#obsessed with the idea of onyx inadvertantly outing elriel

[fawnandshadows]

25 Days of Elriel — Day 2

Snowed In

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2k

“Truth or Dare?” Elain asked skeptically as she entered the room with a tray full of steaming cups of hot chocolate. Her fingers white-knuckled the silver tray as she bent down to where Azriel was sitting and offered him a mug, his hazel eyes never left her face as he accepted her offering — Every instinct in him wanted to take the tray from Elain, tell her to sit down, and let everyone else serve themselves, but he didn’t. Elain was kind and giving and got pleasure out of serving her friends and family — Azriel just wished that they appreciated it more.

The snow was coming down too heavily in Velaris to do anything that wasn't sit inside and entertain themselves, and while Elain had been busy preparing drinks for everyone Nesta had suggested a game of truth or dare.

Elain gave him a shy smile. One that spoke of secrets and stolen glances, and the smile faded as quickly as it appeared.

They had been seeing each other in secret for almost two months now, and somehow no one had managed to find out about it. She muttered a quick ‘you’re welcome’ to his ‘thank you’ and moved to offer a hot chocolate to Cassian. “We haven’t played that in forever, Nesta.”

“Don’t be a bore,” Nesta said and grabbed one of the mugs from the tray. She was sitting curled on the couch next to Cassian, somehow Cassian had managed to convince her to wear the matching pajamas he got them for the Solstice. “Truth or Dare was how I got you to kiss Graysen for the first time.”

“I remember.” Elain said with a blush. A bore? Was that how Nesta saw her?

“I think it will be fun,” Feyre said and she walked over with Nyx placed on her hip. Nyx grabbed his small mug, the one with two batwing handles, and almost knocked over the rest of the tray. Her sister grabbed hers with a smile. “I never got to play as a child.”

“Oh,” Elain said breathlessly, it was nothing more than a little puff of air that flowed through her lips as the crushing feeling of guilt set in. Even though she knew Feyre didn’t intend for it, but the reminder of what Feyre had sacrificed as a child outweighed whatever trepidation she was feeling. “I’ll play if everyone else wants to.”

Azriel came up to her, took the tray, and shoved it not so gently into Rhysands chest. Apparently succumbing to his gentlemanly instincts. The High Lord had just crawled out of his office, most likely because of whatever conversation he was having mind-to-mind with his mate.

The shadowsinger smiled at Elain kindly and said, “Would you rather do something else? I know there is a pie recipe that you’ve been wanting to try out. I could help you — if you’d like.” His hazel eyes warmed as they settled on the face of his beloved. Her plump cheeks were perpetually pink ever since the first time he kissed her — In the middle of the night after he had just come home from a mission in the Winter Court. Elain had been waiting up for him, worried and anxious when he appeared five hours later than he was supposed to, and handed him a cup of peppermint tea and biscuits as soon as he winnowed in. They stayed up all night catching up about his mission and when they said goodnight Azriel leaned down and kissed her. It was so natural that he hadn’t even thought to stop it, and as soon as they parted he apologized profusely and got cut off with another kiss.

“I really think we should all play.” Rhysand said loudly, looking at them in a way that caused Azriel’s lips to curl around his teeth.

Elain looked at her secret boyfriend and said, “Thank you for offering, but it might be fun to play.” She hoped he didn’t hear the distaste that coated her voice, but he probably did. He heard everything. As a child the other girls would always dare her to do stuff she didn’t want to: ask the Old Baker for a loaf of bread because they knew he never said no to her face, but as she got older he had asked her for something in return, and she ran away crying. Elain knew, logically, that nothing like that was going to happen again, but that feeling of being fifteen years old and being leered at lavaciously by a gross, sweaty old man still hung around her. They never went back to that shop again.

In his hazel eyes she saw his understanding and concern shimmering, and she quickly looked away. She grabbed the last mug of chocolate from the tray that had been discarded on the table, and sat on the floor facing the circle table in the middle of the room, and not two seconds later Azriel sat next to her. His pinky brushed hers from where their hands rested between their bodies.

“Is this a team game?” Rhysand asked, eyeing where their hands met. “Maybe we should play brothers verses sisters?”

“Don’t be silly,” Nesta scrunched her face at him, and gracefully sat on the other side of Azriel. “Actually, it’ll work better if we sit boy-girl.”

Cassian and Feyre followed in suit, and then Rhysand begrudgingly plopped himself down next to Elain. His eyes shifted from where the Shadowsinger and the Seer’s pinkys were pressed together to his son, the lone silhouette above them on the couch, his pajama clad legs swinging back and forth, a whipped cream mustache on his lips as he clutched his hot chocolate.

“I’ll go first,” Nesta’s icy eyes gazed around the circle like a predator choosing its prey, and her smile turned feral as they landed on Rhysand. “Alright, Rhysand, truth or dare.”

Violet eyes looked at her inquisitively, trying to gauge which choice would result in the least amount of damage possible before saying, “Truth.”

A long finger tapped on her chin as Nesta asked, “How long does it take you to primp on an average day?”

“About an hour and a half.” Rhysand huffed and rolled his eyes, but Nesta's penetrating glare stayed on him and the entire circle watched as he admitted, “Ok, more like an hour and a forty-five minutes.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised it’s that short.” Nesta cackled and prompted him to go next.

Rhys looked around his family, silently debating who he wanted to pick on, before turning to his mate.

“Feyre Darling,” He purred, and Elain felt a giant weight light off of her chest. She was half convinced he was going to confront her and Azriel right then and there. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare!” Feyre exclaimed. She set her mug on the table, chocolate sloshing over the side, and was practically vibrating with excitement.

From his perch on the couch Nyx was chanting “Dare! Dare! Dare!” His black hair bouncing around his face, and his fleshy cheeks were two round balls on his face from his wide smile.

A huge grin appeared on Rhysand’s face as he took in his mate and his child, and Elain had the distinct impression that he was thinking about how lucky he was.

“I dare you,” He said and trailed off, his hand coming up to rub his chin. “I dare you to kiss the most handsome man in the room.” Rhys smirked with satisfaction even though his dare was met with a resounding rejection of boos.

“Alright,” Feyre said and sprang to her feet. She walked away from Rhysand and playfully swiveled around Cassian as her mate jokingly glared at her, and Feyre made her way over to Azriel and was about to lean down to kiss his cheek when she wrapped her arms around her son and planted smacking kisses on his chubby, sticky cheek.

Nyx’s high-pitched giggles filled the air, and he let out random shrieking syllables as his mother smothered him with love, his little onesie clad feet kicking wildly. His pudgy fingers managed to stay locked onto the batwing-handles of his mug and not spill anything despite how he thrashed and fidgeted.

With one last loud kiss Feyre pulled away, her face merry and bright with love, and returned to her seat next to Rhysand on the floor, but this time the High Lord held one arm up and the High Lady crawled into it, worming as closely to her mate as possible.

Elain felt a long, hollow ache fill her chest.

All she wanted was to have that casual affection with the male next to her, but she couldn’t, so she just wrapped her pinky around his. The rough, scarred digit tightened around her own before pulling away and Elain knew that he was experiencing the same thing.

“Someone else go.” Feyre said as she nuzzled into Rhysand’s neck.

“Oh, I have one for Az!” Cassian exclaimed and took a large drink of hot chocolate. “Tell us about the girl you’ve been seeing.” Apparently Azriel didn’t have the luxury of choosing truth or dare.

If Cassian didn’t have all five heads already looking at him, then the rest of the group would be experiencing an intense case of whiplash. Elain felt her eyes start to go cloudy as her heart worked overtime, and her brain had gone completely still. She held her breath.

“What?” Nesta and Rhys said at the same time; Hers was a waspish shrill, and his was a deadly command.

Feyre sat there watching them all with a secret smile.

“He,” Cassian leaned over and ruffled Azriel’s inky hair. “Has a little girlfriend that he won’t talk about,” Azriel swatted his hand away, his face burning red and he leaned closer to Elain to get free of his brother's teasing. His face coming close enough to hers that she could feel his humid breath on her face, so close that the air grew heavy between their skin. “So, I dare Azriel to tell us about her.”

“If,” Elain said in a clear and confident voice, attracting all the attention away from Azriel. “If Azriel doesn’t want to talk about her, then he doesn’t have to.”

She felt the lightest brush of a pinky against hers.

“She,” Azriel said in a thick voice. “Is the most beautiful girl in the world.”

“Lame.” Cassian said and leaned back, his wing almost knocking over Rhsysand’s hot chocolate. Despite Cassian’s disappointment in Azriel’s confession Elain felt her heart start to sputter.

“Is it Gwyn?” Nesta asked sharply and pointed a finger at him. “You know she has a crush on you.”

“It’s not Gwyn.” Azriel said in a clipped voice. He came dangerously close to glaring at the oldest Archeron sister.

“It’s Lain!” A tiny voice piped up from the couch.

Nyx sat there, his limbs limp and dangly, with dried, brown hot chocolate residue caked onto his chubby cheeks. His eyes were glazed over just a little, and Elain realized that her nephew must have downed the rest of his drink after Feyre’s display of affection. He was drunk off of sugar.

“Lain and Azth kiss in the kitchen! I’ve seent it,” All eyes swiveled towards them. “Ma did too.” All eyes swiveled towards Feyre, who was grinning uncontrollably as if she she was the bat that ate the canary.

Out of all the possible ways for them to have been exposed Elain didn’t think it would be from Nyx, who was staring at his family with heavy eyelids and a dopey grin.

Cassian was the first one to break the silence — He launched himself across the table and wrapped two large arms around his brother and almost-sister-in-law, a choked sound of excitement came from deep inside Cassian's chest. Azriel and Elain almost toppled over from the force of his hug.

“Since when?” Nesta asked, her voice somewhere between pleased and curious.

“A while.” Elain responded and threaded her fingers through Azriel’s, who looked at them with delight.

While he was busy looking at their hands something lightweight hit him directly in the chest, whipping him out of his stupor. Azriel looked down to see a sprig of mistletoe laying on his leg.

“Just kiss her.” Rhysand grumbled, and Feyre gave him a loving jab to the gut.

Elain tilted her head up to Azriel, her eyes warm, molten honey, with a lightness to her expression that Azriel had never seen before. The happiness on her lips created a gravity that was magnificently alluring, and he didn’t even realize that he bent his head to kiss her until Cassian’s loud wolf-whistle filled the air, but it soon faded as Elain’s lips moved against his.

A glowing, golden, lovely feeling filled his heart and rushed through his veins.

His hand reached up to cup Elain’s face, and he tried to deepen their kiss, but it was impossible — They were both grinning too broadly.

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tagging: @thefangirlofhp @tswaney17 @impossiblescissorspeachpaper @jujugirlfrombookstore

#25 days of elriel #elriel #elain x azriel #elain archeron #azriel #pro elriel #elriel fanfiction #elriel fanfic #obsessed with the idea of onyx inadvertantly outing elriel #I love writing little feysand family moments #also cassian and nesta pop up a lot in matching pjs #don't ask me why they just do #cassian loves matching and he always has to convince nesta to twin with him #she does it even though she thinks its cheesy because it makes him so happy