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Feyre
It was nice to have the whole family gathered for the holiday. It had been becoming harder and harder to get them all together in recent months and there just hadn’t been a good time to get them all together without someone missing out.
However, when the holidays rolled around, they finally had a chance for everyone to meet up. When the solstice rolled around, all schedules were cleared so that they might all spend time together. And this year was no different.
One by one family and friends came to the River House. The first to arrive was Mor, insisting she help finish any thing Feyre needed done so that she could get herself ready for any guests. While Feyre changed out of her paint stained clothes, she heard Cassian and Nesta’s entrance as well as Amren’s (and she assumed Varian as well).
As she was finishing up her hair, she heard laughter from outside. The laugh coming clearly from Azriel, a sound so rare that Feyre always knew it was his. Which made Feyre all the more curious as to just who it was he was with. Peeking out the open window of her room she could see him standing by the gate around the property. And beside him, Eris.
Now she’d come to like Eris. She found him quite entertaining when she’d attend Tarquin’s brunches with members of the numerous courts. She figured she was the only one of her court to not completely hate the enigma of a male. But apparently that wasn’t the truth.
Something in the dynamic between Eris and Azriel had certainly changed in the time since Feyre had gotten to know both of them. And their actions now were a clear indicator of that.
Now they seemed as if they were actually friends.
And then she saw Azriel lean down to kiss Eris’ cheek. The Autumn male turned and grabbed Az’s jacket collar to pull their lips together.
Feyre quickly turned away from the window, feeling as if she were intruding on a private moment, which was truly what she’d just done. It wasn’t as if the two were making a statement at that moment and if they wanted everyone to know that the changes of their relationship they would say something.
It wasn’t her place to meddle. And with Beron still as a threat, there wasn’t any way it would be safe for Eris to make his connections with the Night Court and subsequently Azriel known for fear of what his father would do. Feyre could only imagine that the deaths of the previous lady of Night and Princess would look like mercy as compared to what Beron would do.
So Feyre would keep her mouth shut.
As she finished her hair, she could hear Azriel and Eris enter the house. She would go back downstairs and treat the two of them the exact same way as she always had. She wouldn’t draw attention to the secret she now knew.
She wanted for Azriel to tell them all when the two of them were ready.
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Cassian
Azriel was never late to anything.
Ever since Cassian had met the youngest of his chosen brothers, Azriel was always the one he could count on to show up to every training and meeting on time. Even when the High Lord had first had him transferred to the Windhaven camp, Azriel would attend every demonstration at the exact beginning time even when he’d been beaten to a pulp the day before.
So when after 500 years Azriel didn’t show up to Valkyrie training, Cassian was concerned. At first he figured Az would send a note saying he’d been sent on a mission or something of the sort. As time continued on he didn’t hear a thing.
Apparently his concern was affecting the session since Nesta kicked him out about halfway through to go find out what was going on with Azriel.
His first stop was the Riverhouse. If Rhys had sent Az out, then he could tell Cassian just where he’d gone. When he arrived, he found the young family having breakfast together. (Which consisted of Rhys attempting to feed Nyx the small plate of carefully cut foods while the young child threw the fruit pieces back at his father and Feyre hid her laughter).
When he mentioned Azriel’s absence, Rhys had been confused. Just like Cassian, Rhys knew that Az never missed anything with a forewarning. He’d suggested either checking the Nightmare dungeons or Azriel’s apartment.
Az had had an apartment in the city for decades and yet not one of them had ever been there. They all had keys to it in case of an emergency, however each one of them knew that sometimes Azriel needed a place of complete privacy away from them all. Even after all these years, being around people for too long would become too much for Az and he needed a place that was completely his own to decompress for a while.
He knew the dungeons would be the less likely place for Azriel to so early in the day and especially after having been down there at an earlier point of the week to deal with the threat who’d attempted to hurt Nyx while Feyre and Rhys had been away.
Still Cassian struggled with the idea of going to Azriel’s apartment. If he’d wanted them to be there, he would have brought them around, but he hadn’t yet. However, he found his worry wearing away at his stubbornness of going there. Before he could truly process his choice, Cassian had pulled out the key to Azriel’s apartment and was flying there.
The building sat on the outer edge of the city close to the sea, on the quietest edge of town. Cass landed outside the building. It was still early enough that there wasn’t too much movement from inside the building. Tucking his wings in tight, Cass made his way inside, looking at the number on Az’s key before searching for his brother’s apartment.
On the fourth floor, he found Az’s door. It didn’t look like anything had happened where Azriel’s safety may have been compromised.
Cass knocked once to see if maybe Az would come to the door. He waited for a minute. Then two and still nothing.
He tried again, waiting for another couple minutes.
Still nothing.
Lifting the key to the lock, Cassin inserted it and unlocked the door quietly. Opening the door, he entered Azriel’s apartment. The apartment was lit from the large windows Cassian had seen on the outside. He knew how much Az hated feeling trapped, in the dark, so the number of windows didn’t surprise him much.
What did surprise him was seeing Azriel curled up on the couch on the top of the chest of the one and only Prince of the Autumn Court, Eris Vanserra.
He knew Az and Eris no longer completely despised each other, but he never thought he’d see a sight like this. Both were completely asleep, not even noticing the entrance of Cassian.
A very small part of Cassian’s heart wanted to be hurt that Eris had been here, in this part of Azriel’s life before everyone else he’d known for so long.
The rest of his heart was ecstatic for his youngest brother. For so long Azriel had seemed to be content being alone, but in recent years it had become more apparent just how lonely Azriel was. Rhys had found his mate and started a small family of his own. And now Cass had Nesta in his life. Lucien and Elain were talking, not quite close to the level of truly acknowledging the mating bond, but it was a start. Mor had told them all the truth about everything that had happened those years ago and was now clearly looking for every excuse she could find to see Emerie.
And yet Azriel had stayed alone. Cassian had thought something was going on with Gwyn for a while, but soon after he’d noticed just how similarly Az acted around her as compared to their younger sister before her death.
But he should have noticed the change sooner in Azriel’s actions around Eris. His eyes seemed to linger longer on Eris now, filled with more, Cass wasn’t sure if he could call it love, but something of the sort. Eris in turn didn’t smirk or shoot cruel looks as often around them, now laughing or smiling more freely without any hidden alternative.
Maybe he should have seen this coming sooner, after all wasn’t the whole ‘rivals-to-lovers’ one of the most common things in Nesta’s books, maybe everything that had happened between the two over the years was just building to this whole thing. The two were weirdly perfect for each other. Both having gone through similar traumas in a way that they could help each other and just being such similar people. While Az generally pulled away in larger groups, Eris seemed to revel in it, finding ways to keep Az comfortable in it while also not being the center of attention.
So Cass let them sleep. Walking backwards out of the room, he shut and relocked the door and figured the two would announce something when they were ready. For now Cassian just needed to continue on as if he knew nothing.
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Lucien
Ever since Lucien’s exile from the Autumn Court, he avoided it as if it were a plague. He wasn’t interested in reliving what were some of his worst memories. There had been good points in his early life when he’d thought his brother’s had loved him, and he was sure they did in their own ways, but Beron ruined that. He pinned all seven of them against each other and made it clear that they could never show affection.
So when Eris had invited him to the Autumn Court the day before Jesminda’s death date, Lucien was quite suspicious. However, in the past couple years, he’d seen a side of Eris he was sure Beron’s had crushed. He found himself agreeing and waiting for his brother at the edge of the Autumn Court.
Always one to be on time, Eris arrived, though dressed down greatly from his usual court attire. (Often Lucien had wondered just how different their family would have been if they hadn’t been the High Lord’s children. How different would they have all been if that had been the case)?
In silence, Eris took him to the village where he’d met Jesminda. He wanted to fight it. Wanted to run away and never come back here. It was his fault she’d died, he had no right to come back and ruin her family’s life even more. Yet Eris kept on. He walked right up to her family’s home and knocked on the door.
It was Jesminda’s mother who opened the door. And all again Lucien felt his heart breaking. Tears were pouring down his cheeks before he could stop them. She’d embraced him not a second later as they cried together.
When the tears stopped, he pulled back from her.
Cauldron, he missed this family.
When he’d first started courting Jesminda, they didn’t care that he was the High Lord’s son. They didn’t treat him as such and Jesminda certainly hadn’t. She’d been the one who’d helped him pull away from that image. She’d pulled him free from his father’s shadow, freeing him from being nothing more than just the last son of seven. Her family had done the same, welcoming them into their home with open arms.
Being here again brought forth so many feelings he’d tried to shove down for so long.
It didn’t help when Jesminda’s mother finally let him go and Eris took him to a place at the edge of her family’s property.
Below the tree where she’d first kissed him, hung a memorial plaque for Jesminda. Once again those feelings came forward and the tears threatened to come back.
“ How ?” Lucien managed to gasp out.
“When Beron released me-” Eris started (what did his brother mean by released), “-I found her body and brought her here. I helped to bury her here so that she could be laid to rest. I’d wished that you could have come here much sooner, Little Lucien.” His brother spoke quietly, almost reverently.
He hadn’t known Eris had done such a thing. Hadn’t even thought that Eris cared about what happened to Jesminda.
Lucien leaned ever so slightly against his brother, allowing for their shoulders to brush, while he finally was able to say goodbye to his first love, silently thanking her for everything she’d done to change his life.
As night fell, Lucien followed his brother through the Autumn Court to a cabin he’d never been to before. It only took him a moment to realize it belonged to his brother. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who’d been looking for an escape from the Forest House and their father’s control.
They didn’t speak much that night. Eris made each of them a cup of tea before lighting the main fireplace. As Eris moved around the room, Lucien observed everything around him.
Obviously his brother had decorated the place, but there were just a few things he noticed around that he never thought his brother would own. He’d noticed a dark bladed dagger on a bookshelf, but had brushed it off as something Eris must have picked up on his travels even if it wasn’t his brother's taste. A larger set of boots sat by the door that were a couple sizes too large and weren’t heeled enough for Eris to ever wear. A pile of notes sat on the coffee table in a handwriting that wasn’t his brother’s. Eris added an oversized cardigan to his clothing as the cabin got colder. A cardigan with gaps in the back where a winged fae would fasten it around their wings.
But the tipping factor he noticed was the small shadow darting around Eris’ wrist as he sat beside Lucien on the sofa.
He knew that Eris was constantly working with Azriel as it came closer to the time where his brother planned on taking out Beron, but he wasn’t aware as to how close the two had gotten.
Good for them, Lucien couldn’t help but think.
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Nesta
For a couple weeks now, Nesta had noticed Cassian having a different demeanor around Azriel. She didn’t want to think anything of it at first, but the longer it went on the more curious she got.
It wasn’t every interaction that he acted odd around Azriel, just around one certain person. That being Eris Vanserra.
At first Nesta assumed that it had to be something relating to the past everyone here in the Night Court had with the Autumn male, but seeing as he and Mor had explained all that happened that day and the deal the two had made, she didn’t see that being the case. Then she’d wondered if it had something to do with Eris' proposal to her a couple years back, yet that also didn’t seem to quite fit together either.
It wasn’t until the day she’d left her Symphonia in the library that she finally was able to piece it together.
She’d spent part of her afternoon finishing her most recent book while Cassian was away in Illyria for the day. She knew Azriel was in and out of the house that day as he went about his usual business. She’d been listening to her music for a while while reading until Gwyn and Emerie arrived since they all had some spare time that day to just spend together. She’d left the Symphonia playing, figuring that they’d migrate into the library at some point and it provided a comforting ambient noise in the otherwise silent house.
What she didn’t expect when the three did eventually migrate to the library was to freeze outside the entryway and duck back beside the door frame to avoid being seen by Azriel and Eris slow dancing to the song playing.
So tenderly, Eris had his arms wrapped around Azriel’s waist, holding him nice and close while Az had his arms draped over the Autumn Heir’s shoulders. They weren’t so much properly dancing, but rather just swaying back and forth to the music, as if they were the only people in the world.
The three Valkyries all shared similar expressions of shock at the scene. Azriel was secretive about many things as it was all a part of what his job entailed, yet she hadn’t been expecting this to be something he’d hide so carefully.
Or maybe it hadn’t been so careful.
After all, Cassian had been acting weird when Eris was around Azriel. Was this what he knew about?
She didn’t have long to question it because as the song ended so did Azriel and Eris’ dance. She and the girls quickly got back to the main room hoping the two males wouldn’t notice their spying.
Not even a minute after they’d all resettled, did Azriel enter with Nesta’s Symphonia in hand to return it to her. She thanked him and waved him off, telling him to scram since it was Valkyrie time right now. Without having to say anything aloud the three agreed not to say a thing about this until the two decided to announce it themselves.
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Rhysand
Before becoming High Lord, Rhys knew that when he was leading the court he wanted Azriel as his Spymaster. His father treated Az like a pet for so long, just dragging him from court to court showing off his powers. Rhys vowed to his brother that one day he would change that. He’d originally wanted Az to be completely free from the title, but his younger brother insisted on serving the court.
When he took the title of High Lord, Rhys was so greatly thankful that he had his brothers by his side while he put himself back together from losing the rest of his family. Azriel and Cassian forced him out of bed each morning, they would make sure he attended his meetings and that he was eating. If it weren’t for them he didn’t know what he would have done.
For nearly all the 300 years since Rhysand had become High Lord, Azriel and Cassian had stood by his side. And he was so sure that they told each other everything. For many years that had been true.
But he wasn’t quite sure that was still the case.
Like during this meeting for instance. It was just him, Azriel, and Eris discussing ways that Eris would finally be able to carry through with his plan of taking out his father. Each plan needed to be foolproof just in case there was some variable that is completely out of their control.
However, as much as Rhys tried to stay wholly focused on this meeting, he couldn’t help but notice the small changes in the ways that Eris and Azriel acted around each other.
Gone were the constant biting remarks the two made at each other. The remarks didn’t completely leave, just now Rhysand couldn’t help but think that they sounded more flirtatious than anything. And then there was the near constant eye contact between the two.
It wasn’t until Azriel went to point out something on the diagrams of the Forest House that he knew for sure things had changed. Azriel had been standing closer to him, but as he moved to the other side and leaned over the table, he kept one hand resting on Eris' back. And the Autumn Heir did nothing more than allow a miniscule smile to grace his lips while also intently listening to the words Azriel spoke.
In turn Rhys couldn’t help but smile internally. After so long of being at each other’s throats, of course Eris and Az would fall for each other. And there was no way Rhys could be mad about it. He’d been hard on Az during solstice a couple years back, but seeing what had resulted from that now, it ended up working out for the better.
However, if this continued, Rhys wondered if he’d be finding himself a new Spymaster in the next decade. Az would want to believe he could bounce between two courts, but Rhys could never ask that of him. He’d want Az to be able to spend as much time as he could with the person he very clearly cared deeply about, and Rhys wouldn’t be the one to dare step in the way of that.
All that mattered was that his brother was happy.
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Morrigan
Mor hadn’t set foot in the Autumn Court in over 500 years. It had never been Eris’ fault for what had happened that day, she’d made her choices that led them there, but so many things of the Autumn Court reminded her of that day. The decaying scent of dropped leaves as she neared death among them. The red that decorated the court brought back memories of her blood that had been slowly pooling around her for hours.
And yet she’d agreed to come here. She’d needed to be here.
Today Beron Vanserra would die.
Today Eris Vanserra would ascend the Autumn throne and take his place among the High Lords.
Today everything was changing.
So of course it was today that she finally noticed the change that she was certain had been brewing for quite some time.
She, Azriel, and Eris, were waiting outside the Eastern entrance of the Forest House while waiting for Lucien to signal that it was time for them to make their entrance. She noticed the signal immediately and turned to tell them it was time to go. And as she noticed the scene before her, everything clicked together.
Behind her stood Eris and Azriel, standing as close to each other as possible, their hands intertwined, eyes closed, and foreheads pressed together. Mor knew enough of how the Autumn Court people showed affection to know just how intimate a gesture like this would be. Often it was reserved for private settings or only shared around family.
And yet here they stood together as if this was the last time they would see each other. And it very well could be.
For all any of them knew, Beron would kill Eris. He would kill Lucien as well if he found out the youngest of the Vanserras was here as well. Everything could go wrong in these next moments. All their carefully crafted plans could come crumbling down with just one miscalculation.
Mor didn’t want to be the one to open that door. She wished that even just for another minute she could let Az and Eris stay in their own little world where one wouldn’t have to worry about living without the other, but if they waited too long, Beron would certainly win.
“It’s time.” She said quietly.
Azriel pulled back first, kissing Eris softly once and muttering something only the two of them could hear. Eris in turn responded with a kiss of his own and a near silent reply. After another breath the two pulled apart, morphing back into reality.
Both were trained killers and soldiers. And today those skills were needed. Today, for perhaps the last time ever, would Eris ever have to face his horrible father’s torment.
Eris stood with a grace that only a High Lord of their court would usually carry as he entered the throne room. He didn’t give Beron the satisfaction of his own final words to his father despite the soon to be ex-High Lord taking all the time he could to monologue.
Eris moved quickly, taking a blade strapped to his thigh and letting it fly from his hand straight into where Beron supposedly had a heart. Blood came quickly from the wound, but it wasn’t enough for Eris. Drawing on the true depths of his power, a bolt of lightning sparked from his fingertips and channeled through Beron’s body from where the blade was embedded in him.
The power transfer felt like a surge of heat in the room, leaving the now dead Beron and entering Eris. The weight of the new magic caused him to slump down to the ground, landing hard on his knees and he carefully breathed through the settling of these gifts.
And yet not even a moment later, Azriel was in front of him, becoming a solid force for Eris to lean against as he recouped from the power transfer. In that small action, there was no doubt in Mor’s mind that the two truly fit together. And looking around at the rest of the Night Court Circle, they all knew it too. Maybe this wasn’t the first time they’d seen this side of the two.
When Eris finally had control over his new gifts and was able to lift his head from where he’d slumped against Azriel, he captured Azriel’s lips with his own, and yet not a person in the room had bat an eye.
Somehow these two had managed to tell every single one of these people without making some grand announcement. And just how fitting that was, both were such quiet yet such loud people in their own unique way.
What a truly perfect match they were.