the two loves of my life … i’m gonna write this then go cry forever 

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Thanks for the request, friend! I haven’t written Nessian in a hot minute, this should be fun ;)

~~~~~

“Nesta, my dear-”

“Don’t call me dear,” Nesta snapped, struggling not to look over at Cassian’s hulking form as he leaned over the shopping cart, pushing it at her side. She bet those veins in his forearms were popping out with tension, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbow as if he knew how that drove her crazy. Stupid, teasing, annoyingly handsome brute. “Look I wanted a peaceful evening running errands by myself, but now you’re here.” She could practically feel Cassian’s smirk. “So how about you just not talk at all and I don’t kick you in the dick?”

Cassian chuckled, not unnerved in the slightest at her venomous words. He was the only person she’d met that was completely unintimidated by her. 

It was infuriating.  

“You know I’m thankful that Feyre suggested we go shopping together,” Cassian said. “I think you’re nicer to me when the others aren’t around.”

Nesta put a hand on the shopping cart, bringing it - and Cassian - to a screeching halt. She met his hazel eyes, knowing good and well her own were churning with irritation. 

“Listen to me, you prick,” she hissed, leaning down until her face was mere inches from his own. “I am never nice to you. I have no desire to be nice to you or to spend time with you or to go shopping with you like some sort of unrealistic domestic bliss that you should stop fantasizing about right now. The only reason I let you come with me is because Feyre asked me to and I’m trying to be a better sister to her. It has nothing to do with you, do you understand that?”

Cassian just grinned. “You know you’re really serious? It’s a grocery run Nesta, not a romantic vacation. Though if you want to do that together too, I certainly wouldn’t be opposed. How do you feel about Jamaica?”

Nesta hated herself for it, but she stomped her foot like a child and let out a little scream as she turned on her heel and strode off towards the food section of the supermarket. 

“I’ll be over in toiletries!” Cassian called after her with a laugh. His laughter only got louder when Nesta shot him the middle finger over her shoulder. 

“Imbecile, idiot, brute, dimwit, moron,” Nesta hissed under her breath as she grabbed various boxes of cereal and pasta and snack foods, throwing them into the basket she now held on her arm. She knew she probably looked like a crazy person, but she was too furious to care. “Feyre and her ridiculous husband actually think I would ever go out with such an irritating man, I swear. Men are the worst.”

The grumblings continued as Nesta made her way back towards the toiletries section to meet back up with Cassian. She just wanted this little errand run to be over with. 

“Cassian!” she shouted, hating that she actually liked the sound of his name. “Cassian where-”

Nesta almost dropped the basket in her hand when she spotted Cassian standing right in front of none other but the condom aisle, turning a box of Trojans over in his hands to read the back. 

He looked up with a genuine smile - not a smirk for once.

“That was quick,” he remarked casually. “I’m almost done, I just need to-”

“How dare you,” Nesta interrupted, her chest heaving. “You - you would - you actually think that I would ever - and with you? No, no, I don’t know what sort of woman you think I am, but-”

Nesta continued to ramble on, stuttering and getting louder by the second. Cassian stared at her, head cocked to the side like a confused puppy as she yelled at him like a maniac. 

“I cannot believe,” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and rambling on and on and on. 

But in the back of her mind, Nesta felt her own hesitation. He was buying condoms because he actually thought he had a chance with her … which was ridiculous, she would never actually … 

But what if she did? For as moronic as he was (which truthfully she knew wasn’t much, Cassian was actually very intelligent, he just annoyed her like no one else), Cassian was also … very, very attractive. She could already picture those strong arms wrapping around her slender frame, his full lips pressing against her pulse point, his heavy body pressing down into hers–

“Nesta? Nesta?”

With a shake of her head and rapid blinking, Nesta came back to reality. Good grief, had she been fantasizing so much she spaced out in the middle of a conversation?

Cassian’s left hand was shaking her shoulder lightly, while his right hand was still holding those condoms. 

“Nesta what the hell is your deal?” he asked, still thoroughly confused. She started when she met his eyes, her body flushing at his closeness. “What are you rambling about? Look I know I tease you but if I actually did something, just-”

“I mean we could,” she cut him off with a murmur. That flush continued to travel down her body, heating her from the inside out. “I hate that you made the assumption like an idiot, but we … could.”

“Could what?”

“What do you mean could what?” Nesta snapped, the storm in her rising to the surface once again. “We could use those, you moron!”

“Use what?” Cassian shouted back, his temper rising to meet her own. “You don’t ever make any sense, woman!”

“These, you halfwit!” Nesta snatched the box of condoms from his hand and shook it in front of his face. 

Cassian’s face screwed up. “What? Oh. Oh, no.”

The heat in Nesta’s body turned ice cold at the sound of rejection. 

“Nesta, I didn’t buy these because I … dammit Nesta, I would never assume you would ever …  at least not with me of all people, I just - I - shit why can’t I ever talk around you!” 

Cassian turned and threw the box into the shopping cart behind him, cursing under his breath as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. 

“I wasn’t buying those because I thought I would use them with you,” he said after a few moments, meeting Nesta’s gaze with considerable softness. “Rhys texted me and asked me to grab them for him and Feyre.”

That quickly, Nesta’s mind gave way to overwhelming embarrassment. She could feel her cheeks heating and turned her face to the side, unable to think of any words. 

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed,” Cassian said gently, taking a step closer to her. “Not with me.”

Nesta forced herself to meet his eyes. She hated these situations, she hated feeling vulnerable, but somehow … Cassian’s presence made it … not so horrible. 

“Rhys would send someone else to buy his own condoms,” she spat, but it lacked the usual venom. 

Cassian laughed, his shoulders shaking with the motion. 

“Yeah, he can be a real prick,” he concurred with a grin. 

“Can we just … not talk about this?” Nesta asked, casting her gaze to his shoulder instead of his eyes piercing into hers. “Ever?”

“Oh you mean not talk about how you were definitely thinking about getting this sexy body into bed with you about thirty seconds ago?”

“Moron!” Nesta shouted, putting her hands on his broad chest and shoving backwards, turning on her heel and striding off. 

“You were just dreaming about this moron!” Cassian shouted after her, pretending for her sake that he didn’t notice the smile stretching across her face as she headed towards the checkout counter. “I can pick up a box for us too you know, just say the word!”

omgomgomgomgomgomg thank you my friend for this i didn’t know i needed it

~~~

Azriel steeled his spine, cracking his neck from side to side. Rhys placed a heavy, reassuring hand on his shoulder. The two brothers in all but blood shared a look. Rhys nodded as if to say, ‘go on,’ and squeezed his shoulder once more.

Azriel inhaled deeply and rounded the corner, leaving his High Lord in shadows of his own making. 

“Shadowsinger,” the Bone Carver said with a dark chuckle. “I have so been looking forward to this day.”

Azriel said nothing, blue siphons flaring as he watched the Bone Carver emerge from the darkness of his cell, stepping forward into the meager light. 

Rhys, Cassian, and Mor had all unfortunately been forced to speak to the Bone Carver, but Azriel hadn’t had the … distinct pleasure until then. 

He had expectations of who the demon might appear to him as. His father, or half-brothers perhaps. Marks he had killed over the years, or Illyrians he had slaughtered in the Blood Rite at Rhys and Cassian’s sides. 

Nothing prepared him to see the face of Rhys’s mother though. 

It was only years of practice of steeling his emotions that kept Azriel from falling to his knees at the sight of the woman who had taken care of and loved him when he needed it the most. 

“Not what you expected, I take it? Oh, you can mask those feelings from your friends, Shadowsinger, but I’m older than this very mountain. I can read every emotion written on that pretty face of yours.”

Azriel wanted to scream. He wanted to ram Truth Teller down the Bone Carver’s throat for having the audacity to speak with such venom while wearing the face of the strongest woman he ever knew. 

He did none of those things though. Instead, he tossed the bone he brought with him through the cell gate. It clattered to the floor and echoed throughout the shadows. 

“And what is this?” the Carver asked, picking up the bone with delicate fingers - her delicate fingers - and smelling it deeply, eyes fluttering shut. “Quite the beast you slayed,” it murmured. “How did you stumble across this in the Middle? And what were you doing there? An errand from your High Lord, I presume?”

Azriel kept his mask of indifference. “I brought you your trinket. Tell me if Vallahan truly plans to march on Hybern.”

“The famed Spymaster, the legendary Shadowsinger told in the tales of old,” the Carver hissed, “coming to me to ask a question that surely his own network of spies can answer for him.”

Azriel grit his teeth, his scarred hands beginning to shake with a mixture of rage and fear that he knew all too well. 

“Oh that’s right.” The Carver’s voice dropped low, and Azriel was hit with a memory of Rhys’s mother saying goodnight to him in the same voice. He shook it away with a mere thought. “The network you worked so hard on is in crumbles. How you must blame yourself for not spotting the mole in time.”

“Answer. The. Question.” 

Anyone else would have run away in terror at the ice in the Shadowsinger’s voice. As it were, the Carver only laughed. 

“No, Shadowsinger,” he said plainly. “Vallahan is too cowardly to march on Hybern, though they hope the rumors will spur Prythian to do it for them.”

Azriel didn’t even bother giving the Carver a nod before turning on his heel and striding off. 

“Don’t you want to know what else your network is hiding?” the Carver shouted in her voice. “Don’t you want to know if your precious angel the Morrigan will ever love you? Don’t you-”

“Let’s go,” Azriel spat as he finally reached Rhys. The Carver’s voice continued to echo around them. 

Rhys looked behind his brother, his gaze holding an edge as he undoubtedly heard a different voice. 

“Who did he appear as?”

Azriel met his brother’s look, wanting for all the world to disappear into his shadows. 

“No one,” he said softly, not wishing to burden his friend, brother, and High Lord. “No one.”

oh my ACTUAL gosh thank you for this gift 

sorry for this trash but will and rhys would be best buds who bond over their traumatic past and self-sacrificing tendencies once they stopped competing for title of Hottest 

also you didn’t ask this but let it be known that AZRIEL AND JEM WOULD BE THE BEST OF BUDS TOO