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There was a quick knock on the cabin door, Theia furrowed her eyebrows, glancing at the window. She wasn’t sure how long she’s been sitting in the chair mending some of Cassian’s leathers. She wasn’t sure how the young male got into so many fights, but she swore she spent most of her nights by the fire, a cup of tea by the fire that’s long gone cold fixing his leathers.
She stood up, stretching her arms over her head, arching her back, her muscles still felt sore from being hunched over. She made her way to the door, on the other side stood her friend that she hadn’t seen in years, behind her a young boy.
“Theia.” Phoebe smiled softly before gently coaxing the young boy from behind her, shaggy hair hung in front of his eyes which he kept trained on the ground. “Can we come inside?”
Theia welcomed both inside the house, shooting both of her boys sitting at the top of the stairs a look. Rhys craned his neck to see the young boy while Cassian was trying to shove Rhys aside to get a better look. Theia jerked her chin towards the bedroom behind the two males, the last thing she needed was them starting a fight with her friend’s boy.
She led her guests into the small living room and kitchen, pulling out some mugs for hot chocolate and the cookies she made the other day. “Do you like cookies?” She glanced at the small boy, Phoebe crouched beside him, rubbing his arm softly, speaking softly only for him to hear.
The boy nodded, lifting his eyes a little to nod. “Yes Ma’am.” Theia snorted as she kneeled down to his height, holding the plate of cookies between them.
“Call me Theia.” She said gently as he took a cookie. A look from her friend told her not to ask about his hands. Theia barely dipped her chin in acknowledgement. “What’s your name?”
“Azriel.” Theia cringed a bit at the sudden bang, followed by two thuds, a yelp and then sudden silence.
“Well Azriel.” Theia smiled softly. “I have two boys that should be asleep,” She said a bit too loudly for the two people in front of her. “But you’ll meet them tomorrow.”
“I didn’t know you had two kids.” Phoebe whispered softly after getting Azriel situated in the living room with as many cookies as he’d wanted. Theia practically begged him to take more than the one he was nibbling on.
“Rhysand and Cassian.” Theia smiled softly with a shake of her head. “Rhys is mine, Cassian was a young boy Rhys brought in. I look after him.”
“Oh,” Phoebe chewed on her lip as she watched her son, his shadows swirled around the room, a few occasionally swept into the kitchen, swirling past the two women. “If you already have two, I can find another place for Az.”
“Nonsense.” Theia clicked her tongue, pouring the warmed milk over chocolate squares in the mugs. “There’s plenty of room.”
Phoebe looked like she wanted to argue, instead Theia just pushed a mug of warm hot chocolate into her friend’s hands. “He’s going to stay here.” Her friend sighed, nodding as she accepted the mug, cupping her hands around it. Theia nodded once before taking the other two mugs, holding one in front of the young shadowsinger.
“Here you go.” Theia smiled, a shadow curled around his ear to whisper something to him. He took it from her gently, she took a seat beside the boy. “There’s two other boys upstairs, around your age upstairs. You’ll meet them tomorrow.” Theia almost added he'd certainly thank her if he knew the two menances upstairs. Cassian would pounce on him the first chance he got, and Rhys would be sizing him up.
Azriel nodded like he understood, like his shadows were whispering Cassian’s plans to him right this very second. Theia looked to Phoebe who was watching her friend with her son, knowing he’ll be in good hands.
—-------
“Can you believe he’s a shadowsinger?” Cassian asked Rhys, both sitting on their respective beds. A small shadow curled under the door, Cassian kept his eyes on the shadow, amazed that a shadowsinger was in their house and most likely going to train with them.
“So?” Rhys scowled at the shadow, slowly making its way around the tiny room before it curled back under the door. Jealousy prickled at his skin, knowing his mother was downstairs with the newcomer and he and Cassian were holed up in their room, unable to meet the two strangers that came in the house.
“So?!” Cassian’s head turned to Rhys, his eyes wide. “Do you even know what a shadowsinger is?”
Rhys launched a pillow across the room, hitting Cassian right in the face. The young Illyrian glared at his friend, launching the pillow right back at Rhys, he knocked it to the side succeeding in knocking a stack of books from the table next to his bed. “Cassian!”
“How was that my fault?” Cassian shouted, “you threw the pillow first!”
Rhys opened his mouth to shout a response back, only the house had gone eerily quiet. Both males looked at each other. “Do you think they heard?”
“I really hope not.” Cassian’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Do you think?”
Rhys shrugged, sliding down from the bed and tiptoed across the room, easing the door open. The conversation resumed downstairs, although the real tell would be the look on his mothers face. Something that Rhys was unable to see, he was just able to make out the male crossed legged on the couch a place of cookies in front of him.
“Well?” Cassian asked, pushing Rhys from the doorway, to catch another glimpse of the male.
“I can’t tell, but she’ll definitely hear us out here.” Rhys hissed, shoving Cassian back in the room and eased the door shut. There was a soft click. Rhys and Cassian both held their breath, there was no way Theia would yell at them in front of company, but she was not above making an excuse to check on something upstairs so she could give them a stern look and tell them to go to bed.
They both climbed back in their own beds, waiting. Rhys laid down, pulling the thick blanket over his shoulders. “Rhys?” Rhys groaned, turning over to face Cassian.
“What?”
“You have to admit, it’s pretty cool we’ll have a shadowsinger around.”
“Goodnight Cassian.”
There was a quiet snicker from Cassian’s side as he turned on his side. “Goodnight Rhys.”
—-------
Theia had never seen Cassian so excited, except maybe the first time she took him to Velaris for Solstice. She couldn’t leave him in Windhaven, despite Rhys begging her to and Cassain assuring her he’d be fine on his own for a few days. He ran down the steps, taking a seat next to Azriel. Azriel, on the other hand, flinched the second Cassian sat down, like Cassian was about to hurt him. Theia looked towards the stairs where her son, Rhys was slowly walking a pout on his mouth.
“Cassian, Rhys, meet Azriel.” Theia shot both of her boys a warning look before flashing an encouraging smile at Azriel. “He’s going to be staying here with us.”
“Cool!”
“Really?”
Theia pursed her lips, distributing the scrambled eggs among three plates, along with sausage and placed a plate in front of each of them. “Yes, and I don’t want to hear about any spacing issues.” She said the last part to Rhys, cupping his chin gently forcing him to look at her. Rhys looked like he wanted to argue, but he just nodded, shoving breakfast into his mouth. Theia smiled at her son, brushing his shaggy hair off of his forehead, doing the same for the other two. Cassian leaned into her touch, Azriel tensed up slightly. “Now hurry up and eat, you don’t want to be late.”
Theia watched the three of them head to training, Azriel was practically shaking with nerves, Rhys kept shooting glares at Azriel. Only Cassian seemed oblivious to the mood, promising he’d fight anyone who touched Azriel and would be the only one to fight him. Both Rhys and Theia shot Cassian a look at that, knowing how Cassian fights. Azriel took a step back at that, almost hiding behind Theia at Cassian’s big grin.
—-------
Rhys was muttering under his breath at all the excitement, a single shadowsinger comes to train with them and it’s all anyone can talk about. When it was his first day, the heir to the Night Court he didn’t get this much fanfare. Rhys rolled his shoulders, glaring over at Cassian who was sparring with Azriel, picking the newby instead of him.
Cassian was showing Azriel how to properly hold a weapon. He barely knew anything, something if he wasn’t a shadowsinger, the camp lords and leaders would be angry about. But he’s a shadowsinger, so he gets a slide for everything it seems like.
The camp lords even called the High Lord down. Rhys could see the three camp lords and his father watching the shadowsinger. The High Lord barely even glanced at his son, barely acknowledged that his son was also at the camp, and didn't ask how he was doing. No. He was more interested in Azriel, everyone was. Rhys wasn’t paying attention, didn’t see his sparring partner bring down the blunt blade, smacking his weapon out of his hands.
“Stupid half breed.” The male snickered, whacking Rhys in the knees with the blade again. Rhys let out a groan, grabbing the attention of his father and Cassian.
His father clicked his tongue disapprovingly. Seers had told his father he would be the most powerful High Lord, and yet here he was, not looking too impressive.
Cassian set his jaw, Rhys slightly shook his head. Him and Cassian were more or less brothers, they still fought. Cassian wasn’t afraid to hand Rhys his ass every day in training yet when it came down to the others calling Rhys a half breed or mocking him, he’d be in the ring with males three times his size. Cassian looked at Rhys for a second longer before nodding and turning back to Azriel, walking him through a block. Without a second glance, his father turned back to Cassian and Azriel.
Rhys found Cassian and Azriel once they'd been dismissed, he was all sweaty and sore and ready to head back to the cabin. He narrowed his eyes as Cassian had an arm thrown around Azriel’s shoulders.
“Rhys.” Cassian greeted him, smiling wide. “Didn’t Az have a great day? He has some real potential with sword fighting.”
Rhys rolled his eyes, falling into step on Cassian’s other side. “I didn’t notice.”
“Well he does.” Cassian’s other arm came around Rhys’s shoulders which he shrugged off. Cassian finally noticed Rhys’s mood and frowned, muttering something to Azriel before turning to Rhys. “What is it?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Rhys grumbled, crossing his arms. He relaxed slightly seeing Cassian crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Rhys with a look.
“Give him a break, your mother asked us to.”
“Yeah but.” Rhys said softly looking towards the cabin, Azriel waited on the steps for them, a shadow was lingering near Rhys and Cassian. “Everyone was so excited that he came to camp.”
Cassian nearly choked on his laughter, shoving Rhys’s shoulder. “And you’re jealous.”
“Am not!” Rhys said, shoving Cassian’s shoulder back. The brute tilted his head back, laughing.
“You know the entire camp hates you and wants a chance to fight with him. Why don’t we work together? Be a group, a unit.”
“Work together?” Rhys automatically shook his head. “No, hell no.”
“Oh come on.” Cassian slid an arm around his friend’s shoulders again, leading him back towards the cabin. “A High Lord, a shadowsinger and a really strong bastard. What could go wrong?”
“What could go right?” Rhys shook his head, Azriel looked between the two boys. Cassian smiled widely, a look that spelled out trouble.
“Oh we’re going to have so much fun together.”
—-------
“Mom!” Rhys whined as Theia tightly tucked in each boy in their beds. To be fair, they were a little old for this, and if the other males in training even know about this, they’d never live this down. But the three of them put up with it.
Theia sat on Azriel’s bed, fussing a bit with pulling the thick blanket up to his shoulders, smiling softly. “Training okay today?”
He nodded, glancing at Rhys who suddenly found the ceiling very interesting and Cassian who was pulling on a thread on his own blanket. “Yeah, alright.”
“If you survived your first day, with Cassian nonetheless, you can survive anything.” Theia leaned down to whisper to Azriel. She stood up, tucking him in. Azriel offered Theia a small smile.
“Thank you.” He said, she just nodded, waving a finger in each of their directions.
“Goodnight boys.” There is a chorus of goodnights back. Theia’s heart warmed a little, her three boys.