Comfort Crowd
hi! this is my contribution to day one of #azrielappreciationweek2023 (cc: @azrielappreciationweek)
the prompt is "The Family You Make" so I wrote a little one-shot about Az and Nesta, my favourite little bestie pairing 💕
1.3k words - no warnings other than slight language :) just two friends notorious for not talking about their emotions, talking about emotions!
ENJOY XX
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Azriel struggles to hold back his grin when Nesta waddles into the library at the House of Wind where he’s reclined on a sofa in front of the fireplace, flipping through yet another report in preparation for a meeting with Rhys in the morning. She’s wearing a simple oversized nightgown in the colour of cream, one of her hands rests on her swollen belly while the other is pressed against the small of her back.
Nesta is only a few weeks from giving birth to his very first niece and while she’d only become more beautiful over the past few months, the scowl on her face tells him that she is more than ready for this pregnancy to be over.
Azriel quickly swings his long legs off the sofa, shuffling around and sitting up to make room for her.
“Oh, yes. Please. Go ahead and laugh at me.” She glares at him as he chuckles, watching as she carefully lowers herself onto the seat he’d left free for her. He knows better than to offer help but a few of his shadows gather around her just in case. “If you had been a better chaperone, maybe I wouldn’t be in this fucking predicament.”
“Right.” Azriel snorts. “As if my presence has ever deterred you two from…” He trails off, making vague gestures with his hands to convey his thoughts instead of using the obscenities that came to mind.
She only rolls her eyes in response and he knows that she knows that he’s right.
Nesta and Cassian had never been particularly shy about making sure their needs were met and as ravenous as the two of them were, Azriel’s ears had unintentionally been made witness to their activities more times than he cared to admit. Even the enchanted ear plugs Elain gave him for Solstice one year hadn’t been enough to drown out the sound some nights.
Azriel pats his leather covered thigh and Nesta’s lips tilt upwards at the corners as she turns to the side and lifts her legs. He reaches down and meets her halfway, grasping her calves to help her lay on the sofa with her feet in his lap. Nesta sighs with relief at the feeling of his thumb pressing into the sole of her foot.
“Oh you’re so wonderful to me, Shadowsinger. So good with those hands of yours.” She smirks. There’s a suspicious lilt to her voice. “I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with you-know-who.”
Azriel’s hands pause as he fixes her with a stern look.
“Sorry, sorry!” Nesta apologises, laughing in a way that tells Azriel she isn’t sorry at all. “Please keep going, I promise I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
They spend most of their evenings together like this whenever Azriel is home from an assignment, whether Cassian is around or not. Most of the time, the three of them gather together in the library or the living room, chatting until the early hours of the morning. But sometimes it’s just him and Nesta, sitting in the comfort of each other’s presence, passing sweets back and forth while she reads a book and he reads his reports.
It was rare for Azriel to befriend new people but Nesta had seamlessly become a significant part of his life because they had understood each other so intrinsically from the very beginning.
Azriel had seen right through her abrasiveness. He knew that behind her snark and cutting remarks, there was a female that was so wounded that she’d rather push people away than let someone in close enough to hurt her. He understood that she was frightened to allow herself the things she wanted for fear that they would be taken from her.
Likewise, he had caught Nesta watching him with eyes that noticed too much on multiple occasions. He was aware that she saw the way he yearned for something or someone he couldn’t or wouldn’t allow himself to pursue. Azriel also had utter confidence that she would never say anything about it to anyone, or even to him, unless he brought it up first.
Nesta would always keep his unspoken secrets just as he kept hers.
It’s quiet in the library for a long while, only the quiet crackle of the fire and the sighs coming from Nesta as Azriel relieves the agonsing tension in her feet, when she breaks the silence.
“Az?” Her voice is uncharacteristically soft in a way that makes her seem so small. When he glances over at her, Nesta’s eyelids are shut and there’s a tiny, sad frown on her face.
“What is it, Nes?”
“I’m so scared.” Her words are shaky and barely above a whisper. “What if I’m not a good mother?”
Azriel’s eyebrows furrow together, his fingers stopping for half a second as he contemplates what to say.
“Why would you think that?”
“I just…” She takes a deep breath. “I never had a good relationship with my own mother and I’m worried that I’ll end up being just like her.”
Azriel opens his mouth to respond but stops when she continues.
“Cassian is so good. He has so much love and he gives it so freely.” Nesta swallows. “It’s harder for me. What if I screw her up?”
“I think that being worried that you’ll be like your mother is proof enough that you won’t be anything like her. Bad parents don’t tend to worry about how they’ll treat their children.” Azriel says gently. “You love so deeply, Nesta. Just because you show it in a different way than Cass, it doesn’t mean that you’re any less capable of raising and caring for a child than he is.”
Nesta exhales and Azriel can tell that her mind is still racing.
“You practically raised, Elain.” He rotates her ankles. “I know how much you love your sisters and I know how much they love you. Besides, you’re already wonderful with Nyx. He adores you. He’s always babbling about his Aunt Nesta.”
Azriel smiles when he hears her laugh quietly. She knows that what he said is true. Because while Rhysand and Feyre’s son was often attached by the hip to Elain, Nesta was the only person he’d leave her to go running to the second he heard her voice or she entered his line of vision.
Cassian, Azriel, and Rhys had all burned with jealousy that the winged boy they had waited centuries for had seemingly taken an immediate liking to the females of the family but with any luck, they’d get their revenge once Cassian and Nesta’s daughter entered the picture.
“You’ll be an incredible mother.” Azriel pats her calf in what he hopes is a reassuring manner. “You and Cass will be brilliant parents and that little girl will be so loved. You know I can’t wait to meet her.”
“You’re a great friend, Az.” She reaches a hand out to him and he takes it in his. Warmth floods him as she squeezes his fingers gently. “Cass and I are lucky to have you. She’ll be so lucky to have you, too.” Nesta rubs her other hand over her bump and Azriel watches in amazement as her movement is met with a small but powerful kick from the babe inside her womb.
“She agrees.” One of Nesta’s eyebrows lifts in amusement and she gives him her first proper smile of the night.
His heart swells as he returns her bright smile with a soft one of his own. It swells even more when he looks up to see Cassian leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, watching him and Nesta with a fond smile and eyes shimmering with tears.
Azriel couldn’t possibly think of anyone better suited to be his best friend’s Mate. Nesta was strong willed and stubborn but she loved so fiercely even if she couldn’t admit it to herself. She would lay her life on the line for Cassian over and over again, as she had done once before. It was the tough, relentless type of love that his kind hearted friend deserved and Azriel was proud that over time, she had slowly but surely become someone that he could not only call his friend, but his sister.
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I was just mulling over Manny/Diego (mango) versus Sid/Diego (siego) in terms of how people tend to view the pairings, and since I just love Ice Age so much my face was blushing from the intensity of my feelings (this happens A LOT WITH me when I think about Ice Age!) and I came to this realisation about the love (which, I must say, is purely platonic, but regardless... if one looks at it from a shipping viewpoint) I notice the love between Manny and Diego is a much quieter love yet it is still visible, because it originates from sacrifice, a willingness to pay anything at the cost of another, and it just sings faithfulness.
siego, on the other hand, is more attractive to people shippers, who, in this fandom show themselves to be quite obtuse when it comes to subtext, since it toys with tropes shippers are familiar with, though I don't see it at all since I think canon - from the original movie even so far as continental drift - leans more in favour of mango. However, I personally think that for siego, the shipping is more popular because of the largely BST-y interactions between Diego and Sid, and people just loooove to jump on that when it comes to shipping. (see: makorra)
Anyway, mango is the pairing (if I shipped slash and if there is one slash ship I love, it’s Mango though my wont is to write them bromantically) that would appeal more to me, since Manny and Diego don't even need to say anything to each other, but their bond is crystal clear. Their love for each other - since love should truly be synonymous with selflessness - is always front and centre.
okay, leave me to die in my platonic mango feels.
Oh, and the mentioned fic in the tags is called “A Spark” and comes highly recommended by me! :) You can find it on ff.net.
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