Summary: The night that Eris’ first flame manifested still haunts him. Now, in the middle of the night, it’s his son’s turn to have his first flame manifested. Will the story repeat itself?
WC: 1.6k words
Warnings: House fire, brief violence, angst
Dividers made by @tsunami-of-tears
Eris was six when he manifested his first flame.
It was an accident, it jutted out of his fingers before he could understand what was happening to him.
He remembers calling for help, crying in his bedroom. His bedsheets, along with his most precious belongings, caught on fire.
Eris just scrambled out of bed, tears streaking down his face. He was panting, and coughing, trying to escape the terrifying disaster of his own actions.
“Stop it,” He yelled, running to the door as fast as he could. A wall of fire rose from the ground, blocking his path.
Eris stumbled and fell on his back when he felt the burn of the flames, too close to his face. He cried, all alone, desperate and afraid. Where were his guards? Why was no one coming to his rescue?
“Mama!”
Eris’ anxiety only briefly ceased when he saw his mother stumbling through the door, before she was reined back by three guards.
“The High Lord's instructions were clear, My Lady. Lord Eris must learn to control his flame on his own,” the guard on his Mother's left said, before forcing his Mother to her knees and keeping her in place.
“Eris!”
“Ma!” Eris cried out, echoing his Mother's desperate call.
“Don't be scared baby,” his mother cried out, her eyes boring into his. Eris held her gaze, anchoring himself to her presence. Like a solid rock breaking through the tide. “Breathe. Welcome the fire. It's a part of you, my beautiful boy.”
Eris, even in his distressed state, managed to put the panic aside only to attempt to follow his mother's instructions.
His lungs burned with every breath, but he did it anyway. Welcome the fire, he repeated to himself, like a mantra.
When he opened his eyes again, the raging wild fire that had conquered his bedroom had died down. Only warm piles of ashes stayed behind, as a reminder of the mess he's caused.
When he looked up to where his mother had been, he just found a closed door. Again.
He tiptoed toward it, hissing when his fingers reached the knob of the door. Instinctively, he yanked his fingers away, and put them in his mouth to soothe the burning ache. He tried again, tugging his sleeve to protect his little hands this time.
When the door opened, his mother was nowhere to be seen. Only the tall, intimidating presence of the two armored men guarding his bedroom.
“Go back to sleep, little Lord,” one of the guards ordered coldly, shoving Eris back inside his bedroom and closing the door with his metal boot.
“Ma!”
Eris wakes up, covered in sweat, at the sound of his child's voice. Everything around him is spinning. He's still drowsy from sleep, his mind still half in his dream—memory—and half back to reality.
Eris doesn't have time to come back to his senses before he feels the sheets being thrown out of bed. In a matter of seconds, you—his mate—are up and running, already out the door in your half tied nightgown when Eris finally gets back to his senses.
And he's running. He's just one step behind his mate. His bare feet fly through the halls of the Forest House, the smell of smoke filling them.
“LET ME IN YOU MORONS!” He hears you scream just as he turns the corner.
A guard is holding you back as you claw his arms without your nails, drawing blood as you fight to reach your child's door.
“High Lord,” a guard—one Eris should've fired ages ago—steps to stand before him and block his path. “It's tradition that-”
A grunt echoes through the halls as Eris’ knee collides into the male's genitals, sending him to the ground gasping for hair.
“I'm your High Lord. You obey me. And this tradition? It died with your past High Lord.” Eris sees red. He has half a mind to murder the man on sight, but he sees you moving in his peripheral vision.
You're bolting through the bedroom, the door falling off its hinges as it's pushed open. “Rowan!”
“Watch out!” Eris yells, wrapping his arms around your hips and pulling you back against his bare chest before a wall of flame can burn the skin off your face.
Rowan's cries intensify as he watches his mother being almost burned alive by his fault. His flame answers by roaring even louder, devouring everything on its path at an alarming pace.
“Baby, it's okay. Mama's safe. Dad is with her. We're both right here,” Eris yells over the crackling sound of the flames.
A yelp escapes your lips as the large window on your right explodes from the intense heat. The flames grow bigger, feeding off the wind outside and Rowan's emotions.
Eris holds you tighter against him, but he's not retreating. He won't give your child up and let him deal with this on his own, like his own father would've liked him to.
“Rowan. Rowan, can you hear Dad?” Eris speaks, trying to find Rowan's shadow behind the wall of flames.
“Dad I'm here! Help me! Please, help me!”
Eris’ heart crumbles at the desperate plea. He feels your shoulders jolt against him with every sob.
“I know, baby,” Eris fist clenches, wanting nothing more than to be able to jump through the flames and hold his child. “I'm right here. Mom is right here with me, too. You're okay, but you have to listen to me very carefully, okay Rowan?”
“Dad- I can't- I can't stop it! It won't stop! My flame-”
“Shh, baby. Take a deep breath for me, okay?” Eris tries to calm him down, holding onto you as tightly as you are.
“Eris,” he hears you sob into his arms. Your grip tightens around him. “Eris please, make it stop!”
“I can't do that love,” he says, voice low against your ear so only you can hear him. Now is not the time to let his panic show, for Rowan's sake. “Only he can control his flame.”
He turns back to the wall of flames, which has diminished half its size in a matter of seconds.
“That's it, baby. Keep breathing, just like that,” Eris says, then recalls his mother's words. “Feel the fire travel through your veins. It’s warm, isn’t it? Welcome it, it's a part of you.”
Eris stares, amazed, as the wall of fire keeps going down, clouding the room in thick clouds of smoke. He sighs in relief when finally, after what felt like a torturous long time, a tuff of curly red hair and a pair of eyes that look just like yours comes within sight.
“Rowan.” Your voice trembles, as is your hand when you extend it toward him.
“Hi, baby,” Eris says, voice soft and low. He steps closer to the remaining flames with you, careful as to not get yourself burned. “You did so well. We’re almost there, just take a few steps– Careful, don’t rush it. Think about pushing the flames away, tell them to let you step out in your head. Acknowledge them, but remind yourself that you’re in control here.”
On shaky and unsteady legs, Rowan does as he’s told, carefully taking a step, then two. Then the fire is completely gone, and so is the fear that was clinging yours and Eris stomach.
Rowan throws himself into both of your arms, tears and sobs muffled in the comfort of his mother’s chest. His little hands curl into fist, gripping the soft fabric of your nightgown so tightly it could tear. Not that you cared.
“Good job bud,” Eris praises, guiding the three of you to the ground. His arms a shelter for his family, protecting his boy like he dreamed to be when he was about his age. His fingers thread to the boys curl, massaging his scalp as you wipe his tears away, kissing the stressful events of the night away. “You did great. I’m proud of you. The first time is always scary. It’s okay to be scared, but trust me, the other times won’t be as scary. I’ll teach you how to make it less scary, to make you feel more in control. We’ll learn together, okay baby?”
Rowan nods sleepily, trying to fight the sleep away. But Eris can see his eyes fluttering shut already.
“Can I sleep with you tonight..?” Rowan whispers, mumbling against your skin so low Eris almost misses it.
“Of course, sweetie.” You smile down at him, your own cheeks wet with tears of relief.
With a quick flick of his hand, Eris winnows the three of you directly into bed. By the time yours and Rowan’s head hit the pillow, sleep has already win you over.
Eris shifts slowly, unwrapping his arms from around you two to pull up the sheets and cocoon you in them. He settles back down, moving closer and pressing his face against your back. He lifts his arm from under the sheets, and extends it above your hips. After a few instants of patting the sheets, he finally finds Rowan’s curled up form.
A soft, tired smile lifts the corner of Eris’ lips as he nuzzles closer to you, inhaling your scent as his fingers trace lazy patterns on his son’s arm. “Our beautiful boy…” He whispers through the night, no one but him there to witness this tender moment.
Eris is soon lulled to sleep by your breathing, knowing that right now, here, his family is safe. And he will fight to make sure it remains this way as long as he lives. Even; especially if it means undoing millennia of barbaric traditions.
Eris Vanserra Taglist:
ACOTAR general taglist: @mybestfriendmademe @lilah-asteria @acotar-lover @paige0103 @princesssunderworld
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Summary: Anon Request: can we get a pt2 to due time with eris?
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 846
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As soon as he hears the beautiful cries of his daughter as she is welcomed into the world he knew two things:
That he’d lay down his life for her without a moment’s hesitation.
He had to kill his father.
He supposed he could get you and the babe out of the Autumn Court, but that could be a feat even more dangerous. A potential heir to the throne of fall raised in another.
His father would stop at nothing to ensure that his child was raised in the same way he was, and Eris was not about to let that happen.
He didn’t want that for her, he thought as he held her close, pressing promises into the tiny hairs on her head. He didn’t want that man anywhere near her.
“Do you have a name?” the nursemaid asks, tucking in the blankets around you as you watch your mate hold his daughter close for the first time.
Eris had been by your side the entire time. Neither of you had wanted any of the other family members around during the birth, opting to ward the room thrice over so that none of them could get in.
He’d wanted you to have the babe out at the Foxhole House, the home the two of you had built together, quiet and quaint like the life he’d always wanted, but it wasn’t an option as his father had far better care for you.
He was lucky that you were someone his father had at least approved of your courting, otherwise, things would be a lot more serious.
She was the same nurse that had patched him up as he grew. She patched up everything from his skinned knees to his more severe punishments from his father. He couldn’t think of anyone else he’d want to deliver his child.
He tears his eyes away from the sleeping babe in his arms to meet your soft, exhausted eyes. You nod to your mate and his heart aches in his chest, a small smile as he speaks softly, “Her name is Maude.”
She gives him an encouraging nod filled with pride and he has to blink back the tears from his eyes. Every female in this room has seen him go through so much, knows the real him, and he promises to his daughter that she will always know the true Eris Vanserra.
You invite his family against his wishes because they have to see the child at some point, but Eris keeps an eye glued to your daughter as the Lady of Autumn cries over her. Crying over the fact that there is finally a girl in the Vanserra family, and also crying because she knows that her husband would’ve been so harsh on a daughter of their own had they had one.
His dumber brothers make terrible jokes and he clutches your hand tighter with his own. He will never leave you or Maude alone with them as long as he lives, and he’s done an amazing job at doing just that.
He can see the ideas already brewing in his father’s eyes as he looks down at the tiny babe in his wife’s arms and Eris tenses, wants so badly to get his father out of here, get them all out of here. He feels like they’re already corrupting his daughter just by looking at her. He hates it, he hates them. He has to do something about this.
And as he looks around the room, at his parents, his surviving brothers, he can’t help the pang in his chest at his youngest of kin not being here for this moment. He is the only member of his family that he actually wants here, save for his mother, but Lucien can’t because of his Gods awful father.
You feel the twin pain in your own chest and run a soothing thumb over his hand, his amber eyes leaving your daughter quickly to catch the soft look on your face, letting him know that you understand what he’s feeling and giving him a subtle nod to let him know that Lucien will be meeting her soon.
Your daughter has some lungs on her and he knows that she is a force to be reckoned with. You take the crying babe into your arms as the nursemaid ushers the rest of the Vanserra family out of your chambers so that you can feed the child and get some rest.
He sits next to you, rubbing your daughter's head. He can’t get enough of her already and you know that it’s going to be hard to separate the pair, but you don’t mind. He loves the smell of her, the way she looks, the way she sounds, her eyes, a complete mirror of your own.
He lies his head on your shoulder and you lean against him, admiring the teeny babe in your arms.
“I promise I will protect you with my life,” he whispers down to her, and to you, a kiss on your temple, “The both of you.”
I cannot stop imagining dad!Eris. Him and a baby girl with brilliant red hair. He is so scared to be a father at first, scared to become anything like Beron, but this child looks at him with such love and trust. He would go on walks with her and his hounds through the woods. She would go to meetings with him, Feyre and Elain would adore her (because in my AU he finds a family that shows him how to love.) Nesta would gift her a training sword once she is old enough to hold one. The Lady of Autumn would spoil her rotten!! Eris would go to his mother panicking about everything from his wife's pregnancy to his first true argument with his teenage daughter. oh my goodness so many thoughts.
Summary: Anon Request: Oooo you could do Maude and Eris having a daddy daughter day?
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 579
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He can’t help but grin as his daughter tries her best to maneuver the spoonful of ice cream into her small mouth. The silverware ends up twisted around, her pink tongue poking out to retrieve the frozen goodness but it slips off of the spoon and onto the napkin Eris had tucked into the collar of her dress.
She stares down at it for a moment, huffing at the spilled mess. Her face is covered with remnants of the creamy goodness and he lets out a bark of laughter as she uses her fingers to pinch at the soft ice cream, licking it from her fingertips.
At the sound of her father’s laugh she splutters out on her own, waving her spoon wildly, grinning from ear to ear as she enjoys the time with her father.
The confectioners watch with smiles of their own, not used to seeing the High Lord’s son so carefree and happy, sweet with the lovely granddaughter of Autumn.
They’re waiting for you at an ice cream shop in town. You’re at a check-up down the lane, your second child growing bigger by the day, and soon you’d be showing.
Maude had been pouty all morning, as if she could sense that her parent’s attention was on her younger sibling today, and had made a fuss over breakfast. You’d cuddled her close with Eris before the three of you had left, and the autumn heir had offered to take her out for a sweet treat if she behaved on your way into town.
You insisted you would be fine, it was a normal check-in with the healer to see how you were feeling, how the babe was doing, and you’d meet up with them once you were done. Eris didn’t like to leave either of his favorite ladies alone, but you were more than capable, and with that stern look you gave him he knew that there would be no fighting it.
“Here, Love,” he offers his own cone to her, salted caramel with nuts, his favorite. Maude nibbles at the cone, missing the ice cream completely, and she makes a delighted noise, trying to grab the treat from his hands.
“Nuh-uh,” he hums, taking a bite of his own, “You wanted a cup, not a cone. This one’s mine honey.”
She pouts up at him and his heart melts. He can’t resist his daughter, releasing his cone into her grasp. Eris takes the spoon she’d abandoned on the table and takes a bite of her melted vanilla ice cream, grimacing. He’ll make sure her palette for the sweet treat expands, and soon. Eating her leftover vanilla was getting old.
He helps his daughter clean up when they’re done, wiping the remnants from her mouth and her hands. She even managed to get some in her hair and he shakes his head fondly at his messy little girl.
He tosses away the trash, scooping Maude up into his arms, moving to stand once again at the counter, the both of them peering through the glass at the colorful ice creams.
“Which one should we get mommy?” he asks, bouncing his daughter gently in his arms. Maude cheers excitedly, pointing at one that is bright pink.
“Cherry? Mommy does like cherry,” he comments, kissing her chubby cheek before turning towards the fae before him. “One large cherry, to go please.”
Maude squawks loudly in agreement and the whole parlor laughs in response to the happy child.
I just found your profile (because I finished the acotar series a few days ago) and fell in love with Azriel. I'm so glad you write so much about him, but I'm confused like the kids? is there a sequence of fics i should read to understand how all kids work? age, characteristic and etc...
Your blog is really lovely, I'm in love ♡♡
Hello and welcome to azsazz, where I worship the ground Azriel works on 😅😂
There's not specifically a sequence to read my family fics in, but here are a few tips/suggestions I can give you!
To learn the birthing order of Az's kiddies I'd suggest reading Family Dynamic and then Two is Better Than One (these just set up the family members and birthing order).
If you don't want to read them here is the birthing order for Azriel's children: Wren (m), Baz (m), Zuzu (f), Jax (m), Malos (f), Knox (m).
I do have a few stories that the other children aren't in because I hadn't developed the family that much at that point, so if you'd like fics focused on Wren, check out Here's to Tradition, You Too, or Can't You See, Concord,
Here is a rough linear timeline of my family fics so far, starting out from when it was just Wren to when they are young adults:
Here's to Tradition
You Too
Can't You See?
Concord
Come Back
Burning Man
Family Dynamic
Two is Better Than One
Summer Daze
Promises
Sticking Together
The Rowdy Bunch
Snatched
The Calm Beneath the Storm
The Honeycrisp Grove
No Tricks, Just Treats
Warrior Status
The Safeguard
In the Azsazz Universe, Rhy's x Reader have Nyx. They're going to have one more child, a daughter, who has yet to be written into the universe.
Cassian x Reader have a son called Gideon. He can be read about in some of the Az fics as well as in Terrible Twos. They'll be having two daughters who are yet to be written in.
Eris x Reader currently have a daughter named Maude. I'm giving them two more children eventually as well, but if you'd like to read about Maude you can do so in Due Time and Sweater Weather.
Lucien x Reader don't have any children currently but they'll be having two, a boy and a girl eventually.
And even Tamlin's daughter, Linden, makes an appearance in The Safeguard. 😅
The full birthing order of every child in the universe right now is as follows: Nyx, Wren, Gideon, Baz, Zuzu, Jax, Maude, Malos, Knox.
Hopefully this wasn't too confusing, but thank you for this ask. If I forgot anything I'm sure someone with a better memory than me will let me know 😂💙😅 (totally wish I could pin multiple posts rn because I cannot lose this and I'd love to add to it)
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
