yeeeeee

“Has anyone seen Y/n and Azriel today?”

“No, not today”

“I, for one, have not seen my dear sister since last week” Rhys quipped

“So do you think they’re not coming?”

Cassian’s head snapped up from where he was setting up the table in the sitting room. “They have to come.” he stated, as if their presence was the most obvious thing in the world “Right? It’s game night. They have to come”

“Perhaps they’re just late?” Feyre suggested, descending the stairs after putting Nyx to sleep “I bumped into Azriel earlier and he said something about helping her finish research in their library?”

“Well, they better be here” Cass grumbled “Or I swear to the Mother, I’ll-”

“You’ll live, you big Illyrian baby” he turned to his mate, who sat in an armchair, staring him down. He finished setting up the game and, instead of sitting down in the adjacent armchair, swept Nesta into his arms and settled down in her place, sitting her on his lap.

She rolled her eyes at his antics.

“Well, they’re thirty minutes late, should we just start without them?”

“Let’s give them a little more time, hm?” Rhysand asked from behind his wine glass

“But I want to start playing already-”

“You’re a child”

The group continued on bickering until eventually the subject changed into recounting the events of their week. Before they knew it, they’d been catching up for another forty minutes, Y/n and Azriel still nowhere to be seen.

Feyre was the first to mention their absence again, as both her and Rhys had been trying to contact them through their minds, with no success.

“And you can’t get in contact with either of them?” Mor said, putting down her goblet of wine, hint of worry in her tone

“Yes. Their minds are closed”

“That’s strange” Nesta mused “You said they’d be in their library. Perhaps we should go check on them?”

That’s how the high lord’s inner circle, instead of revelling, playing games and drinking wine that night, ended up standing in front of a house in the heart of Velaris. Cassian was knocking on the door for the third time, when the group began to actually worry.

It wasn’t unusual for Azriel and his mate to ignore their family in all their chaos for the sake of their own peaceful company. After all they had been through, no one would dream of critiquing them for it.

Every memberof the inner circle knew them well enough to be aware of how much both Azriel and Y/n loved their family. That they would give everything for their safety.

So no, no one thought to be overly mad at their absence at first. Nor overly worried.

Rhysand sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and put a hand on Cassian’s shoulder. A purple mist encased the large doorframe and not before long the door was swinging wide open.

Rhysand took a precarious step inside.

“Y/n?… Azriel?”

No response came. He looked back at the rest of the group who all stood, dumbfounded in front of the door, and motioned for them to hurry, come in.

They searched the house, and after a few minutes Feyre was calling them into the library, a slight smirk crawling onto her face.

“Just be quiet” the murmured “You won’t believe it”

“What? What is it?” Mor whisper-shouted eagerly as the group all gathered at the entrance to the library.

“Holy fuck”

“There is no way in Hel” a shit-eating grin made its way onto Cassian’s face.

Even Rhys spared a laugh.

Because on the couch, papers scattered all over the floor next to them, were Azriel and Y/n, sound asleep on one another.

Azriel, the spymaster, used to falling asleep standing up on missions in cold and damp, ready to wake at the sound of a pin drop, now not even twitching in his slumber at the entirety of his family standing there, stifling laughs of disbelief.

Completely safe and at peace in his mate’s arms.

“His shadows must be blocking out the sound, right?” the little things seemed almost slumbering as well, leisurely splaying over the whole room.

“Or he just feels that safe with her”

“Look at how tight he’s holding her” Mor pointed out, motioning at his hands that were pressing Y/n into his chest. His chin rested on top of her head.

“Is she drooling?”

“Riiight onto his shirt”

“Well, there goes the dignified princess of the Night Court”

Cassian shook his head, meeting the eyes of his family, stars in his eyes as if he were a little boy given a toy for the first time. Nesta swatted at his arm.

“Let’s let them sleep. They seem to need it”

Feyre began to nodding in agreement but Cassian huffed.

“Wait- what? No, we just wasted an hour of game night waiting for them, all the while they’ve been here, sound asleep like babes? I’m not letting them off the hook that easy”

“And what do you propose we do, oh Lord of Bloodshed? Draw mustaches on their faces?” Rhys mocked

“He kind of has a point, Rhys” Morrigan mused, chocolate eyes swimming with mischief

The inner circle began bickering again, half of them voting to simply let the pair be, the other half plotting.

All that was stopped when a low voice cut through the room.

“Get out of here before you wake my mate” Azriel’s hand was now covering Y/n’s ears to prevent her from waking. His finger caressed her cheek.

The group bristled.

“We came here, searching for you, worried that something had happened and now you’re throwing us out? What kind hospitality, Azriel-” Cassian started to whisper-shout, but suddenly a shadow swatted at his face and he abruptly shut his mouth.

He went back to bristling.

Feyre pressed a hand against her mouth to stifle a laugh.

Azriel only shot him a sharp look before closing his eyes again.

“Let’s leave them be, hm?” Rhysand mused, motioning for everyone to clear out of the room.

“What?-”

“Come, come. You’re already facing Azriel, the Mother knows we don’t want to face my dear sister when freshly roused from a nap”

Morrigan laughed, sparing one last look at the pair holding each other. Feyre smiled fondly.

“I’m not letting this go, though” Cassian said as they left the house, a shadow following to lock the door.

Rhys smirked “Oh, I know. I don’t think any of us are”

-

Back in the house, in the library, that same shadow flew back to Azriel and Y/n, now carrying a blanket, draping it over them.

Azriel, half-awake smoothed a hand over the top of his mate’s head. He dropped a kiss there as well, for good measure.

As he closed his eyes, he thought about how she’d scold him about being so harsh on his family, once she surely heard about the encounter from them.

But he knew they both would never hear the end of it, so he found himself not minding at all.

Anything to hold his sleeping mate in his arms for as long as possible.

-

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