretched out from where she was perched on the edge of the fortress wall pushing several other cadets out of the way. I curse the fact that I am standing so close to the wall now. I didn’t realize that they would be calling in a small riot to intimidate us. 

“Stunning.” And they truly are. Midnight navy scales simmer in the sunlight. Long horns gracefully spiraling up their head. Large powerful wings tucked into their sides. I wish I could see their tail. All dragons are armed with a lethal tail. Blues have always been stunning to me, though I am partial to black dragons. Call it bias, but black dragons will always hold a special spot in my heart. 

“Autumn,” I hear Violet whisper, her eyes as wide as saucers as she takes in the dragon sniffing at me.

The navy dragon takes a few sniffs as they nudge into my side. I hear Violet's sharp intake of breath.  For the love of Malek please don't let anybody run.  A few more scream out but thankfully no runners. 

“You smell Codagh. He gave his scales as a gift.” I whisper, forcing my tone to be even, so that only the dragon would hear. The dragon narrows its eyes at me.

Please, I want to beg my heart. Stop racing, the last thing I need is to show any kind of weakness. One wrong move and I will be in this dragon's maw. I will not die today.

The Navy dragon sniffs me a few times before retreating, apparently passing judgment and deeming me worthy for now. I grip Violet's hand tighter as I try to keep myself from hyperventilating. 

If there wasn’t the symbiotic relationship that we gain when dragons bond with humans, I’m fairly certain that they would have killed us all. But they rely on us to develop signets from their magic, so that we can weave the protective wards that keep the Vale and Navarre safe.

I take note of the other dragons in the riot: three reds, two greens, one orange and the navy. It is a beautiful and lethal riot. Sitting there like gargoyles, assessing the formation, making judgments on what they observe. It doesn’t surprise me that there are no black dragons amongst them. There are only two that I know of in active service and very few that reside in the Vale. Codagh has been fairly tight-lipped, but I’m not certain that any new baby black dragons have hatched in the past few decades. All that to say, they are very rare.  

A loud scream pulls my eyes away from the riot as I watch a first year from Third Wing sprint towards the citadel; towards the arched stones carved with a phrase that is ingrained into riders from the moment you step into Basgiath. 

A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead. 

Once bonded our lives are tethered to our dragons. If they die, we have moments to live before we follow them to Malek. If we die, many dragons will survive. It will probably take them time to heal and find a new rider, but they will live. There are some cases, however, when a rider dies, the dragon will die too. We don’t talk about it much, but I think if something happens to Papa, Codagh won't be long to follow. They have been bonded for so long that it might be impossible for Codagh to survive without Papa. 

One of the red dragons perched on the left opens its mouth wide and breathes out fire towards the fleeing cadet. 

Fool. You don’t run from a dragon. Ever. It would have been better to wait and leave after the giant firebreathers are gone. Though one thing about death by dragon fire-  It is quick; he is nothing more than ash in an instant. The rush of heat from the flames brushes past our squad as more cadets begin screaming. 

Two more cadets try to flee, each meeting the same fate. I understand that it is an instinct. Some people fight, some people freeze and a few flee. Unfortunately for those few fleeing  is a sign of weakness and no dragon wants a weak rider. Better to weed them out now, than give them the chance to bond at threshing. 

Seventy people died today. Death has made its home here in the Riders Quadrant, and by the time Threshing comes that number will have doubled at the least. We walk hand in hand with death here  and those who aren’t used to it will need to grow accustomed to it. 

I accidentally meet the eyes of the navy blue dragon. Stupidly, I narrow my eyes on instinct. Not that I would have stood any chance against a dragon, but sadly it was a bad habit from spending far too much time around Papa and Codagh. The blue tilts its head to the side assessing me. 

She slowly blinks and looks away from me. I want to breathe out a sigh of relief but know better.

“Anyone else feel like changing their mind?” Xaden sneers at the formation “No? Excellent. Roughly half of you will be dead by next summer. A third of you the year after that, and the same your last year.”

 A few sobs can be heard throughout the crowd. I continue to stare ahead at Xaden. Not quite sure why they are crying. The statistics on the survival in the quadrant are well known. Out of the 300 of us here maybe 25 will make it to graduation and even less will make it to retirement age. Bonding with a dragon is a dangerous experience and, those who are worthy, spend the rest of their lives in a delicate dance with life and death. 

“Nobody cares who your mommy or daddy is here. Even King Tauri’s second son died during his Threshing.” I had been in Calldyr when that death roll came in and we were all shocked. Alic had been a good friend to me, so I had been heartbroken to hear the news. He had been so kind to me when his twin had broken my heart. We had all expected him to bond but instead we had to watch his possessions burn. 

“So tell me again: Do you feel invincible now that you’ve made it into the Riders Quadrant? Untouchable? Elite?” He snarls out the words. 

The silence that falls over the crowd is deafening. The only sound is the breathing of the cadets and the dragons. Funny how they went from cheering with the delusion of superiority to being silent. The dragons let out a breath of steam. Hot enough to let you know that, if they felt like it, we would all be nothing but ash. It is important that they have the first-years scared, make sure that we know exactly what we are getting into. Riorson did an effective job at terrifying the new cadets. I can see why they had him deliver the speech. 

“But you're not untouchable or special to them.” He smirks, pointing at the beautiful navy dragon behind him. “To them, you’re just the prey.”

 Prey…Maybe I am one, but I made it though. I crossed the parapet and survived. Now, I just have to make sure that I survive the next three years. I will make my father proud. I will not just survive the Riders Quadrant, but I will thrive here. I will not become prey to the dragons and I will not become prey to the people in the quadrant. 

[we-were-beautiful]

The Fox and The Hounds Ch. 6

A/N: Whelp here is chapter 6 only 2 months after I finished it. I’m sorry life got hectic for me and my beta I apologize in advance.  Thank you @loving-and-dreaming for being a wonderful beta

Summary: Its autumn court tradition to give your mate a fox kit before your ceremony. after years of knowing the Vanserra’s a mating bond snaps between the Autumn Heir and a well known smoke hound breeder

Warning: Mentions of violence and Beron being the father of the year  

 WC: 3.3k 

I wake up to the first rays of morning light hitting my face, and a fire at my back. It was too warm to be one of the hounds, and the strong arm pulling me closer reminded me that Eris had fallen asleep while we were talking last night. Apparently he was a snuggler. A pitiful whine drew my attention away from my mate who was curled around me. Sitting at the edge of the bed was one of Eris' hounds looking like they wanted to hop up onto the bed but didn’t want to upset the others that were there. 

I took stock of the hounds that had decided to sleep in the bed. Ramiel was still tucked against my front while Rosie had curled by my feet. Ichabod had taken residence along the bottom of the mattress. Paprika had curled herself up beside my head and on my hair. if I were to bet there was probably a hound or two on the other side of Eris.

“I can hear you thinking. Go back to sleep.” Eris rasped sleepily from behind me; squeezing me closer to him burying his face into my neck.

“I think we need to get up, Eris.” I wiggle trying to escape. “The last thing we need is for the servants to walk in here and see us.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if they did see us, that they would go straight to the High Lord. Once Eris’ brain processes what I just said he sits straight up disturbing the three hounds that had been curled up behind him. Despite how coldly he acted around his family I knew that deep down Eris was terrified of what his father would do if provoked. 

“I will mess up one of the beds. Make it look like I slept there.” He moves to get out of the bed. 

“We probably have an hour or two before the staff get here. Is there anything that you would like to request for breakfast?” 

 I sit up in the bed and take in the sight of my mate.  If we had completed the mating bond it would have been so easy for me to just go down stairs and cook for the two of us. But the act of preparing a meal would signify that I was accepting the bond, and trigger the mating frenzy. Which would not be good for either of us. Males while caught in the frenzy were insatiable and volatile. Any other male was seen as a threat regardless of family ties. And two we were expected to adhere to royal protocol. 

We would have our mating ceremony in front of the court, then after the reception we would retreat to our private quarters or this house most likely, and I would prepare a simple meal for Eris. We would spend an undetermined amount of time alone locked in the throes of the frenzy. Periodically some poor guard would be sent to check on us; to see if we were close to being done. If Eris decided to maul that person then we would be given more time. 

Preparations for our mating ceremony had been in full swing since the bond had snapped, and we had roughly 2 weeks before the actual ceremony. It seems like Father and the High lord wanted this union to happen quickly; given that I have seen preparations for a ceremony take 6 or more months. If we had been two common fae, we would have been able to run off to a priestess and have our union blessed the moment the bond snapped; but with Eris being the son of the high lord and heir apparent there was more need for pomp and ceremony. And if the two of us were caught in bed together we would end up facing the wrath of the High Lord for certain. Beron Vanserra was not one to take any scandals lightly. He liked to keep the illusion of the Vanserra name squeaky clean. Any scandalous behavior was swept under the rug and brutally punished. 

“Eggs, toast, and bacon would be amazing, but whatever the kitchen staff prepares will be alright.” He looks at me as if not expecting the simple request.

“Just eggs, bacon, and toast? You don’t want a full spread?” He furrows his brows in confusion. 

“My family doesn’t often do fancy morning meals unless your father is expected to be in attendance.” I admit. 

Honestly we didn’t feel the need to have overly fancy meals despite our station. Why waste food for one meal when you could save money with simpler meals. Admittedly we spent a lot of gold on the hounds, but the return was always palpable. I fetched a small fortune with every litter I produced. Hells, I had quadrupled my already sizable dowery with a fraction of what my hounds brought in. 

“That surprisingly makes sense. Eris had gotten out of the bed and was leaning on the door frame. “I will see you downstairs then.”

“Wait.” I call out as he turns to leave, “How should I dress for the day?” 

“Nothing too fancy, we are just going into town today. The townsfolk are more accustomed to seeing me in casual clothes so if I go in court wear it might be concerning.” He lets out a chuckle. 

“So pants would be alright?”  I asked.

“Pants would be fine, preferably actually if we take horses into town.” He scratches at his head “ I know you ladies have riding dresses; but I don’t have a side saddle here, and honestly it seems a bit dangerous to be riding in a dress.” his brow furrows

Thank the mother. While I could ride sidesaddle I hated it; The dresses always got in the way and attracted mud like no other. I much prefer riding astride in pants. Pants also meant that it was easier for me to get ready by myself. This was a win win. 

“Alright, Thank you Eris.” I watch a smile grow on his face.

“You’re welcome. I will see you in a bit.” He gives me a nod before shutting the door. A host of eyes look at me on the bed. Of course the hounds look like they haven't seen food in years, despite the fact they were fed just last night.  

“Let me get ready then we will get you your breakfast..” I laugh while standing from the bed. 

Thankfully my ladies maid back home had packed one of my work outfits. A nice pair of breeches and coordinating linen shirt and a pair of tall riding boots. A nice structured leather vest would go over the shirt to provide support and complete the outfit. I would wait for Melonie to get here to help wrangle my hair into a style suitable for riding, but the outfit is easy enough for me to don by myself. 

Once dressed, I head down stairs followed by a pack of hounds and one small fox. My boot falls echoed by the clicks of their nails on the hardwood. Down in the living room Eris is lounging on the oversized armchair. 

“We need to get them food before they start getting snippy.” I commented to him. He laughs standing from the chair. 

“Yeah lets get them fed, and let them out to play for a bit. We can leave them out when we go into town; one of the servants can keep an eye on them.” He moved towards the kitchen to fetch their meal.  I make quick work of collecting all of their bowels from the floor to start filling. This will definitely be easier with a kennel. We can get all of the hounds into their own space and feed them from there. While this way works it is a bit chaotic. 

As the two of us work in silence the household servants filter their way unseen into the house. The Autumn Court prided themselves in the quiet effectiveness of their servants. Most could work in the house and not ever be seen for fear of punishment. The only ones that were normally visible were the ones who served food during meals, but then they didn’t respond unless spoken to. 

“Eris Vanserra!” A voice pulled us out of our little world. “What is this mess!” 

Ah, the housekeeper is here, and just like we predicted, upset.  A short routund wood nymph burst into the kitchen. She glares up at Eris with a look I never thought I would see directed at him from anyone except his father.

“Sorry Aisling.  The hounds decided last night was a good time to play in the rain.”  at least he had the audacity to look sheepish.

“I have told you for years that you need a kennel Eris; but have you listened to me no, and now you have added seven more to make messes.” She scolded him like a small faeling.

“I know. I know, and I will be speaking to the mason today about having one built. I have learned my lesson, trust me.” I would prefer to not have almost 20 hounds running through the house coated in mud again. 

“You better, seeing as there is mud throughout the house and your room is trashed.” I try to hide my snicker in a cough.

“Oh I am so sorry Lady L/N. I didn’t see you there.” If possible it seemed like her rich bark skin darkened just a bit around her cheeks. She drops into a curtsy.

“Dear, this is my head housekeeper, Aisling.” Eris chuckles clearly amused by the way he had gotten out of his scolding. 

“It's nice to meet you Aisling.” I give the nymph a smile. 

“It’s nice to meet you as well my lady. We will need to speak at one point on how you would like the household to be run after the ceremony.” She keeps her head bowed.

“I look forward to speaking with you and working together.” and I was. I only had the basics on how to run a house from watching my mother, but I am certain that it is a lot more involved than I am used to. So having someone with experience will be a major leg up for me. She looks up at me as if not expecting me to be as accepting towards her as I was. She looks between me and Eris eyeing the bowls that are strewn about the two of us.

“We can talk later, but for now you two please leave and let us take over.” She slowly shoos the two of us out of the kitchen. I chanced a quick look over my shoulder to see several servants quickly replace Eris and I as we made our way to an informal dining room. 

Instead of the large table in the other room, this room has a simple wooden table that could seat at max 8 people. Eris pulls out one of the plain chairs for me to sit in before taking a seat across from me. A servant quickly enters the room with a tea service for the two of us, placing a cup in front of each of us before setting the pot and sugars and cream in between us.

“Your breakfast should be ready shortly.” is the only thing that he says before bowing and leaving the room.

“It's funny seeing them act all formally with you.” Eris grabs the teapot and pours himself a cup before passing it over to me.

“They don’t normally act like this?” I ask and furrow my brow in confusion.

“They act like this if my father is around, but if it's just me it's fairly informal.” He looks at me as if he can see the worry growing in my stomach. “Don’t worry they will relax around you soon enough dear.” 

Like the servant said, our breakfast comes out shortly. Eggs, bacon and toast for me; and bacon and porridge for Eris. Seems like we shared the same Ideas about a simple breakfast. Soon the pot of tea is empty and so are our plates.

. 

“Are you ready to go?” Eris asks, standing up. 

“I just need to have Melonie help me with my hair and then I will be ready to go.” I responded.

“Ok I will go and get the horses ready. Meet me out front when you are ready, and we can head into town.” He pulls out my chair and helps me stand. We part ways out of the dining room. Melonie is already in my room by the time I reach it.

“Ah Y/N  there you are and you’re already dressed.” She looks me up and down. “Pants?” 

“We are going into town today and Eris doesn't have a side saddle.” I explained, “Can you help me with my hair?”

“Take a seat at the vanity and we will get you settled.” She shakes her head.

Melonie takes her time to properly handle my hair. Fully focused on her tasks. I can see why Eris picked her for me.

“What's the town like?” I asked in curiosity. I had never been to Rivervale, and I wanted to know what to expect.

“Its town.” She shrugs “Rivervale is like most of the other small towns in Autumn. Most of our incomes come from distilleries, but the people are friendly enough. Eris is there pretty regularly so most of them just treat him like any other person.” 

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but that wasn't it.

“Is there anything you would recommend me to do in town?” better to ask a local on what to do in town rather than just randomly guessing.

“Have Eris take you to Ma’s and get you a spiced cider. It's nice to have while you walk about. If you are looking for food, Regen's has some of the best meat pies in the providence.” She pauses for a second “Not sure if you are looking for clothing, but if you look for Dorcas’ she makes some beautiful dresses amongst other things.” 

She quickly finishes off my hair with a final pin. 

“Okay is there anything else you need?” She asks.

“I need Paprika’s bag and leash, and my purse.” The little fox was more than comfortable riding in the leather satchel when we traveled on horseback, but the moment I was on the ground the wiggly little thing wanted to dart about hence the leash. 

Melonie quickly darts about the room gathering up the requested Items. She passes off the leash to me which I clip onto Paprika’s collar. She then hands over the bags . We head down the stairs to the entrance. 

“One of Eris sentries will be accompanying you. Just pretend he doesn't exist. I had forgotten about the sentries that always seemed to follow the two of us around. Eris to my knowledge was a formidable warrior and technically didn’t need a babysitter but Beron insisted on it. I would put money on that one of the sentries is feeding Beron information about Eris and I. 

We are greeted to the sight of Eris flanked by two sentries and four horses tied to the railing.

“Are we ready to head out?” I ask with a cheery smile.

“I think so.” Eris responds by motioning for the senties’ to start mounting up. I make quick work of scooping Paprika up and placing her into her bag. The wiggly kit squirms before curling up into a small ball. 

“This is Solace. She's a good, reliable horse.” Eris leads me over to a large black mare. He cups his hands together to give me a leg up, ever the gentleman. “It's about a 30 minute ride into Rivervale. Ignore the sentries they shouldn’t be too much of a bother”

“Ok.” He nods, walking over to a large bay gelding that he mounts with ease. We rode through the forest in silence for a while. I take in the brightly colored leaves that fall around us as we ride. Truly the Autumn Court has to be the most beautiful courts in Prythian. The vast woods are painted with various reds, yellows, browns and oranges. Dotted by picturesque villages and towns. Yeah the other courts had their respective draws but Autumn will always be my favorite.

So I have been told to have you take me to Ma’s for cider when we get there.” I look over to where Eris rides next to me.

“I had planned on that but let me guess Aisling or Melonie.” He looks at me with a fond smile. 

“Melonie. I asked for recommendations since I have never been to Rivervale.” I laugh.

“Really you’ve never been.” He sounded shocked.

“No, I typically only travel around when I’m dropping off puppies, or checking the homes of potential buyers, but no one from here has ever purchased one.” I’m not even sure that there is someone that could afford the price tag that came with one of the puppies from my kennels.

“Well it seems like the Mayor didn’t take my advice then.” He scoffed.

“You recommended me for smokehound puppies?” I asked shocked.

“You have provided the Vanserra's with our best hounds; I would be an idiot if you weren't the one that I recommended” It is a no nonsense response. 

“Do you know who else he was looking into?” I asked. The breeding community was relatively small, and some were more reputable than others.

“It was between  your family, the Daxton’s and I think the Stonewallis’.” I grimace at the mention of the Stonewallis family.  I'm picky about the homes my puppies go to; I turned them down when their patriarch approached me when Willow had her last litter. The hounds that had come from that family were not healthy as a result of inbreeding. Yeah they sold them cheaper than others but they cut a lot of corners as well. Their hounds were also kept in poor conditions. I wouldn't leave any of my hounds in that place let alone a puppy.

“That's a sour face right there.” He looks over at me from his horse.

“Hopefully he went with the Daxton’s. I wouldn’t want any of the pups out of the Stonewallis’ kennel. They don’t have a good reputation” I bluntly respond.

.

“So I heard. Asher looked into a pup from there about 6 years ago and said it was beyond disgusting. Do you know why people keep getting pups from there?” I can hear the curiosity in his voice.

“Because they make them more accessible. Cheaper prices and more litters. Where I wait a few years between litters in my bitches; they will try and breed theirs once a litter is born.” I scoff. “Honestly, some of us breeders thought about bringing it up to the High Lord. These hounds are the pride of the Autumn Court, and it is shameful to see what that family is doing to those poor hounds.” 

Sadly we couldn’t bring him to the High Lord without more proof. Lyra Heaton had managed to get a hold of one of the pups through a third party noble, and honestly the poor thing wasn’t doing good. It had a lot of health problems when she brought it into her home, and as it got older more concerning problems started showing. Within two years the poor things hips had all but fused together and slowly it was going blind.

“Why haven’t you?” It is an honest question. 

“We needed more solid proof. I have only just managed to get a look at their kennels and the Heaton’s got ahold of a pup. We think that might be enough to get an audience with the High Lord.” 

“When we get home write to the others. I will get you an audience with my father.” If Beron Vanserra loved one thing other than power, it was his beloved hunting dogs. “I think he will be quite interested to hear about what they have been doing.” 

Soon we break through the forest into a charming little town nestled along a river. 

“Welcome To Rivervale, my dear.” Eris looks over to me and gives me a wide smile. 

Taglist @b0xerdancer @imma-too-many-fandoms @judig92 @fall-myriad @j-brielmalfoy @highlady-ofillyria @percyjacksonspeen @nyctophiliiiiaaa @marigold-morelli @azzydaddy @isa1b2h3 @kitsunetori @lilah-asteria

[we-were-beautiful]

Love and Shadows Ch. 4

A/N:  Well well well look who finally got around to posting the chapter that has been sitting finished in my google doc… Life happens and my betas and I got hella busy. Life happens. Please let me know if you see any major mistakes Thank you @kennedy-brooke and @danikasthings for being my betas

Summary: 

Two hearts are called together. 

A female working for the governor.

And the crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae. 

Brought together by a bad day and a party invitation.

Warnings: mentions of drugs and alcohol use (If I missed anything please let me know and I will mark it)

WC: 2.7K

The four of us stand there in the doorway awkwardly staring at each other. I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that Isaiah and my brother had been sneaking around my back for Urd knows how long. It hurt that neither of them felt that they could trust me enough to tell me about it. The signs were there though; the two of them had been noticeably happier since they got together.

“Here Y/N for you.” Isaiah held out a bouquet of lilies and roses. My favorite flower combination. I accept the flowers from my friend and give him a hug. 

“Well I guess I don’t have to introduce you two. Sorry we didn’t tell you sis.” Mikhail pulls me into a tight embrace.

 “My Prince.” His tone seems tight when he addresses Ruhn.

“Lord Rosewood, pleasure to finally meet you.”  Ruhn holds a hand out or my brother to shake.

 Mikhail begrudgingly accepts. “So this is the addition to our dinner, Sis?” 

“Yeah Misha. We have some news to share with you.” I used the nickname that my parents had always called him when we were younger. Mikhail raised a brow looking incredulous. I step back into the foyer to let the two into the apartment. 

“Wine or whiskey?” I ask the males.

“Whiskey.” Mikhail responds automatically , no shocker there. It was his preferred drink of choice.

“Wine.” Isaiah responds; I knew he would rather have beer, but would drink wine if presented with it.

“Whiskey, please.” Ruhn replies following me into the kitchen. 

I quickly locate a bottle of the Rosewood family whiskey placing it on the counter. Isaiah, bless him, quickly joins me in the kitchen like it's just our regular dinners and grabs the glasses out of the cabinets.

“Are you drinking wine or whiskey tonight?” he leans back to look at me.

“Wine.” I wanted to enjoy the gift that the Autumn King had given us. Isaiah nods, grabbing a second wine glass. The two of us moved effortlessly around my kitchen in a dance that we had done over and over since I returned to Lunathion. Ruhn and Mikhail stand awkwardly next to each other watching the two of us work. 

“Do you two need help?” Ruhn calls. I can pick up just a hint of desperation in his voice. I wanted to laugh, apparently it got too awkward for him.

“Can you start moving the dishes to the table?” I quickly pour three fingers of whiskey into a glass and pass it off to Mikhail. I know him well enough to guess how much he wants “How much whiskey do you want Ruhn?” 

“Uhh, two fingers. I will probably switch to wine after.” He responds gently brushing past me to grab the chicken out of the oven. Isaiah wordlessly grabbed a third wine glass out of the cabinet to take over to the table.

“Which bottle do you want me to open?” Isaiah's rich voice calls out as he is rummaging for my corkscrew.

“Corkscrew is by the sink.” I grab Ruhn’s glass of whiskey and take it over to the table not having to look to see that he was having difficulty finding the tool. “And grab the bottle of white.” The one that came from the king's personal vineyard. 

“The corkscrew has a home Y/N, in the drawer.” Isaiah scolds.

“Well Naomi and I were having a girls night and wanted easy access to the corkscrew. So sink.” I can hear the groan of frustration from Isaiah. He liked things nice and in order and liked it when things were in their proper place. And while I kept my office in tip top shape; my home wasn’t held to the same standard.

Once he located the corkscrew; he grabbed the bottle and went over towards the table, making sure to smack me with his wing on his way over.

Sitting down at the table was much more awkward than I thought it was going to be. With the exception of typical pleasantries the whole thing was becoming unbearable 

“So when did you two start dating?” I break the silence that had fallen over the table. Genuinely I was curious about how the two of them had got together, because to my knowledge Mikhail was a homebody who went to work and then came right home. When he had to go to business dinners he was there for a polite amount of time and then he left. The only time he actually talked with Isaiah was when we were all here at this apartment. 

“Umm we ran into each other at the grocery store.” A blush started spreading across Mikhail’s cheeks. “We started talking, and then we went to a cafe to keep talking.”

“We exchanged numbers after that and we kept meeting up for lunch, and then we made it official a few months ago.” Isaiah filled in for Mikhail.

“I’m shocked you two managed to keep it secret this long. And right under our noses too.” If there is one thing that the Triarii are infamous for is being a bunch of busy bodies. Gossip spreads quickly between the four of us.

“It wasn’t without difficulties. Victoria almost caught Mikhail sneaking out of the barracks last week.” If I had been drinking I am certain I would have spit it out. Straight laced Mikhail sneaking out of the 33rd’s barracks.

“Who are you and what have you done with Misha?” I joke. I never imagined that Mikhail would do something like that. 

“Mind your own little flower.” Mikhail scolds me in the old language, using the nickname my father had given me when I was a little girl. 

“Let's turn the tables a bit.” Mikhail’s brow furrows “Why is the crown prince joining us tonight?” 

“Well you see…” for the first time since I was a teen I am tripping over my words.

“Lord Rosewood, last night we discovered that we are Mates.” Ruhn addresses my brother formally. The silence that falls over the room is only broken by the sound of Mikhail’s fork clattering to his plate. 

“Mates? You are my sister’s mate.” Mikhail repeats like he’s trying to wrap his mind around the bomb that Ruhn had just dropped. Poor Isaiah is looking between the three of us mildly confused. Malikim don’t have the same concepts of mates that the Fae do. To them a mate was just a life partner, it was what you called your spouse. To the Fae though mates were two souls that were irrevocably intertwined together.

“Yes.” Ruhn steels himself “I know that it is sudden, but as her family I thought it was best to introduce myself to you before knowledge about this becomes public.” 

“So you want this to become public?” and there is Lord Rosewood. I wondered when my brother would fall back into his painfully formal persona. “Tell me, are the gossip rags going to drag my sister through the mud as another one of your play things, Danaan?”

Ruhn visibly winces at my brother's accusation.

“Misha.” I start.

“Don’t Misha me Y/N. I don’t want you to end up in those magazines as another one of those stupid females that end up looking like a whore because of him. You are not some Prince's flavor of the week.” Mikhail glares at Ruhn like he’s getting ready to attack him.

“Lord Rosewood, I understand your concern. I know my reputation is less than desirable, but I really want to make this work with your sister. I am willing to do whatever she wants to make this work.” Ruhn addresses my brothers with the formality that is needed in this situation. The two of us had talked about this earlier today, “What can I do to help prove to you that I am dedicated and devoted to your sister and your sister alone. 

I chance a look over to Isaiah who looks like he is enjoying all the drama. Fucker. 

“What can you do?” Mikhail raises an eyebrow.  “You can start by trying to rehab your reputation, your highness. While I will admit a match between the Danaans and the Rosewoods would be beneficial for both families. You don’t have the best public image.” The facts that Mikhail is saying are hard to ignore. Ruhn’s reputation as a party prince was very public.

“I understand that Lord Rosewood and I have already discussed it with your sister this morning.” Ruhn responds meeting my brother's glare with a stare of his own.

“Misha, we can talk about all this later.” I beg, this is awkward, and we are airing Fae drama out in front of my coworker. Which I am going to have to explain to Isaiah when we get into work on Monday.

“Yes we will be talking about this later Flower.” He glared at me. I grimace. I get where he is coming from. Ruhn is a well known party prince, and honestly had I not gone to that party the two of us probably would have only met at formal parties that we were both obligated to attend.

“So Isiah, how exactly did you meet my brother?” I quickly try to change the subject away from the topic of me finding my mate.

“Oh. We met by accident. I wasn’t paying attention where I was walking, and accidentally knocked into him outside of Gio’s” He let out a nervous laugh, scratching at the back of his head.

“I ended up wearing my coffee.” Mikhail scoffs while taking a sip of his whiskey.

“I apologized, Love, and bought you a new coffee.” A small smile grows on my brother's face as he looks over at Isaiah.

Those two were grossly in love.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you two have been hiding this from everyone. How many group dinners have we had that you two were secretly dating.” My eyes dart between the two as I raise my glass of wine to my lips. “I’m a bit hurt that you thought that you couldn’t tell me about it.” Naiomi and Victoria I understand, but dammit I was his sister. “Does Micha know?"

“We made the governor aware of our relationship given Isaiah’s status.” slave, there was no nice way to say it or hide it; marked into Isaiah’s brow is a crown of thorns called the halo. Inked by the witches on Pangara. It bound his powers to a fraction of what they were. And on his wrist there was inked SPQM surrounded by seven stars. Senatus Populusque Midguard. Only slaves were branded with this and even if the limb was severed when it would grow back that mark would still be there.

Isaiah was one of the Fallen Angels. The 18th legion that had decided to rebel against the Astari. When their rebellion failed those who remained of the legion were drug to the Crystal palace in the eternal city. I had heard whispers of what had happened to them. If the Wings that decorated the throne room weren’t gruesome enough; those angels and vanier were tortured. Eventually they were given to random Archangels across Pangara and Valbara. Micha to my knowledge was one of the kinder archangels. He paid his slaves even though he wasn’t required to. He let them have a degree of autonomy that most of the other archangels did not. Sandriel had a few of the fallen in her possession, but it was the complete opposite of Micha.  She enjoyed torturing her slaves. Making them fight in her arena for sport, and using them as fodder against the human rebellions that pop up every now and then.

But this was Isaiah. Kind and sweet Isaiah. He was the one who helped me as I was transitioning back into life in Lunathion. Isaiah who came over to help me cook for our family dinners. I can’t imagine him as part of this rebellious legion. 

I won't lie, it hurt to know that they didn’t feel like they could trust me enough to tell me that they were seeing one another. But I understand better to keep it on the down low just in-case. 

Polite conversation filled the rest of dinner, and it was just as awkward as I thought it would be. There was tension between Ruhn and Mikhail throughout the night; while Isaiah and I tried to smooth things over it still felt like we were a hair's breadth away from a full on fight between the two. Despite the graceful nature of the Fae; we are still prone to violent fits of rage. I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I liked my furniture and decorations, and I liked my window. So keeping the two from throwing a chair at the other was vital. 

Thankfully though Mikhail and Isaiah decided to get dessert at a small restaurant in the Old Square. Leaving Ruhn and I to our own devices in my apartment. 

“That was…” Ruhn starts.

“That was something alright. Thank you for not attacking my brother.” I give a strained laugh.

“I’m just glad he didn’t attack me.” He laughed, running his hands through his hair. “I thought for sure that he was going to come over the table and rip my throat out.” 

“Sorry about him. He feels that since he is the oldest he has to protect Leo and me from everything.” We move back to the kitchen to clean up.

“And he let you sign up for the 33rd?”  an honest question.

“He didn’t let me sign up, he kinda had no choice. It was a request from the governor.” While we could have said no and turned him down, one did not turn down a personal request from the archangels.  

“A request from the governor?” Ruhn’s eyebrows raised. 

“Yeah.” I started loading the plates into the dishwasher. “Micha was the one who responded to the demon attack on my family home.”

“I had heard about that, you were there that night?” He handed me another dish to load. Not many of the upper class vanier hadn’t heard about the slaughter that happened at the Rosewood estate. I was so thankful that Mikhail and Leo had been out that night. 

“Yeah. I never figured that my ordeal would happen so early. Never figured that demons would be bold enough to attack in the middle of FiRo.” I let out a bitter laugh “I also manifested powers that night that Micha witnessed.” 

“Powers?” ah yes the question everyone wanted to know. Micha kept what I could do top secret with only the Triarii and my siblings knowing. 

I grabbed one of the fruits that had been sitting on the counter “Watch closely.”

I focused my magic on the fruit which exploded into a fine mist. Ruhn’s eyes went as wide as saucers. That was only a fraction of what I could do, but it was the most destructive aspect of it. It's what drew Sandriel in. It was how I earned the nickname Death.

“It wasn’t so much a request as it was an order.” If I had refused I’m not sure what Micha would have done. If he would have gone to the Astari about it. So what choice did a scared 19 year old have?

“When did you make the drop? Surley Micha wouldn’t allow someone who hadn’t into his Triarii?” Ruhn inquired. 

“I made the drop that night.” I swallowed “and later there is something about my drop that I will tell you because you are my mate and have the right to know.” 

“Ok” good he got the hint that it was a topic to be discussed later and dropped it. 

The two of us move silently working together to clean up the rest of the dishes. Once they were done Ruhn grabbed the bottle of wine that we hadn’t opened yet. 

“You say this is good?” He waved the bottle at me. 

“Delicious actually as it should be for the price.” I laugh.

“Let's open it then.” He flashed a wicked grin.

“Or we can grab a few bottles of beer out of the fridge and drink those and save that bottle for our anniversary next year. We’ll call it a gift from the Autumn King.” 

“That sounds like a much better plan.” He sets the bottle on the counter and pulls me into him.

“Thank you for giving me a chance. You won't regret it.” He whispers in my ear, holding me close to his chest. I wrap my arms around his waist and relax into his warmth. I can only pray that I am making the right decision. 

Taglist: @myheartfollower @nyctophiliiiiaaa @mirandasindiefics

[togeppy]

home is where the heart is ;

brennan sorrengail x reader

brennan is excited over becoming a new father, but is held back from his joy because he wishes that he could be sharing the excitement with his sisters and parents. as his family one by one learns about him being alive, he's over the moon that he can finally show off his little girl to the people he cares about the most. ✧ : i'm pretending that imbuing the wardstone didn't kill lilith for this fic because against all odds she's somehow up there for most redemption worthy parent. also I'm so down bad for any concept of the fourth wing guys as parents because they'd all be such good dads. this one got a little away from me, idk how I got almost 8k words out of this. also dividers are by @empyreanevents !

Ever since you and Brennan sought refuge in Aretia, it was a part of your weekly routine to do a patrol of the area surrounding the city. Your signet allowed you to survey locations without needing to be physically present in the area, so you were the obvious choice to look for nearby signs that anyone had figured out your group had taken up residence in Riorson House. On one autumn day, the patrol had been more demanding - while the weather was chilly with November air, you were surprised to feel warm, your body sweating beneath your leathers despite the cool air whipping around you as you flew atop your dragon. You also couldn't help but notice that it felt harder to use your signet, like the pull of magic wasn't as strong as it usually was. As you flew back to Aretia, you were ready to mention your concerns to Brennan, wondering why everything felt odd on that particular day.

Your dragon, Cille, landed in the courtyard outside the fortress, and you ran down her leg to disembark as you had done so many times before, only this time everything seemed to go wrong. The second you stood on solid ground, you were immediately overcome with dizziness, barely able to keep yourself upright. You knew something was off when your head began pounding and everything around you began to blur.

The only thing you were able to do was send a quick instruction down the bond to your dragon; "Call for Brennan-" before the world tilted, and you passed out on the stones.

Cille was instantly communicating frantic commands to Marbh, who in turn relayed the messages to Brennan. Your husband, who was in a strategy meeting at the time, left the room running with no hesitation despite confused protests from the others in attendance, and found you laying on the stones outside the entrance to the fortress with your dragon hovering protectively over you.

The dragon moved out of the way to give the man access to you, and he immediately brought you into his arms, looking you over and assessing for any injuries.

"What happened, there's nothing to mend?" he asked quizzically, looking up to the green swordtail to see if she could give any information on what was wrong with you.

While she would generally torch anyone who talked to her directly, she was aware of the close bond the two of you shared, and was more concerned with seeing that you would be alright than killing the man on the spot.

"They did not encounter anyone, but the girl was not feeling normal on the flight," Marbh passed on Cille's words to Brennan, who began removing your flight jacket to try and improve your breathing so that you would wake up. He continued tending to you by changing the way that you lay to increase blood flow, and soon you stirred again, disoriented as you finally came to.

"You're okay," Brennan muttered to you soothingly, gently brushing your hair out of your face as you moved to sit up, "Slowly, don't rush to get up."

"I don't know what happened," you said, surveying the area around you. Cille stood protectively a few steps behind you, and the only other person in the courtyard was Brennan. You no longer felt dizzy and your head had somewhat cleared, but you only felt more sluggish than before.

"We'll take you to the healers to have them do some tests, but you should just rest for today," Brennan responded, helping you stand up, and you silently agreed. You didn't feel well enough to do anything demanding.

Later that evening, a healer found you in the corridor as you and Brennan headed back to your room after dinner, handing you a rolled up piece of parchment with the results of your tests, a gentle smile gracing her face. Because of that, the two of you assumed that the results would say that nothing was wrong, it was just the atmosphere that threw off your body's balance.

You sat atop your bed and opened the results as Brennan sat behind you, reading the parchment over your shoulder. When you finally got to the diagnosis, your head whipped around quickly to meet his gaze, his eyes wide in shock.

"Tell me that passing out didn't impact my ability to read," you said, heart beating so hard you could feel it in your throat.

Your husband was too shocked to speak, taking the parchment out of your hand so that he could more closely look at it. After his eyes looked it over two more times, a massive smile lit up his face, and he pulled you in for a bone crunching hug.

"No it didn't, you're really pregnant."

The two of you spent the next few hours sobbing into each other and excitedly discussing what this meant for you. You had discussed having kids in the past, but didn’t expect it to actually become a reality so soon. Brennan already began placing kisses on your stomach, whispering about how excited he was to meet your baby, despite the fact that at that point it wasn't even as large as one of your fingers. Regardless, the two of you were over the moon, anticipating the life ahead of you.

Throughout the pregnancy, to say that Brennan was overprotective was an understatement. At every waking moment, he had his eyes on you, watching to be sure that you weren't over-exerting yourself, making sure no one made you too uncomfortable, and catering to your every need.

At times, it was infuriating - you had to admit there were some moments where you snapped at him, causing him to ease up slightly, but you knew that he was only doing it because of how much he cared for the both of you. He took on extra tasks to make sure that you didn’t have so much cleaning to do, walked down to the kitchen in the morning so that you could have your morning tea in bed, and placed soft kisses on your stomach constantly, talking to the bump that became more and more present with every day.

While the Assembly originally didn't approve of your having a child in the midst of a war, they soon warmed up to the idea of having a reminder of innocence in the fortress. The female members doted on you, a running guess between them of the baby's gender. Suri and Kylynn strongly believed that you were having a boy, and you and Trissa were adamant that it would be a girl. When questioned, Brennan responded with a different gender each time, unable to come to a conclusion on which he suspected.

On the day that your baby was born, Brennan was by your side every second of the way, only stepping away from you to call for a healer. You laboured for hours, and your husband whispered gentle praises in your ear encouraging you to keep going. He traced soothing patterns on your back when your body was overtaken with strong contractions. As you delivered your child, he let you squeeze his hand so hard that your nails drew blood without so much as a single complaint.

When your child was finally placed in your arms, a baby girl as you predicted, you cast him a tired glance only to see his face lit up with pure joy.

"My beautiful girls," he whispered, placing a loving kiss on your forehead, then leaning down to do the same to the baby in your arms, "I think I'm the luckiest man in the world."

You smiled lovingly at him, gaze jumping between the man that made your heart thump erratically in your chest, and the baby that was formed from the love that the two of you shared.

"Which name do you think best suits her?" Brennan broke the silence after a few moments as the two of you watched your child rest contently on your chest, small breaths the only thing moving her tiny frame. You had discussed names that you were considering, but had ultimately decided that you would make the final decision when you finally saw your child.

The sunset from the window across the room enveloped the room with a glow of orange that only added to the sense of peace that you felt in the room, and it solidified the decision that you were about to make.

"Olive," you said certainly, gently stroking the girl's cheek, "The olive branch is a sign of peace, and olive wreaths are a sign of victory. She's the start of a world where the war is won and we can live peacefully without conflict."

Brennan smiled softly as he moved in closer to sit next to you on your bed, an arm wrapping behind you, and another around your child, now named. "I think that's perfect."

The next week was a flurry of emotions, introducing the baby to the members of the Assembly and your friends in the army, and sleepless nights learning how to take care of a newborn. Brennan had some idea of what to do from seeing his parents take care of his younger sisters, but he was still a child himself at the time, so he also had a lot to learn. He made sure to support you constantly, waking up in the night with you as you fed Olive, and taking the baby so that you had time to bathe, eat meals and nap.

A week after the baby was born, you returned to your room from a shower to see Brennan sitting on the bed with your baby held tightly in his arms as he rocked her. A loving smile lit up his face as he refused to pry his gaze away from her as if she would disappear at any second. You knew him better than anyone though, and picked up on the slight sadness that lingered in his eyes as he watched the girl sleep.

"What's wrong?" you asked, taking a spot on the bed next to him, moving in close enough so that your head could rest on his shoulder and get a clear view of the newborn.

"Hm?" he mumbled, eyes still trained on the bundle of blankets in his arms.

"Something's bothering you, what's going on?"

At your question, he finally pried his eyes away from Olive, gaze flickering to your own that looked at him with concern. You could tell that he was conflicted about speaking up, but as he broke his gaze, he leaned his head so that his cheek was pressed against the top of your head before letting out a sigh.

"She's so perfect," was all he said at first, thumb going to gently stroke the girl's cheek, "I've never been more proud of anything in my life."

You sat in silence for a few seconds, processing his words, unsure how that connected back to the sadness you saw in his eyes. "And… that's a bad thing?"

"No, it's everything I could ever ask for. It's just…" he let out another sigh, "I feel so much pride introducing her to everyone that has come to see her this week. But… I can't help thinking that none of them are the people I really want to be showing her off to."

It was then that you understood what he was saying - he wished that he could be with his parents and his sisters, introducing his family to his little girl, the newest addition to the Sorrengail family. You didn't have any family that you left behind, so you couldn't fully understand what he was feeling, and you weren't entirely sure how to support him through it.

"Mira and Violet would be all over her, they would think she's absolutely adorable," he continued, the sadness from his eyes now seeping into his voice, "She doesn't show it much, but my mother loves kids, and my dad was always so caring to all of us. I know I'm angry at how my mother kept everything going on out here a secret, but it's killing me that they don't know that they have a niece and a granddaughter."

"I know it's hard, but us being here instead of with them means that there will be countless families spending another day together who otherwise wouldn't be alive to enjoy those extra moments." You slowly reached your hand out, placing it gently on his arm, making sure that he felt connected with you in that moment, and you felt his head dip as he nodded, agreeing with what you were saying. "When the war changes its course, we'll be able to return to them and Olive will get to meet her aunts and grandparents. In due time."

"In due time," Brennan agreed, shifting his hold of your daughter so that he was holding her in one arm, and his other hand went to rest on top of yours. After a few comfortable moments of silence staring down at the girl in front of you, he finally spoke up again.

"I grew up moving around between outposts so much that 'home' was wherever they were, anywhere I was with the people I cared about," your husband let out a soft exhale, thinking back to his childhood, "Now my home is with the two of you. It's… so hard being away from them, but I have our small family to take care of now." As he did on the evening when Olive was born, he placed a kiss on your forehead, before leaning forward to kiss your daughter, still asleep in his arms.

You nestled your head closer into his shoulder, basking in the feeling of being present with the two of them. "As long as we have each other, everything will be okay."

With Violet and the marked ones' arrival in Aretia three years later, Brennan was on edge. After mending her back from the brink of death, you had to keep him grounded amidst his worry for his youngest sister. He radiated worry, his usual fretting towards you and your daughter now targeted at the silver-haired girl. Despite that though, you could also sense the undertones of happiness in his composure - after six years he finally had one of his sisters back, at least one person from his family knowing that he was alive.

"Hey, I'm asking my sister, not Cadet Sorrengail."

"And you've been back in my life for all of five minutes after faking your death for the last six years, so excuse me if I'm not going to suddenly open up about my love life. What about you? Did you remarry? Kids? Anyone you've basically lied to for the entirety of your relationship?"

While Brennan initially flinched at the accusation, he looked like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders as he was finally able to tell his younger sister about all of the things relating to your little family that he had been dying to share with her all those years.

"I'm still married, my wife came with me here after Naolin saved me. She was also injured pretty bad," the man started, trying to speak slowly so that it wasn't too much to lay on Violet at once, "And… we have one daughter. She just turned three, her name is Olive and I really want you to meet her."

Violet stared back at her older brother in stunned silence, eyes surveying him skeptically, afraid that he was lying to her once again. She had asked the question as a kind of rebuttal, not expecting the answer that actually came out of his mouth.

"You… what?" The girl was already shocked by her brother being alive after all this time, but to hear that he had a family of his own in Aretia was an entirely new bout of information to process.

In the time that Violet stood staring in visible disbelief, Brennan had initiated one of your usual games of telephone that your dragons never seemed to get the end of. Marbh passed on a message to Cille, who asked you to bring Olive to the Assembly Hall so that Violet could meet her.

"So not only did you fake being dead for six years, you've been hiding your wife that everyone presumed to also be dead, and a child?"

Brennan scrubbed the back of his head with his hand. He knew this was going to be a tough conversation to have, but Violet was the one in his family that he could get through to with words alone. If one of his family members was going to forgive him for lying to them over the last six years, Violet was his strongest hope.

"I know, I'll be apologizing to you for the rest of my life for not letting you all know I'm alive," he said, eyes full of empathy as he met Violet's own that were fueled with anger and surprise, "I've questioned every day whether keeping you and Mira in the dark about what was going on out here was the right move. But then I became a father, and my priority became doing what was right for my daughter, even if it meant keeping this all from you."

"And you couldn't do both? You're outside the wards here, your daughter would have been safer within Navarre's protection," Violet fired back, an eyebrow raised as she rebutted her brother's point. All the man could do was sigh, knowing that he'd had this discussion with you multiple times when deciding whether you should stay in Aretia following Olive's birth.

"Physically she'd be safer, but we refuse to raise her in a life of lies. If we went back, Mom would have started preparing her for the riders quadrant the moment she was old enough, and we would have been forced to live as cowards behind the wards doing nothing, except this time we would know that others are suffering." Brennan was holding his ground now, prepared to speak his mind, hoping that Violet would see the passion behind his words. "So no, we wouldn't have gone back. She might be physically vulnerable here, but my wife and I would burn this city down a second time before we let anyone hurt her. She will have a choice as to where her future will lead."

Violet was stunned to silence a second time, understanding the gravity of her brother's words. This was a different side of him that she'd never seen before - she knew he had been an overprotective brother in her youth, but seeing him as a parent was different. There was a deeper level of protectiveness to him, and it was clear in his eyes that he was sure of his decision on this front. As much as she wanted to continue to argue, she knew that the general would have done exactly as he said, and that he was bringing up his daughter with knowledge that she wished her own mother had shared with her.

Before she could open her mouth to say another word, a soft knock sounded at the door to the room, and you peeked your head in cautiously. Brennan and Violet's heads whipped in your direction, and your husband gave you a small nod indicating that you should come in.

With a soft smile, you slipped through the crack in the door, greeting the youngest Sorrengail sister.

"Hello Violet, it's good to see you after so long. I'm glad to see you've recovered well from your injuries."

The girl met you with a matching smile and greeted you with a similar kindness, before her eyes drifted down, wide in adoration at the first sight of her niece.

You had entered the room with Olive's hand in your own as she walked in behind you. Now, faced with a new person that she had never met before, she hid behind your legs, one eye cautiously peeking out to observe your newest guest.

"Olive, come here angel, there's someone I'd like you to meet," your husband said gently, dropping down to a crouch and extending a hand for your daughter to join him. She peeled herself from your legs and scrambled into Brennan's arms, now hiding in his side, head buried in his shoulder. You followed close behind, now standing only a few steps away from them both.

You couldn't hide the smile on your face at the girl's timidness, heart clenching at the happiness visible on your husband's face. You knew that he had been waiting for this moment since your daughter was born, and you silently thanked the gods that he was finally able to have the introduction with his sister that he had longed for. Violet brought herself to a crouch as well to be closer to eye level with Olive, a gentle smile gracing her lips, all previous traces of anger gone as she properly took in her niece for the first time.

"You know how Daddy said he has two sisters that you'd get to meet one day? Do you remember what their names were?" Brennan asked, placing a hand on the girl's back in an attempt to pull her away from his shoulder.

It took a few seconds for the child to remember and build up her confidence to answer, but she finally responded, "Mira and Violet."

The red-haired man grinned, rubbing her back encouragingly. "Exactly, smart girl. This is your Auntie Violet, Daddy's youngest sister."

"Hi Olive, it's nice to meet you," Violet cooed, eyes still locked on the girl in front of her.

At a small nudge from her father, your daughter responded with a small "Hi," followed by another pause. "I like your hair."

At that, all three of you let out a small exhale that was as close to a laugh as you could muster.

"Thank you, I like yours too," Violet responded, reaching a hand out before pausing, her hand hovering right over the girl's shoulder. She looked at Brennan as if confirming that what she was about to do was okay, and he nodded in response, gently pushing your daughter out of his grasp and moving her more towards Violet. Olive moved out of her father's arms, and met Violet in a soft hug, the silver-haired girl's hand lightly holding the tot's head.

As she pulled away from the hug, her hands instead moved to rest on Olive's arms, looking her over, eyes still full of wonder. They moved from the pigtails atop her head that matched Brennan's own locks, to her eyes that were a perfect replica of your own, and down to her small frame that was so inviting to cuddles and soft hugs.

"You're absolutely adorable, do you know that?" Violet questioned rhetorically, earning a nod from your daughter. Both you and Brennan let out a real laugh at that, casting a glance at each other, nothing but adoration visible in both of your eyes.

Violet then turned her gaze to both of you, shoulders sagging and a sigh of defeat escaping her lips. With that, Brennan immediately knew that he was mostly forgiven for his disappearance over the last six years, all because of the girl in Violet's grasp.

"She's perfect," Violet whispered, fingers moving to idly play with one of the girl's pigtails.

"I know," your husband whispered back, standing up from his crouch and moving in closer to where you leaned against the edge of the table. He wrapped an arm around your waist, eyes twinkling with joy as you all looked at Olive, knowing that she had a new family member willing to protect her to their dying breath. Violet had only been around her for mere minutes, but it was evident she would not let any harm come to the girl.

Violet moved her hands up from Olive's arms to gently cup her face, giving your daughter a gentle smile that she matched enthusiastically, now comfortable with her aunt's presence.

"I've got a new reason to keep fighting now, don't I?"

When the next family reunion took place three months later, it didn't go nearly as smooth as the first, much to Brennan's dismay. After a punch to the face and a broken nose, you stood holding a cloth filled with ice against your husband's face as he began mending himself. While you were lucky enough to avoid Mira's wrath given that she didn't have a close enough relationship with you to warrant physical harm, you couldn't ignore the scowl pointed towards you and her brother. You worried that she believed you were the reason Brennan never returned to the Sorrengail family.

"So what are the Sorrengail siblings going to do now that you're all reunited?" Xaden asked, looking between the three of them.

"We're going to beat the shit out of our brother." Mira smiled.

"Survive," Brennan responded, shooting a pointed glance at his sister.

Violet began responding when a small voice interrupted her. "I need-"

"Daddy?"

Everyone's heads immediately turned to the door that was left slightly ajar from when Xaden entered, to see Olive, staring wide eyed in horror at the blood dripping from Brennan's face.

You and Brennan stood stunned, having lost track of the time and not realizing your daughter had already awoken from her nap. Xaden's eyes widened, realizing his mistake, and Mira's entire body tensed up, eyes frantically darting between Brennan and the child in the doorway as if awaiting an explanation.

Violet, who had been standing closest to the door, was the first to break out of her stupor, quickly spinning the girl around so that she wasn't seeing the sheer amount of blood that stained the front of her father's shirt. She kneeled down to be level with the girl, before frantically looking back at you.

"Daddy's okay, he just got into a little bit of an accident," Violet tried to console the girl, whose eyes started to brim with tears, "He just has to use his magic to heal himself and he's going to be all better."

Despite the fact that Olive had grown very fond of Violet since their first meeting, the rider's words did nothing to console her, and her bottom lip jutted out, a torrent of tears threatening to fall.

"Get her away from here," Brennan whispered to you, and you immediately agreed, slipping away from his side to whisk your daughter into your arms. You swiftly picked her up out of Violet's grasp, soothingly tucking her head into the crook of your neck as you tried to calm her trembling frame.

"Daddy's going to be okay, he just hit his nose a little," you whispered into the little girl's ear, rocking her back and forth as you moved to take her out the door and away from the shocking scene, "Why don't we go take a visit to Cille and Marbh, huh? Say hi to your favourite dragons?"

The girl made a small noise of agreement into your neck, and the two of you walked out of the room, leaving the three siblings and Xaden alone. Brennan instantly let out a sigh of relief, his tense body relaxing as he leaned on the edge of the table, despite the pain he still felt in his face.

Violet moved to stand back up with the support of Xaden, relief also evident on her face. Mira, however placed her hands on her hips, glaring daggers at her brother.

"You want to explain what in Amari's name that was?" she said, looking between the three people in front of her, shocked. Xaden raised his hands in mock defeat, signalling that as a non-Sorrengail it was not his problem, and moved towards the wall where he was in the protection of his shadows. Violet moved closer to Brennan as if ready to protect him should her older sister get physical once again. Brennan only looked wearily at his sister, knowing the verbal tactic he used on Violet was not going to work a second time.

"That was my three year old daughter, Olive, being scarred at the fact that you bashed her father's face in," he scoffed, continuing to mend his nose which had finally stopped streaming blood.

"So six years of being fake-dead aside, when were you planning on mentioning that you have a kid?" the girl half-shouted, moving in towards her older brother once again. Violet quickly moved to step in between them, causing Mira to stop advancing, but it didn't stop her from furiously crossing her arms over her chest.

"In my defense you've been here for, what, 20 minutes? I would have gotten there a lot sooner if you hadn't snapped my nose and let me actually explain," Brennan huffed, finally done fixing the brunt of the damage to his face. The rest was just minor fixes which he could deal with after this conversation. He stood up fully, now staring down his younger sister, ready to face whatever accusations she would throw about your family.

Mira rolled her eyes. "All you've done is keep secrets, who's to say you wouldn't have just continued to hide her?"

"Me," Violet piped up, making sure her presence was known. While her older siblings had been arguing, she felt impossibly small, but on the topic of her niece she was willing to come to her brother's defense. "When I first got here, we talked and he told me with minimal prompting. If you two stopped screaming at each other for just a few minutes and actually listened, you'd find out what you want to know."

The two older siblings stood silent for a moment, staring each other down, before Mira finally sighed.

"Fine, I guess it's just been a lot of new information today. Okay, venin, wyvern, secret city, revolution, alive brother and sister-in-law, niece. Anything else life-changing I need to know?" she asked pointedly.

Violet was prepared for a quick 'no' from Brennan, but when it didn't come, she looked over at him confused. The red-haired man rubbed the back of his neck for a second as if carefully choosing his words.

"I guess we have to start telling people eventually. My wife's pregnant with our second child."

Mira's eyebrows shot up, Violet immediately let out a surprised "what?", and even Xaden, parked on the opposite side of the room, looked momentarily surprised.

"Are you sure your brain was restored when you were brought back? Why in Amari's name are you having another kid when there are venin on your literal doorstep?" Mira questioned, to which Brennan rolled his eyes.

"Obviously she was pregnant before Violet showed up on death's door after Resson, we just didn't realize until after. If we'd known how quickly everything was going south, do you think we'd willingly put ourselves in this situation?"

For a moment, the room was silent with the realization that there was going to be a new addition to the Sorrengail family at the worst possible time. The venin were becoming more pressing as a threat every day, Riorson house was preparing to take in an abundance of fliers, and the revolution was actively fighting against Navarre.

"The timing is shit, but congratulations," Violet finally broke the silence, moving in to hug her brother. She paused seeing the amount of blood across the front of his shirt, and settled for a side-hug, which he gladly accepted.

Mira didn't say another word, still gathering her own thoughts. Brennan studied the look on her face, trying to work out what she was thinking.

"I need to know that you only have good intentions towards my family," he said to Mira, breaking her out of her mental spiral.

"What?" she asked, immediately offended by her brother's statement.

"You can't blame me for being cautious, I was expecting some kind of reunion when you got here at least similar to how Violet reacted, but you immediately got violent," your husband responded, standing firm on his statement, "I know you're my sister, but I need to know that I can trust you to have the best intentions towards my kids."

The older Sorrengail sister scoffed, pointing an accusatory finger at Brennan. "The only reason you're still standing right now is because of that little girl. I'm allowed to beat the shit out of you because you're my brother and I'm still furious that you lied to us all this time. I may have only seen her for a minute, but if you think I’m going to let anyone lay a finger on my niece or the new baby, you're out of your damn mind."

Brennan and Mira stood in a stand-off of sorts for what felt like an eternity as he continued to study her, but a few moments later the man finally nodded and backed down, satisfied with the girl's response. Noticing the shift in his body language, she too backed down.

Violet, who felt too on edge at the tension in the room, decided to pivot the conversation.

"She's such a sweetheart Mira, you're going to love getting to know her," she clasped her hands together, "She dragged me around the gardens after classes yesterday, but she doesn't know what any of the plants are called, so she just muttered nonsense as she pointed at all of them as if she was teaching me."

Mira's gaze finally softened, as she began hearing about her niece that she would quickly develop a soft spot for.

"She really loves dragons too," Brennan finally spoke up, adoration immediately evident in his voice the second he was able to begin boasting about his daughter, "She loves watching when the riders tend to their dragons after flight. Luckily she's still just a kid, so none of the dragons have tried to set her on fire her when she gets too close."

The electricity in the room now successfully fizzled out, Mira finally let a grin light up her face, as she turned to her older brother.

"How did an asshole like you end up with an angel of a daughter?"

"I'm going to kill you."

With the Battle of Basgiath resulting in raised wards at the hands of Lilith Sorrengail, Brennan begrudgingly had to admit that the war college was now the safest place to be in Navarre. With his mother in recovery after near-burnout from imbuing the wardstone, and you now being less than 2 months away from giving birth to your second child, temporarily moving your small family to Basgiath became the wisest choice for you all.

Brennan's mother had proposed a family dinner for the first time in over six years, and your husband almost declined on behalf of the three of you. However, having seen how willing she was to give up her life for her children, he admitted to you that he was going to make an effort to make amends with her, despite the feelings of resentment that he had been harboring for years. This dinner was his first step towards forgiveness.

Your husband flew back to Aretia to escort you and Olive to Basgiath, your main belongings strapped to the back of your dragons. After arranging your things in the temporary living quarters that Lilith had prepared for you, the three of you arrived at the Sorrengail quarters, knocking briefly to announce your arrival, before letting yourselves in through the warded doorway.

As you entered, you saw Violet standing closest to you in the living room, Lilith sitting on the couch and Mira standing in the doorway to the kitchen upon being alerted of your arrival. As soon as she caught sight of her beloved aunt, Olive immediately ran past you to an excited Violet. 

"Auntie Vi-vi! I flied on Marbh!" your daughter exclaimed, running into Violet's arms as the older girl kneeled, ready to pick up the child despite you knowing that her joints would not take kindly to the sudden impact.

Once Olive was in Violet's arms, the silver-haired girl smiled brightly at the obvious excitement from your daughter, "Wow, you flew all the way here? Were you scared at all?"

She frantically shook her head in response. "Nope. I had so much fun. Daddy holded on really tight."

At that, Violet turned her attention to the two of you, who had joined them in the living room. She raised an eyebrow, tossing a taunting smile to her older brother, "Were you scared?"

Your husband couldn't hide the fatigue that was evident in every aspect of his body language after hours of holding on to the girl for dear life, endlessly worried about her falling out of the sky despite Marbh's reassurance that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. "Absolutely terrified."

Lilith already looked at Brennan as if he was a ghost every time she saw him, but seeing your child made her pale even further, eyes tracking her so intently that she didn't blink once. She stood up from the couch, but looked as if her knees were going to buckle at any second.

"You… have a daughter?" she whispered, the words barely audible over the sound of Olive babbling to Mira, whom she had run to quickly after having escaped from Violet's arms. Her eyes then dropped to your bump that was now glaringly obvious, and back up to yours and Brennan's faces. "And…"

"Due in early February, yes," you answered on behalf of your husband, who seemed to be too exhausted to form any more words. Brennan, who didn't sleep a wink on the flight due to his worrying over your daughter, quickly took over his mother's spot on the couch, "Olive, come here for a second, baby."

Olive's head turned around quickly around at your request, and she scurried back to you. She saw Brennan seated on the couch and decided to crawl into his lap.

You moved to sit on the couch at his right, hand stroking your daughter's hair as Brennan held the girl in his lap given that you were too pregnant for her to comfortably sit in yours. "You've met Auntie Vi-vi and Auntie Mira now, do you remember the other person from Daddy's family we said you still had to meet?"

The three year old looked up at both of you quizzically, trying to remember who else she was missing, but her mind was very clearly coming up blank. She shook her head, hair bouncing out of place at the sudden movement.

Brennan gestured to Lilith, who looked less like she would collapse in shock at any second, now with a gentle smile on her face as she took a seat next to her son, looking lovingly at the child in his lap, "This is Daddy's mommy, your grandma."

"Grandma," Olive muttered, trying out the word as Lilith opened her arms inviting the girl to join her. Brennan helped move her over to his mother's lap, and the girl sat with her legs on either side of Lilith's torso.

You didn't miss the look that passed between Mira and Violet, obviously unsettled at the sudden caring nature of their mother coming out, something they hadn't witnessed themselves in years.

"Can you introduce yourself to her?" you prompted, trying to get the girl to grow stronger in her speaking skills.

"I'm Olive. I'm…" the girl moved to lift up the number of fingers that coincided with her age, but ever since she moved from two to three, she had trouble lifting up the extra finger. After a few seconds of struggling, she finally managed to get three fingers up, and her face lit up with accomplishment. "Three!"

Everyone in the room seemed to always bring their focus to the girl, the center of attention in the Sorrengail family. At her struggle with her fingers, all of you had adoring smiles on your faces, finding her actions incredibly endearing.

"Hi Olive," Lilith said, bringing up one finger to tickle the girl's stomach, evoking a giggle that had you and Brennan instantly making eye contact as your hearts seized at the sound. "You're such a beautiful little girl."

Your daughter smiled in response, leaning forward to give her grandmother a hug. Lilith matched the embrace, her eyes closing as she reveled in the pure emotions she felt at meeting her granddaughter for the first time. You cast a glance over at Brennan whose face was painted with love, eyes trained on your daughter being held tenderly by his mother, and you could tell that despite the resentment towards the general, he had been waiting for this homecoming as well.

Olive finally pulled away, an active and impatient three-year-old ready to force Violet to give her a tour of the living quarters. Mira returned to the kitchen to finish with the food preparations, adamant that she needed no help, leaving you, Brennan and Lilith sitting on the couch in an exhausted silence.

"Your father would have adored her," Lilith spoke up, eyes trailing the girl as she and Violet popped in and out of rooms, "She looks and acts just like you at that age." Her eyes came to rest on Brennan, likely reminiscing on the time when her own children were babies themselves. Being her firstborn child, you could tell that your husband had started to understand the way the woman felt, having an overwhelming love for his own firstborn. You instinctively brought your hand up to rest on your swollen belly, thinking about how soon it would be that Olive would no longer be an only child. It felt like it had been only a few months since your daughter was born, and in less than two months you'd already be welcoming a second baby to the world.

"You two now know very well the protective love a parent feels for their child," the woman filled the silence once again, her gaze now flickering between both of you. You both slowly nodded, Brennan more hesitant, waiting to hear what words would follow. "Know that despite however you feel about me, the love I have for you will always extend to your children as well."

In the first week of February, you sit atop your bed at Basgiath, your newborn baby held gently in your arms. It's a healthy baby boy, born just before the break of dawn, luckily just days before Violet and Mira are set to leave for the isles. Brennan left the room to fetch your daughter and the remainder of the Sorrengails to invite them to meet the newest member of the family.

You sit contently in the rare moment of complete peace, a smile on your lips as your son wiggles in your arms, one of your fingers enveloped by his small hand. Soon, the moment is broken by the sound of the door opening, and your head snaps up to see Olive jumping up and down in the doorway with Brennan standing behind her, an apologetic look aimed at you. A large grin adorns her face, and her matching bedhead with hair sticking up in all directions makes her look feral, yet still adorable, as she runs up to the side of the bed to catch a glimpse of the baby in your arms.

"I wanna see! I wanna see!" she chants, before Brennan picks her up to lift her onto the bed, slotting her in at your side.

"You have to be gentle Olive, he's still tiny, soft hands only," your husband coos, afraid that the over-excited three year old will end up hurting her brother.

You tilt yourself and the baby in a way that the small girl can get a better view of her brother, and Brennan makes sure that he's guiding her hands so that she doesn't have the opportunity to be too rough with him. For the life of him, he doesn't know how she has this much energy this early in the morning.

"What do you think Olive?" you ask, gently placing a kiss on the top of your older child's head. Now that you hold your newborn in your arms, you can't help but feel emotional at how much your daughter has grown. The girl, who felt so tiny only a day before feels so big compared to your son. She looks up at you, eyes wide in wonder and gives you another toothy grin.

"I like him. My baby." is all she responds, going in to clumsily kiss his face. You and Brennan immediately look at each other, melted by the action, and he goes to place a kiss on top of Olive's head as well.

"That's so sweet love," he whispers, endearingly smoothing down her hair. The four of you sit like that for a while, all of you doting on the bundle in your arms, before a knock sounds at the door.

Brennan goes to open it, being greeted with the rest of the family. Violet and Mira enter first, eyes scanning the room to get a glimpse of the newborn, followed by Lilith who quietly shuts the door behind her.

Upon seeing the small boy in your arms, your sisters-in-law shuffle over to the side of the bed. You lift up the baby so that Brennan can take him from your arms and pass him to one of the girls.

"Is it a girl or a boy?" Mira asks, peering over Violet's shoulder as Brennan places your son in the younger girl's arms first.

"A boy," you respond, Olive now wiggling into your lap, taking the place of her brother. You gladly wrap your arms around her, grateful to take any time snuggling with your firstborn.

"His name is Naolin," Brennan pipes up, all eyes quickly going to him, before back to the child in Violet's arms, "Seemed appropriate, given that Naolin is the only reason both of us are still alive today to even have a son."

A sad smile graces your husband's face for a moment, but he backs away from the three women who have now gathered in a circle around your son. Your husband takes a seat next to you on the bed, an arm going to wrap around your shoulders as you both take in the sight before you.

Olive, sitting on your lap, leans her head back so that she's flush with your chest. The Sorrengail women hover around Naolin, now in Mira's arms as all three dote on him. Lilith slowly brushes a gentle finger along the baby's cheek in adoration, and Mira quickly lifts the boy so that she can place a small kiss on his tiny hand that has escaped the blankets. The soft glow of the sunrise begins to illuminate the room, and you lean your head on Brennan's shoulder.

He kisses the top of your head, a sigh escaping his lips. A smile lights up his face, this time with no sadness behind his eyes, only pure joy.

"This is it," he whispers, his hand gently squeezing your shoulder as his eyes scan the room filled with everyone he treasures, both of your hearts full of love, "This is home."

[gumy-shark]

nothing scarier than being a fan of a fic and then becoming mutuals with the author. like hi shakespeare. big fan of your fake dating au

[we-were-beautiful]

This right here. Or when a fic author that you admire starts following your works. Like hello…what are you doing here reading my pile of garbage that will never compare to your masterpiece

[we-were-beautiful]

Unraveled Ends Chapter 3

a/n: Hey look, it's a new chapter. So a little heads up this one is not beta read. I went through it several times, but I am admittedly not the best at beta reading my own work. So No Beta we die like men in this chapter. Still though all the love to my beta for this story she truly is amazing. All my photos for the moodboard/aesthetic come from pinterest. I apologize for any mistakes there was minimal editing done to it. Hope y’all enjoy  Shout out to @whisplion for inspiring this fic.

Summary: A tailor in the heart of Velaris finds herself mated to the two most powerful fae in Prythian. Unfortunately for her the mating bond only snapped for her, leaving her to question on how to move forward. Should she wait for her mates to feel the bond or should she go ahead and reject it and live with the gaping hole in her heart  

Poly!Feysand x Reader 

Warnings: Drinking. And a Drunken Feyre

WC:2.4k

“You want to break your mating bond?” His voice sounded almost sad. I can’t fathom a reason as to why though. The bond didn’t snap for them, so in theory, it shouldn’t have any bearing on  Rhysand and Feyre.

“It’s not so much as a want, Rhysand.” I pause trying to string together the correct words to explain my thoughts. “It’s more that I don’t think I can handle the heartbreak.”

“Why not just tell them.” His eyes search me over looking for some rationale behind my thinking.

“They already have their perfect happy ending, Rhysand. They’ve sealed their bond and started their own little family. Where would I fit in all of that?” I give him a sad smile. Some deep part of me wants to scream ‘Where would I fit in to you and Feyre’s perfect little family’ 

“I’ve already made my peace with it, Rhysand. I think it will probably be better for me to just break the bond myself rather than go mad from the rejection.” I try to give him a smile. 

At least with breaking the bond I would be able to function and provide for my sisters. No, I would just lose all sense of emotion from what I’ve read. But if they were to reject me I would go mad; lose all sense of self. Having to live my life with never quite feeling whole, always missing them. I would take wandering around emotionless than pining endlessly over people who didn’t want me.

“Please tell me that you will think about this, and not rush into anything.” The High Lord pleaded with me, eyes filled with emotions that I couldn’t quite discern.

“I promise. That's why I wanted to talk to my friends in Day. I know a few who have done research on the topic, and Helion said he could discuss the process with me.” If anyone would be able to break the bond it would be the spell cleaver himself.

“Ok, just please don’t rush into anything.” His face settled into a neutral expression with a sadness lingering in his eyes. 

I make quick work of getting his final adjustments before letting him get changed. A heavy weight settles in my chest after he leaves. I want to break down; let all my emotions out. To scream to The Mother at how unfair she was being. Beg to know what I had done to deserve this. To be mated to a pair that was already so happy without me. To beg, plead, and bargain for The Mother to dissolve the bond herself and spare me the consequences. I was a hard working female. I worked long hours to provide for my sisters; I do community service when I have the free time. I volunteer at Adelaide’s school. I’m a good person, and what do I get? A lifetime of suffering. Gods above I really only have two options. Face the rejection that is almost certainly coming or live out the rest of this immortal life stripped of emotions. It's not fair.  Right now all I want to do is cry myself to sleep, and deal with all these problems later. 

‘Go home,’ the shadows whisper, nudging me towards the door ‘you worked too long on too little.’ 

Ever my constant companions. At least I knew that with the shadows I would never truly be alone.  I pen a quick note to Genevieve to pick up Addy and some food. I just wanted to go home and curl up in my bed. I pray that Rhys and Feyre will give me some reprieve tonight.

Days pass by quickly and before I know it a month has passed. I had managed to avoid Rhysand and Feyre as well as their friends for the most part. I changed my schedules based on their appointments. If Feyre was scheduled to have a fitting, I would make myself scarce.  If Cassian and Nesta came in to pick up their outfits, I was just on my way out. I couldn’t avoid Amren though she showed up unexpectedly to grab her outfit while I was working. Luckily for me the tiny fae women could care less about me avoiding their group. I provided good work, and that is what she wanted and cared about. 

My trip to the day court was planned for later this week. I was picking up a shipment of the stunning white linen that the Day court had been known for. While the pure white itself was stunning; the fabric also took in dyes beautifully, and I was hoping to create some wonderful summer sets out of it. I had also been corresponding with Helion about when I could get an audience with him to discuss my issue. I think that this particular conversation might be the deal breaker for me. 

Minnie, one of my seamstresses, had begged me to go out to Rita's with her tonight. I only relented after a few days of her nagging me. We had gotten ready at the shop before walking over to the beloved bar. Three drinks later, I have let loose for the evening; the alcohol easing the tension in my body and lowered my inhibitions. Minnie and I ended up on the dance floor before we knew it. I let the music flow through me. In another life I might have been a dancer or a musician. I loved the freedom that dancing gave me, but I refrained from coming out to the clubs. I had sisters to take care of, and partying wasn’t being responsible.  

“Sweetheart!” A familiar voice comes from behind me. I whip around to see Feyre standing there with a goofy smile. 

“Dance with me.” Her voice is slightly slurred as she drapes her arms around my shoulders. She's tipsy at best, shitfaced at worst.  

Sober me would have said no would. Sober me would have taken her back to Rhysand, and let him take care of her. But right now with most of my guard down, I can’t deny her. The selfish part of me wanted to soak up this moment, and just pretend that she was mine even if it was for a bit. So I dance with her. I move my body along with hers to the beat of the music. I pretended just for now, for this song, that they were mine. That somewhere Rhys was watching us with that seductive smirk of his basking in the glory of his two mates. Feyre and I pull out all the stops to drive Rhys insane.So that he would set down his whiskey and join us on the dance floor. Would whisper promises in our ears before winnowing us home to continue the party away from the prying eyes of the customers of Rita’s.

But all too soon the song dies, replaced with a mellow slow song. And reality slowly starts to settle back in.

“You’re pretty.” Feyre slurs, wrapping herself around me. Her words sober me up. Her silver eyes filled with so much admiration that it nearly physically hurts. 

“And you are drunk.” I tried to laugh but a knife was twisting in my heart. “Let’s get  you back to your mate.”

I force my mental shields into place not wanting any of my secrets spilling out. My eyes scan the room looking for the high lord. Eventually I was able to spot Illyrian wings. That typically signaled the General and the Shadowsinger. It is a slow process to move the drunken High lady across the clubs to the booths. Feyre did not make the process easy. She clung to me and dragged her feet not wanting to leave the dance floor. Eventually, we are able to make it to the booths. There we find Rhysand and Azriel. Seeing the large wings on the highlord was shocking. I had heard whispers that Rhysand could summon wings, but I had never seen them myself. I had never thought he could be more beautiful, but I stand corrected. 

“Feyre Darling, and Sweetheart what a surprise.” His eyes brighten up at the sight of the two of us.

“Rhys look who I found.” Feyre giggles stroking my face, a smile growing on her face. She stumbles just a bit, and I have to scramble to catch her. 

“I see Darling. You found our dear sweetheart.” He laughs at the two of us.

“I danced with her, Rhys. I wanna keep dancing.” I slowly moved her closer to the booth. In an attempt to get her to sit down. Thank The Mother I am able to get her to sit on the bench with a little bit of prompting. I try to move away but she is quick to grab my hand holding it with a surprising strength keeping me close to the table.

“I think the High Lady might have had a touch too much.” I tell the amused looking High Lord.

“Rhys!!!!” She slurs drawing out his name in a whine “Make her dance with me.”

“I think it might be time to take her home.” I look between the two amused males at the table. 

“You don’t want to keep dancing Sweetheart?” Rhys raises his glass of whiskey to his lips staring at me in interest.

“As much as I would love to keep dancing with the High Lady. I do have work in the morning, and I still have to get ready to go to Day later this week.” I shrug, at this point home seemed like it would be the best option for me “I’m probably about to head out. 

“Noooooooooooo.” Feyre whines wrapping her arms around my waist as if to keep me here with them “Stay.”

“I think that is my cue to take her home.” Rhys quickly drains the whiskey in his glass. 

“Darling. Let's walk Sweetheart out.” He gently coaxes her to let go of my waist. 

“Fine.” I chanced a quick look at the Shadowsinger to see his shoulders shaking in barely contained laughter. He obviously finds this whole situation hilarious. I ought to put three extra stitches in his wing slots. He would still be able to wear it but it would make it ever so slightly uncomfortable for him.

Eventually we manage to coax feyre to the door. I had paid my tab before I went to the dance floor, and Minnie was nowhere to be seen. She probably took some female home with her. We had parted ways on the dance floor shortly after we had moved from the bar. 

The moment Rhys had let go of Feyre she decided to latch herself back on me. 

“Come with us. We miss you.” She buries her face into my neck “We never get to see you anymore.” 

“Darling we have to let Sweetheart go.” Rhys attempts to gently remove Feyre, who has all but koalaed herself to me.

“But we won’t see her again.” She struggles against her mate snuggling further into me “She's going all the way to Day for two weeks. And then its Starfall and she not celebrating with us, so we won't get to see her until we have to get new dresses” 

So Amren had let that fact slip. I knew she had been looking at the papers on my desk a little too closely.

“Well, we can ask her if she would like to celebrate Starfall with us Darling. If you want to see her; you can always see if she will go get lunch or coffee with you.” He gently coaxes her to let me go. 

I feel the gentle scrape of a claw along my mental shields. I ever so slightly open a crack for Rhysand. 

‘Once I get her off of you, I’m going to winnow her home. I’m sorry that she decided to latch onto you.’ He whispers quietly in my mind.

‘It's ok, make sure she gets home safely.’ It's a polite response. 

‘Will do. Please send me a note letting me know you made it back to your home safely.’ The concern in his voice is unusual to me but I nod all the less. Soon enough Rhysand pries his wife of a me and has picked her up in a bridal carry. 

“Have a good night Sweetheart.” He winks before winnowing away to their home. 

With the two of them gone it feels like a weight has been lifted off of my chest. My trip to Day cannot come soon enough. Just this little taste of what it would be like with them kills me. They didn’t mean it though; Feyre was drunk and clingy, and Rhys would have told her whatever he thought she wanted her to hear so that she would let go. They didn’t mean what they said and that hurt. I got a glimpse of what having them both would be like only to have the rug ripped out from under my feet. 

A hand lands on my shoulder causing me to jump. I whirl around getting ready to fight off whoever grabbed me only to be met with the Shadowsinger.

“Everything good?” He raises a brow. 

“Yeah Rhysand is taking the High Lady home.” I force a smile on my face.

“Heading home, yourself?” He cocks his head to the side. 

“Yeah, I wasn’t lying about having work in the morning.” I sigh. Work was going to suck tomorrow. The Starfall rush was in full swing and I was going to be gone right in the  thick of it but I couldn’t help the fact that my manufacturer was running behind, and this was one of the first times Helion could meet with me. 

“Let me make sure you get home safe.” Azriel says and motions for me to lead the way. 

We walk together in a comfortable silence.  He doesn’t push me to talk to him; he just walks behind me like a terrifying bodyguard. I had always liked that Azriel was comfortable with silence; he never tried to fill the silence of his appointments with mindless chatter. Eventually we made it to my family's home. 

“Make sure you tell Rhys that you got home or he will burst into your shop like a worried mother hen.” Azriel deadpans. 

“I will write him a note the moment I get inside.” I let out a little laugh “Thank you for walking me home Azriel.” 

“It was no problem.” He gives me a warm smile. “I will see you later.”

Azriel’s massive wings spread out and with a mighty flap he is airborne and heading into the sky.  I quickly open the door and shut it once I have entered it warmth. After locking the door I start towards my room.

Note then bed.

Made it home- Sweetheart. 

With a quick flick of my wrist the note is off. 

‘Tomorrow will be better.’ I lied to myself as I striped and crawled under the covers.

Soon sleeps claiming me in her cold arms.

Tag List: @nyctophiliiia @rachelnicolee @goldenmagnolias @jesssicapaniagua @sweetorangeblossom @cat-or-kitten @alowint @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @coldpeachkitten @esosadomd @araneea92 @saltedcoffeescotch @persephonesalvatore @motorsp0rt @motheroffae @butterfix @unfortunatelyuntiltheend @kissesfromnovalie @daughterofthemoons-stuff @saturnalya @thecraziestcrayon @hjgdhghoe @phoenixgurl030

[we-were-beautiful]

Beta Readers

Hi guys, I am looking to add to my beta teams for some of my small projects. Specifically I would like to add another person to both my Eris/Reader story (The Fox and The Hounds) and for my Poly!Feysand/ reader story (Unraveled Ends). If anyone is interested please shoot me a message and we will talk about it.

All my love

Jess

[we-were-beautiful]

Reblogging this as I want to add additional people to my beta teams for these fics

[we-were-beautiful]

Ok so apart from waiting on Beta readers and seeing if people want to be on the Beta teams I just finished up the next chapter of unraveled ends.

I have never been this productive in my writing. Currently this week I have written just under 8.6 thousand words

I hope everyone knows that this feat may not be accomplished again for a while. I was just inspired this week

If you are interested in being a beta for any of my series please feel free to message me. I promise I am super friendly