#acomaf ff

an A Court of Mist and Fury College Swim Team AU

Feysand and Elriel

All characters belong to SJ Maas

Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged! 

Author’s Note: Is it too early to apologize?

Enjoy! 

Full Fanfic: Masterlist Link

TEN

~~~Feyre~~~

The world spun around me as I slammed back through the glass doors into the dark hallway of the club. I could have sworn I heard a voice shouting my name from far behind me but that was probably all the alcohol talking. I mean, I was going crazy right? Surely it hadn’t taken all of two days before my brand new boyfriend decided to cheat on me? I was just imagining that. Right? 

I stumbled through the bathroom door and barely made it to a stall before I hurled up everything left in my stomach.

“Shit,” I spit out. Then-- 

“Shit,” I said again as I somehow managed to puke up even more alcohol. It was red--what had I been drinking that was red?

Fairly certain I was done emptying my stomach, I wiped my mouth, flushed, and emerged from the stall. 

My eyes directed at my shoes, I bumped directly into Rhys’s hard chest.

“Get the fuck away from me,” I said quietly, pushing off his chest and stalking over to the sink. Well, I tried to stalk. The few steps from the stall to the sink seemed to take years, rather than a few seconds. Everything was spinning, ever so slightly. 

“Feyre, you’ve got to let me explain.” 

“No.”

“Feyre, please.” 

I turned at his desperate tone of voice. 

“Were you or were you not just kissing Amantha? I mean, Amarntha. You know who I mean!” 

Alcohol, you are not my friend tonight.

“I was. But--”

“No buts! That’sss called cheating, Rhys, in case you didn’t know. So get out of my way. I’m going--”

I realized I had nowhere to go. I was staying with him, for crying out loud. I did have my car at his place... But I was drunk. 

So I was stuck.

“I’m going somewhere and you better not follow me there! Wherever there even is!” I was shouting now, and Rhys looked like he wanted to keep talking, but I turned, stumbled, and burst back through the bathroom door into the quiet dark of the hallway. I ran as fast as I could without falling flat on my face and didn’t stop until I was in the center of the dance floor. 

Bodies pressed against me tightly from every direction. Only two people grabbed my ass on the long journey to the middle of the group. I was pretty sure I was crying, the world spinning around me thanks to the alcohol and what I’d just seen, when I finally found Mor. One look at me and she stopped dancing.

“Feyre!” She shouted, gripping my wrists with her hands. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “I have to leave. Can you call me an Uber? I don’t have the app!”

Mor nodded, looking concerned. She pulled me outside of the club and we sat on the curb, leaning against each other as she fumbled around in her pockets until she found her phone. Ten minutes later, our collective drunken efforts resulted in a successful call for an Uber.

When it pulled up, I looked at Mor. “Wait, where are you sending me?”

She shook her head as though trying to clear it. “No, no. We’re going to my place! Where I hope to hear everything.”

At her mention of “everything,” I started to tear up again. Damn it. Sad drunks were the worst and now I was one of them. Mor merely tugged me off the curb and we collapsed into the back of the Uber together. Twenty minutes later, we were outside yet another massive estate on the edge of town. 

“You Nights don’t mess around,” I mumbled. 

“What?” Mor asked, giggling a little.

“Nothing, nothing. Can we just go inside?” 

She nodded seriously and led me around to the back door. 

“My father really doesn’t approve of my inclination to party, so I have to sneak in and out. Shhh,” she added before another fit of giggles hit her. That was Mor. Her upbeat mood could not be beaten, even while drunk and with a crying friend tagging along behind her. And I was full-on crying by now. 

Mor carefully unlocked the back door. She led me into an enormous kitchen bathed in shadow. We made a brief stop so Mor could grab a huge bag of chips and a couple bottles of water. Except for a close call that involved a cat on the staircase, we made it upstairs unnoticed. 

Mor’s room was the first door on the right on the second floor. She led me inside, flipped on the light, and proceeded to flop down onto her enormous bed in the center of the room. Her room was… like a fairytale. The four-poster bed, hung with gauzy white curtains, seemed to float freely in the center of the room on a white fluffy carpet. The pale blue walls were covered with pictures of her and her friends, band posters, Polaroids, and other various paraphernalia. A terribly cluttered white desk sat on one side of the room, and a white dresser on the other. In one corner there lay several enormous white bean-bag chairs covered in luxurious blue and gold pillows and blankets. 

“Alright, Archeron,” Mor said, sprawled across her bed, her shoes kicked off and her mouth stuffed full of chips. “Please tell me why we just fled the club faster than Cinderella at midnight.” 

I wasn’t sure why, but I chose to sit down on the floor in the center of her bedroom, halfway between the door and the bed. “I don’t even understand what just happened, Mor.”

“Well, tell me and I’ll help you puzzle through it. And maybe start with why we stranded Rhys at the club?” 

I let out a groan and flopped onto my back. The ceiling was still spinning, but only a tiny bit now.

“Drink this,” Mor said and chucked a water bottle at me. 

I jumped as the water bottle landed right next to my head. Then I sat up, chugged it down, and put my head between my knees. 

“Mreesechertedonme.”

“What?” Mor said sharply.

I raised my head. “Rhys cheated on me.”

Mor sat straight up on her bed. “What,” she said again.

I sighed, then explained what I had seen and heard. The tears kept coming as I told her about Amarantha and Rhys admitting to me what he’d done.

Mor looked thunderstruck. Her water bottle, which had been halfway to her mouth when I’d broken the news, was slowly dripping water onto her shirt. “And he said he wanted to explain? I’m confused. Rhys would never do something like that. Ever. Especially not to you.” 

“What do you mean, especially not to me?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not serious.”

“Serious about what?”

“Rhys has been in love with you from the moment you set foot on campus for your recruiting trip.”

“That’s a bunch of bullshit. I barely knew Rhys until like a month ago, when he saved me from the Halloween party.” 

Mor shook her head slowly, her mouth hanging open. “No,” she began, eyes wide, “it’s not bullshit. I don’t know if you remember much about your recruiting trip. But Rhys and I were freshmen that year. You showed up to campus, your usual gorgeous self--” she winked at me “--and Rhys was a goner. He thought you were so pretty, and so cool, and you talked about books or something for like five seconds and then he thought you were so smart, too (which you are). And when the team decided to make the really dumb decision of drinking with the recruits that weekend, you turned down every offer for sex, drugs, whatever, that came your way from the upperclassmen guys, no matter how drunk you were. Not that he would have judged you if you had. But he could tell you knew what you wanted. It would have been easier, as a senior in high school on a recruiting trip, for you to do and say whatever the upperclassmen wanted in order to fit in. But you had those values, and you stuck to them. You surprised him.

“And then,” she added, laughing as I stared at her in disbelief, “you, drunk off your ass, got up on that table in the middle of the party, and announced to everyone that you were committing to swim at Prythian as soon as you sobered up enough to call the head coach. May I repeat--he was a goner.

“So,” she added somewhat awkwardly. “I hope he doesn’t hate me for telling you that shit. There’s a lot more behind it but I wanted to explain a little because you’re so obviously clueless!

“But none of that excuses him cheating on you, of course.” 

Now it was my brain that was spinning instead of the ceiling. Rhys had been acting suspicious around me since the Halloween party--I had suspected his feelings even then, unwilling to admit it to myself. But I would never have guessed that he’d been interested for over two years… Why on earth had he cheated, then? Being drunk wasn’t an excuse. But it didn’t make sense that someone who was supposedly… in love… with someone else would go and cheat on them two days into their very new and fragile relationship. 

I couldn’t puzzle this out right now. “Yeah. Um. I just want to go to sleep. Can you take me to Rhys’s in the morning so I can get my car and leave?” 

Mor nodded sadly. “I wish things turned out differently,” she said. “But I do think you should talk to him.” 

I shook my head. “Maybe. Where can I sleep?”

She patted the bed. “Right here. I’m about to pass out anyways.”

I merely stood up and shuffled over to the bed. I kicked off my shoes, tossed my rings and bracelets on the ground. The last thing I remember was how impeccably soft one of Mor’s pillows felt against my cheek as my tears dripped onto it.

~~~Elain~~~

***three days later***

I really did not want to do life for the next few weeks. 

Okay, that might have been a slight over exaggeration. Really, I just didn’t want to do my classes and finals for the next few weeks. Christmas break was coming up, and the last thing I wanted to focus on during the holiday season were my exams. Nursing was hard--why had I decided to do this, again? 

Of course, I did have one thing to look forward to now that I was back in Prythian. 

Azriel. 

We’d spent hours on the phone, texting, since the storm had stopped and Azriel had walked me to my car. He hadn’t kissed me. I’d wanted him to. And he seemed like he had wanted to. At least, that was what it seemed like.

I pulled my car into the parking lot, locked it, and started the trek to my eight hour long Monday morning nursing immersion ‘course’. I didn’t even want to think about all the ‘fun’ I’d be having until five pm tonight. But I only had to make it until five. Then I was meeting Azriel in the Student Union for dinner. His practice ended around five, so the timing was perfect.  And I did like my degree, and job. It was just going to be very difficult to concentrate when I knew who I’d be seeing at the end of it. 

Focus, Elain. Do your job. 

Eight hours later, I shuffled out of the building, exhausted but satisfied after a hard day’s work. I barely made it to my car. I sat there for a moment, reclining the seat all the way back, and told myself I could close my eyes for just two minutes. 

Twenty minutes later I jerked awake. 

“Shit!” 

I put the car into Drive and made it across campus to Student Union parking in what had to be record time. Still in my scrub top, I raced across the parking lot, body slamming my way through the front doors and directly into an extremely tall male standing just inside of them. 

“Oof! I’m so sorry--Az?”

“Elain?”

“Uhhhh…” I suddenly became aware of what I must look like. I was wearing scrubs, my hair hadn’t been touched since that morning, and forget about makeup. Not to mention the crazed look that was probably in my eyes after my accidental nap and subsequent frantic race across campus. “Hey!” I gave him a hug.

His arms wrapped around me and as if by magic my body relaxed. Shoulders falling, I sank into Azriel’s strong chest, my head barely coming up to his shoulders. I breathed out. “This is nice.”

“It is,” he agreed.

“But I’m starving.”

He chuckled as I broke away from him and made a beeline for the line to the fast-food place that served the best chicken in the whole world. At least, it was the best chicken in the whole world when I was this starving and had no other options. 

The line was way too long for a Monday night on campus. I was definitely going to die--of embarrassment at my appearance or hunger, I wasn’t sure which would kill me first.

“Elain?”

“Huh?”

“I asked you a question.” Azriel grinned. “But I understand if you were too busy bouncing on your toes to listen.”

I lowered myself to the ground and chuckled awkwardly. “I’m sorry--I’ve just had a horribly long day and haven’t eaten since eleven o’clock this morning.”

“I love it when you laugh like that.”

“Like--what?”

“When you’re uncomfortable--you have this laugh you do and it’s honestly the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”

I covered my face with my hands and stepped forward to the front of the line. “Ohhhh my gosh. That’s so embarrassing.” I clenched my jaw to keep myself from laughing again.

Azriel gently prised my hands from my face and then put his fingers under my chin and pressed slightly. “Don’t do that! I live for every embarrassed laugh from you.”

I swatted his arm away--but I was smiling. “Alright. If you get to keep my embarrassed laughs, I’m gonna need something cute and embarrassing to hold over you.”

“Good luck finding one. I’m the portrait of smooth,” he said, rolling his eyes, hands in his pockets. 

“We’ll see about that,” I said as I flounced up to the register. Azriel insisted on paying for my food--after he swore to let me pay for our third date. (Third date!!) It was ready before we’d finished paying and he swiped the tray before I could get to it. He carried it over to a table and chairs on the second floor balcony of the Student Union. I flung myself into the chair, resting my wrists on the armrests and slouching down. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Azriel said.

I raised my eyebrows and put my chin in my hand. “What makes Azriel Umbra uncomfortable? Hmmm..” 

He shook his head, rolling his eyes. 

“That’s it!” I said. Several heads whipped over to stare at us. “I mean,” I whispered, “That’s it.”

He sat down across from me. “What’s it?” Eye roll.

“You roll your eyes way too often. Like, way too often.” 

I watched him attempt to restrain the eye roll.

“See, now that you’re aware of it you’re incredibly self-conscious.” 

He stared at me. Then rolled his eyes. “I give.”

“Ha!” 

Toward the end of the meal, I decided to be nosy. 

“So… have you talked to Rhys recently?” 

He looked up from his food so fast I thought he’d give himself whiplash. 

“He mentioned a couple of things.”

I put my elbows on the table. All around us, the Union was emptying out for the evening. 

“Feyre won’t give me any details about what happened between them. All I know is they went to a party, Rhys did something, and Feyre drove straight back to school from his place the next morning. She didn’t even come home to see if I wanted a ride. And I’ve heard squat from her since. They just seemed so… happy.”

Azriel sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I never actually saw them when they were ‘together-together’ because they got together over the break, but I know that whatever must have happened, Rhys didn’t do it on purpose. I’m not sure how much to tell you, but… he’s liked Feyre for a very long time.” 

I bit my lip. “She was just so different while we were at home for the break. Much different than she’d been since she started dating Tamlin. Carefree, bubbly, talking with my father, joking with Nesta, of all people. I don’t know what to do.” 

“I’ll try to get more out of Rhys. All he said on the entire car ride back to school was that he made a mistake, it was out of his hands, and it was probably better for Feyre if she hated him anyway. And I know that’s not true.” 

“Let me know if he tells you anything else.”

“I’ll try,” he said. “Shall we go?” 

He walked me back to my car. It was full dark outside, only the light of the streetlamps guiding us. 

I opened the driver’s side door and threw my purse in. “I had a really good time--”

The world never heard the rest of my sentence because he kissed me before I could finish it. 

His kiss was gentle, his hands cupping the sides of my face. My hands fumbled up to wrap around his shoulders as his lips caressed mine, increasing the pressure slightly. I understood and his tongue swept in. I ran one hand down his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath his t-shirt, my other hands pulling him closer to me. 

But he pressed one more kiss to my lips, then kissed the top of my head. “Good night, Elain.”

I gulped down air, the chill of the night surprising me as soon as his body moved away from mine. 

I smiled at him and he kissed me again, briefly this time. “Good night, Elain,” he said again. “And there’s the laugh I was looking for!” He exclaimed after I chuckled nervously, but not unhappily, after the kiss. 

“Oh go to hell!” I said, and he rolled his eyes. Purely for my benefit, I knew. I didn’t stop smiling the whole drive home.

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

Tags

An A Court of Mist and Fury College Swim Team AU

All characters belong to SJ Maas!

Feysand and Elriel

Author’s Note: I promise, Rhys and Feyre will talk soon... It’s all about the build-up ;) Alsoooo part of this was Gilmore Girls inspired:)

Enjoyyyy and let me know if you want to be tagged!

MASTERLIST LINK

ELEVEN

~~~Elain~~~

I had dinner with Azriel nearly every night that week. We didn’t go much further than kissing, and at most we spent an hour together every night. Both of us had so much schoolwork to do and he had training on top of it, so our time together was limited even though we made an effort to see each other daily. On Saturday, I was curled up in a blanket on my couch studying for a huge test I had next week. Despite it being four in the afternoon, I hadn’t yet put a bra on or gotten dressed. Or brushed my hair. 

I lived for Saturdays like this. 

Feyre was supposed to come over for dinner later and it would be the first time I’d seen her since she’d left my house with Rhys over a week ago. I had big plans to pump her for information and figure out exactly what happened between them. Azriel didn’t have an explanation, either. No one did. It seemed like Feyre and Rhys were determined to keep the incident hidden from all of their friends. Az had told me he was pretty sure Mor knew, but wasn’t saying anything out of respect for Feyre.

Not tonight, though. I had two bottles of wine ready in order to grill Feyre for answers. 

I stood, my cocoon of blankets falling to the floor around me. I should probably make sure I have supplies to actually make dinner for Feyre and me tonight.

I traipsed into the kitchen directly adjacent to my living room. My apartment was a dream, if I was being honest. I didn’t have a roommate so I had the whole place to myself. The front door opened into a cozy living room furnished with a plush couch and a couple of chairs. It was a fairly open concept plan, so the kitchen and living room were separated by a countertop complete with a few barstools. To the left of the living room was my bedroom and bathroom. Small, but cozy. 

I opened the cabinets to stare at my food. It looked like I had rice and beans, so tacos might be a good option for dinner. As I removed the can of beans, a strange rustling issued from the very cabinet I was gazing into. I set the can on the counter and stretched up onto my toes to see what it was--

And came face to face with a rat. 

“Arghhhh!”

I stumbled back so fast I landed on my ass in front of the refrigerator. The rat jumped out of the cabinet and onto the floor directly in front of me before it skittered under the dishwasher, disappearing from sight. I didn’t think I’d ever moved faster than I did just then, scrambling out of the kitchen and back onto the couch. 

I grabbed my phone and dialed Azriel. 

“Hello?”

I gulped down some air before I could speak. “I have a rat problem.”

“A rat problem?” I could already tell he was laughing at me. 

“Yes. What the hell do I do.” 

He sighed. “I’ll be right over. Text me your address.” 

He hung up. I had not intended for him to pack up and come to my place, but if I was being truthful, there was no way I was handling the rat myself. Disgusting creatures. 

Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at my door. I tiptoed over to it and flung it open. 

“Hey, Elain,” Azriel said slowly. 

I had managed to sneak around my apartment, shutting my bedroom and bathroom doors in an effort to keep the rat out. I’d also put a bra on and some mascara, so at least I looked presentable.

“Good to see you’re still alive, considering the deadly rat currently inhabiting your apartment,” he said sarcastically. Sarcastically?

“You think I’m making this up?” I grabbed his jacket and yanked him inside, shutting the door behind him. He stopped just past the threshold as I continued into the living room and resumed my place standing atop the couch. He chuckled as I stood there, turning to face him with my hands on my hips.

“I opened up my kitchen cabinet and the biggest rat I have ever laid eyes on jumped out. I mean, it actually attacked me. That thing has an agenda against me or something. It skittered across my kitchen floor and under the dishwasher. That’s the last I saw of it.”

Azriel looked dubious. “So… There’s actually a rat in here?”

Why couldn’t this guy get it through his head? He’d come over, hadn’t he? “Yes there’s a rat in here! And I need you to get rid of it because I’m certainly not going to! Please?” 

He let out a breath and walked past me to the kitchen. “Okay, okay, I’m looking. Do you have any mousetraps or anything?”

I gasped. “You’re not going to kill it, are you? Can’t you just catch it and set it free?”

“What do you want me to catch it with, Elain? And I thought you told me it was evil.” 

“Just because it’s evil doesn’t mean it deserves death. I have an empty shoebox and a bucket. Would either of those work?”

“Where are they?”

I clapped my hands, delighted that Azriel wasn’t going to kill the rat, disgusting as it was. “Under the sink! You’re a godsend, Azriel.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, bending down to look under the sink. But I could tell he was pleased.

I jumped from the couch to the chair nearest the bar, then climbed up onto the countertop separating the kitchen from the living room to watch his progress. “You’re doing great,” I said as he pulled the shoebox out from beneath the sink.

“Thanks for the moral support,” he said.

“Anytime.” 

I watched him peer under the dishwasher for a bit, shoebox at the ready. I jumped when he banged on the outside of the dishwasher. Then jumped again as the rat skittered out from beneath the dishwasher, aiming for the fridge. Azriel pounced, enclosing the rat within the box in one fell swoop. 

He stood, brandishing the box in my direction. I nearly fell backward off the bar. “Get that thing away from me!” 

He laughed. “It’s just a harmless little rat.” 

“I can hear it ricocheting off the sides of that shoebox. It’s trying to escape. Get it out of here!” 

Still laughing, he left the apartment and returned a few minutes later, sans rat and shoebox. Good. I wasn’t going to find a use for the box anyway after a rat had been inside it. 

“You can come down off the counter now,” he said, walking toward me.

“There could be more.”

He walked right up to the edge of the bar to where I now sat, my legs hanging over the edge. His arms wrapped around my waist as he came to a stop between my thighs. 

“Hi.”

“Hi,” I said, resting my forearms over his shoulders. “Thanks for saving me from the rat.” 

“Anytime,” he said, and kissed me. I pulled him closer, my legs wrapping around his waist. His hands moved from my waist, to my breasts, to my hair. I had just as much difficulty keeping my own hands in one place as I stroked the hard muscles of his abs, his chest, his arms. He deftly lifted me off the counter and carried me over to the couch, laying me down gently. 

“Is this okay?” he asked. 

I merely pulled him down atop me and drew our lips together. I was just starting to consider… other things, when a knock came from the door. 

Azriel froze. 

“I bet it’s the rat, back for revenge,” he joked, but I could tell he just wanted to continue kissing me. 

“Shit,” I said, letting my head fall back against the couch as Azriel shifted into a seated position. “That’s Feyre. She’s here for dinner. She doesn’t know about us yet… Unless you told somebody about us. Which would be fine,” I added, even though we’d had a silent agreement to keep this on the down-low through all of our online communication and week of hanging out. 

“Well, unless you want me to climb out the window, I think she’s about to find out.”

“I would never make you climb out the window,” I said as I stood and aimed for the door. Before I opened it, I turned back to him. “What did you mean, earlier, when you asked if there was actually a rat here?”

His eyes widened ever so slightly. “Uhhh… Nothing. I thought there was a rat here the whole time.” His gaze cut to the floor.

“Azriel?”

“Yes?” He still wouldn’t look at me. 

I was about to continue my interrogation when another knock, this one a little more insistent, sounded at the door. I let Azriel off the hook and opened the door. 

“Hey, Feyre. Long story, but before you come in, I have to tell you. I’m not here alone,” I said in a rush. Feyre’s brows creased. 

“You forgot I was coming? Who’s here?” 

I opened the door a little wider and Feyre took a step inside.

“Hey, Feyre,” Azriel said weakly. 

~~~Feyre~~~

It had been the longest week of my life. I remembered how much I hated living with Ianthe as the week progressed. We had kept our distance from each other the entire month of November. I’d avoided the common areas of the house like the plague, being sure to stay inside my room on my floor of the townhouse at all times while home. 

But now that it had been over a month since she’d, you know, betrayed me by making out with my boyfriend in front of the entire swim team, she’d decided amends could now be made. 

I wanted no part of it. 

She lingered in the living room every night after practice, attempting to cajole me into conversation about swim, or school, or my family. I would usually flip a trite remark at her and move on as quickly as possible, but I was reaching the end of my tether. 

And dealing with Ianthe’s tasteless attempts to ‘be friends’ again was just the cherry on top of the horrible week I’d had. 

I hadn’t spoken to Rhys since the night when he’d cornered me in the bathroom of the club.  The night he’d cheated on me with his ex, whom I had thought he hated! He had kept his distance, too, and I couldn’t decide if that made things better or worse. He hadn’t placed any effort in trying to talk to me, or reconcile, and that only served to make me believe he really was guilty, he really did cheat because he was weak, and had moved on without me. I’d said as much to Mor on Wednesday but she had vehemently argued against that opinion.

“Just talk to him!” she’d exclaimed over dinner that night. “And neither of you will hang with me, Cass, Az and Amren! Things aren’t the same without you guys. And you’re obviously miserable without each other. Won’t you just talk to him? There’s got to be an explanation.” 

But I hadn’t, and my week without Rhys and my newfound friends had accomplished at least one good thing. I had thrown myself into my training, needing an outlet for all the emotions warring within me. Should I talk to Rhys? Did I just have horrible taste when it came to men? All those thoughts, whirling around my head, only disappeared when I trained so hard at every practice that I could barely stay awake to study before bed every night. 

Coach King had even noticed my newfound motivation. He’d pulled me aside after practice on Friday night and congratulated me for my hard work. He’d even hinted that I might make the travel team next weekend… 

Somehow the motivation to work hard, accomplish things in my sport, had returned to me. And now that that was finally going well, I’d started considering changing my major to English or Art or something. Maybe I just needed to take a long break from boys. It made it a lot easier to focus on myself.

But some part of me knew that was a lie. I’d felt so different when I was with Rhys; I knew it was partially due to him that I suddenly felt confident enough to put everything on the line in practice, to even consider switching to a ‘less practical’ major. Even though he’d cheated. Now I knew I could conquer that sort of insult, channel that frustration into productive things that would hopefully make my life better. 

I hadn’t seen or explained what had happened between Rhys and me to either of my sisters, but tonight was the night I was planning on telling Elain about my newfound motivation. However, I had not expected Azriel, looking slightly disheveled and embarrassed, to be sitting in her apartment when I arrived. 

“Azriel… What are you doing here?” I asked him, even as I shot Elain a look.

She grinned weakly. “Az was just leaving!” She said, grabbing his arm and pulling him off the couch. He acquiesced because Elain definitely wasn’t strong enough to pull Azriel up off anything. 

“Az?” I asked her. 

Azriel’s cheeks were bright red and he wasn’t making eye contact. I glanced between them. “Is something going on here?”

“Bye Azriel!” Elain said, her voice strained and cheeks equally as pink as Azriel’s. 

Azriel grabbed his jacket from where it was laying haphazardly on the floor next to the couch. I shot Elain another look and she didn’t even try to smile. She just pushed him out and slammed it shut.

“Elain Archeron, you bad, bad, girl,” I said, unable to restrain myself.

“Oh shut up,” she said, throwing herself onto the couch and covering her face with her hands. 

“You want to tell me how long that’s been going on?” 

“Well, if you mean by, how long have I been seeing him, then only a week and a half. If you mean how long I’ve been talking to him… Over two months. We connected on a dating app, and at first it was funny because we were kind of connected through you, even though you two weren’t really close at the time. So we laughed about it and just never stopped texting. Our first real date was last week.”

I grew more and more stunned as Elain explained. She looked at me, obviously finished with details, and I closed my mouth, which had been hanging open. 

“Elain, I’m--”

“Don’t you dare ask me if I think I’m ready for this.”

“I wasn’t going to! I’m--I’m so, so happy for you!” I screeched, unable to contain my happiness that Elain had found somebody, whether it be long term or not, after Greyson. That bastard had hurt her and she deserved so much better. And I knew for a fact that Azriel was a good man. I threw myself at Elain, hugging her tight. “Are you happy?”

Elain’s slender arms wrapped around me hesitantly, and she patted me on the back. “I really like him, Feyre. And we’ve only been officially going out for like a week but everything feels so natural with him. I’m not afraid of it. He’s so easy to talk to, and kind, and…”

I pulled back, realizing there was one question I still didn’t know the answer to. “Was he supposed to be here when I arrived?”

She shook her head, standing up to walk into the kitchen. I followed, seating myself at the bar across from her as she pulled out a skillet and some ground beef. “Tacos okay?” She asked, and I nodded. “To answer your question, no, he was not supposed to be here. I called him to come dispose of a rat for me. Wine?” 

I nodded and she opened a bottle of red. “So you mean to tell me,” I said slowly, accepting the wineglass she offered, “that you called Azriel over here because you had a rat in your apartment?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Why is that so odd? Azriel acted strange about it too. You know what he asked me? He said, ‘Oh, so is there actually a rat in your apartment?’ What’s that about?” 

I rested my forehead on the counter in front of me. “Elain. I’m so glad you’ve found Azriel but you can be so clueless sometimes. He thought you asked him over here to have sex!”

“What? That makes no sense.”

“That’s like, the classic signal. You call your boyfriend, telling him there’s a bat in your attic or a chick on the loose in the house! Then you pretend to look for it, both of you knowing full well there’s not an actual rodent loose in the house. And then you… you know.”

“Oh God. That is so not a thing.” Elain downed half of her glass of wine in a few gulps.

“It’s a thing. I did it with Tamlin. And that’s all I’ll say about that.”

“Do me a favor, Feyre. Never mention this to anyone. And don’t give me any more details about your sex life with Tamlin, either.” 

“My lips are sealed on both counts, believe me.” 

Elain started browning the taco meat. “So… Speaking of boys.”

“No.”

“Feyre Archeron, so help me, you are going to tell me what happened between you and Rhys. I’m very concerned, here! Even Azriel doesn’t know and he’s one of Rhys’s best friends! Drink your wine and tell me the truth.”

I groaned. But it had to come out sometime, right? Now it was my turn to tell the truth. I had just barged in on Elain and her secret boyfriend. 

“Rhys cheated on me last week.”

Elain’s mouth popped open, the taco meat in front of her momentarily forgotten. “He did what.” 

For the second time, I explained what had gone down between Rhys and Amarantha in the alleyway outside of the club. 

“There’s got to be some sort of explanation,” Elain said. 

“That’s what Mor keeps saying. He cheated. End of story. It’s exactly what Tamlin did to me a month ago. I’m not putting up with that.” 

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

I slept over at Elain’s that night after she consoled me about Rhys and then told me I didn’t need him. She had mentioned a couple times that maybe there was an explanation that would somehow justify him kissing his ex while I was nearby. I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. Because if there was an explanation for Rhys cheating... What if there had been an explanation for why Tamlin had cheated? What if I was just getting everything wrong?

When I got back to my house the next day, I realized the door was deadbolted.  Which meant I would have to call Ianthe, because she wasn’t answering the door. Shit. 

Five fruitless phone calls later, I was still stuck outside. I banged on the door. If it was deadbolted, someone had to be inside. 

“Hello? Ianthe! Let me in!” 

Nothing. I turned around, surveying the empty street. It was early for a Sunday morning. Most of my friends were probably asleep. I could possibly call Mor, but she lived with Rhys.  And I didn’t want to hang out anywhere that I might run into Rhys until Ianthe was able to let me in. I sat down on the steps and starting scrolling through my social media, waiting for a brilliant idea to hit me. 

And then I heard the door swing open from behind me. I turned around and came face to face with Tamlin. 

“What the hell are you doing inside my house.”

“It’s not just your house, you know,” he said, leaning against the door frame looking smug.

“You know what, I don’t want to think about what you were doing inside my house. Just get out of here,” I said, standing and making to move past him. 

“Come on, Feyre. We all know you’re fucking Rhys. I’m not allowed to have a little fun of my own?”

I glared at him. He hadn’t moved and was blocking the only entrance to the house. “I don’t give a fuck what you think I’ve been doing, nor do I care what you have been doing. I do however, demand that you get out of my way and fuck off.” 

He raised his hands. “Fine, fine. But I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other from now on.” His subsequent smile was enough to tell me exactly why I’d be seeing him. 

Ianthe was a bitch. And Tamlin was a dick. 

I pushed past him and slammed the door shut. Ianthe was in the kitchen, wearing nothing but a robe. 

“Feyre! I didn’t expect you back so early.”

I ignored her, dialing Mor as I walked downstairs to my floor of the house. She picked up on the first ring. 

“Who is calling me this early on a Sunday.” Mor’s sleepy voice issued from the phone. 

“I need a place to stay,” I said. “And I can’t stay in your guest room because, well, you know. And I can’t barge in on Elain because her place is way too small for two people. And I certainly cannot stay here any longer because Ianthe is now fucking my ex boyfriend. So tell me what to do.”

“That bitch,” Mor said. “I don’t know Feyre.” She hesitated. “I don’t think you can get out of your lease until the summer. Just stay with us. Please? Rhys is definitely gonna stay far away from you.” 

“You’re only saying that because you want us to reconcile.”

“So what if I do!” Mor exclaimed. “There’s got to be some sort of explanation,” she continued. “And Rhys is at least a more pleasant ex-boyfriend than Tamlin, you’ve got to admit. Just come stay here for the week and see if you can handle it.”

I thought about it. I really did not want to see Rhys. But when I weighed the pros and cons… 

Tamlin wouldn’t try to avoid seeing me. He got off on antagonizing me and generally being a dick. Rhys was as reluctant to see me as I was to see him. It might be better that way. And at least I’d have someone on my side with Mor there, instead of it being Ianthe and Tamlin against me in this house.

“Okay,” I agreed. “But only for the week.” 

I could sense Mor’s smile through the phone. “Perfect! I’ll pick you up at ten. I’m going back to bed.”

TAGS----------

Breath Control

Summary:

Part II Part III

“I think I’m in love.” Rhysand said urgently as he barged into his and Feyre’s shared apartment.

“Hmm.” Feyre answered, not looking away from her painting. Her hair was piled messily atop of her head, her whole body dotted in sporadic paint splashes, as was her custom. She was standing back, currently, to study it, something Rhys had noticed she did often when she was near to finishing something but not quite there yet. She’d been doing it on this particular piece for a week, but he hadn’t said anything, because it was her final piece for her art major, and therefore Very Important.

“Did you hear me?” He checked. “I said, I think I’m in love.”

“With whom?” She asked, eyes still studying the painting, her paintbrush dripping sky blue paint onto the floor.

You, Rhys wanted to say, and it would have been true. He’d been in love with Feyre Archeron ever since he’d met her - regrettably, on Tamlin’s arm - at their shared high school’s Spring Formal a couple of years before, and she’d halfheartedly hated him until her break up with Tamlin in their senior year, which Rhys was present for and managed to steer her out of there quicker than Lucien could bring her back, which had led to a fast friendship between the two of them. When they’d gotten into the same college, it had made sense to be roommates, which had brought them to today, in their two bedroomed apartment with the night sky painted on the ceiling and various paintings of Feyre’s all over the walls, with Feyre too focused on her project to notice Rhys standing with a black cat in his arms, small enough to be cradled in just his left hand.

“Look at me.” Rhys demanded in a petulant tone. Feyre glanced over distractedly and then looked back to her painting. She paused for a beat and then her head whipped back towards her best friend, eyes narrowing.

“No.” She said, ever the practical one. Rhys’ eyes widened and he opened his mouth to start pleading but she shook her head. “No, Rhys. How are we gonna feed it?”

“Her.”

“Hm?”

“Her. She’s a girl.”

“Okay.” She waved a hand flippantly, as though the sex of their new cat was unimportant to her - and Rhys supposed, it probably was. “Okay, what are we going to feed her?”

“Cat food.” Rhys said, confused because he thought this was obvious. Feyre sighed through her nose.

“We can barely feed ourselves, Rhysand.”

“Oh, no.” He spluttered, in a rare moment of inelegance. “Don’t you Rhysand me. You haven’t Rhysanded me since Tam.”

“You haven’t done something this stupid since Tamlin!” Feyre burst, and then stopped to collect herself. “Rhys, we’re in our last year of college, we’re crazy busy, we have no money, we’re moving apartments soon - does this building even allow cats?”

“Nobody said anything on the way up.” He shrugged, running his long fingers over the cat’s small head, she arched her back into his touch and stretched out her short legs.

“Like they’d say something to you.” Feyre threw up her hands, exasperated. “You have to have realised by now that everybody in this building bar me is terrified of you, Rhys, come on.”

“I can’t take her back, Feyre. Please?” He dragged out the last word, lips slipping into the pout he donned when he wanted something desperately.

“Where did you even get her from?” Feyre dropped her hands to her hips, tiredly, and Rhys noticed the first signs of her giving in - it wasn’t often that this occurred, but it happened occasionally, and Rhysand was always attuned to the motions that meant he’d get his own way.

“Somebody was giving them out and she was the last one left. I don’t know - something about suspicion stopping people from adopting the black ones.” He sighed, as if this devastated him, and Feyre’s lips pulled down into a frown as she brought herself closer to Rhys and the cat.

“That’s terrible.” Feyre furrowed her eyebrows at the cat as she scratched between its ears. “Poor thing.”

“Do you hear that?” He murmured to the cat. “I think that may be the sound of you getting a new home.”

“I haven’t said yes, Rhys. We still have so much tot all through before we can even think about adopting a cat.”

“Your name is Stella.” He was still addressing the cat.