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Feyre hadn’t been in the Night Court long. She’d spent her two bargain weeks at the Moonstone Palace, and now she’d been in Velaris for about a week. Already she’d gone to the Bone Carver, The Weaver, and made a trip to speak with her sisters in the Human Lands, with a letter being sent to the Human Queens.
It had certainly been a productive week, but tiring after being sedentary for so long. However, she couldn’t find it within herself to complain.
The week had also helped Feyre get to know the other members of Rhysand’s Inner Circle. Morrigan was just as bubbly and flamboyant as she remembered. Azriel was quiet, but beneath the silence she could tell he was a male who cared deeply for his family. Cassian was certainly the most outgoing of the bunch and she’d found herself becoming fast friends with him. Amren…well she was Amren. Feyre wasn’t sure she was going to get much more information than that.
For the first time in the week, Feyre had a relatively calm day. After all her trips, her only obligation for the day had been her morning training session with Cassian. It had been routine, and afterwards she’d bathed and changed, but now she had the rest of the day to herself. She was considering going out and exploring more of Velaris, but at the same time, just spending the day in the townhouse sounded appealing as well.
From where Feyre was laying on a sofa in the sitting room trying to make a decision, she watched as Rhys made his way down the stairs. He seemed distracted as he did so, by some piece of paper in his hands. He had been in his study when Feyre had finished her shower, so she assumed it was some piece of mindless paperwork he was still trying to catch up on after fifty years.
She repressed a shudder at the thought of how much had probably piled up in his absence. Sure, Amren had taken control of Velaris during that time, but she had been stuck there, unable to do anything about the rest of the court. Even if she had been, Rhys would still need to be brought up to date on everything she had done. It made her feel bad for him, he probably hadn’t been able to enjoy much of his homecoming, far more focused on rebuilding what Amarantha had broken.
He disappeared into the kitchen, nose still buried in whatever he was reading, but walked out a moment later shaking his head. Apparently he’d been distracted enough that he’d either forgotten why he’d walked into the room, or hadn’t intended to go there in the first place. It was odd to see the usually collected High Lord so scatterbrained.
Before she could mention it, he must have read something he didn’t like, because his ears moved. Flattening down to the sides. He looked like a cat that had just smelled something foul causing a laugh to burble to her lips.
At the sound, the ear facing her direction flicked back up, turning slightly to hear her, which only made her laugh harder. As she attempted to reign in her giggles, Rhys abandoned what he was reading and turned to look at her.
After a moment he must have realized Feyre was laughing at something he had done, because he tilted his head slightly to the side, the ear angled towards the ground flattened while the other perked up. It just sent her laughing again.
Rhys still seemed confused, but pleased by her mirth nonetheless, “Pray tell, what’s so funny, Feyre Darling?”
She tried to answer twice before she got enough control over her laughter to form a few coherent words. “I-It’s the ears!”
Now that she was paying attention to it, she could see how expressive they were. Rhys’s ears twitched at the same time his brow furrowed in confusion. “My ears?”
Feyre nodded, wiping tears from her eyes, “They’re so expressive.”
At that point Rhys had clearly given up on getting back to whatever he’d been reading, as he made his way into the sitting room. With feline grace, he sat down in an armchair across from her, placing his ankle over his knee.
He paused, glancing over her for a moment, “Aren’t you supposed to be training with Cassian right now?”
She realized then that his critical gaze had been taking in her more casual attire, “We finished that almost an hour ago.”
At her words, Rhys’s eyes settled on the grandfather clock standing near the fireplace. He sighed as he read the time, speaking more to himself than her, “I didn’t realize I’d been working that long.” Once again his ears flattened slightly, but not nearly as much as when he’d been reading a few moments ago, causing a snicker to escape her. It drew Rhys back to the conversation, “So, my ears are expressive?”
“Not just you, all High Fae.” She let her hand drift to one of her own ears that she knew now moved similarly, as if on instinct. “It took some time for me to get used to them all but moving of their own accord.”
His gaze trailed over the points of her ears for a moment before he responded, “I hadn’t thought about that before…I suppose it would be strange.”
“They’re so cat-like. They flatten when we’re upset, point up when we hear something, and my favorite…” She tilted her head to the side, the ear facing the ground flattened while the other perked up, “Is the confusion.”
Even Rhys gave a soft chuckle as he relaxed into the chair, “I’m starting to see the humor in this now.”
Feyre shook her head with a giggle, “I didn’t mean to pull you from your work, but you must have read something you didn’t like, because…” She mimicked him from a few moments before, “Your ears flattened completely.”
Breathing out a laugh, Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose, “You sound like Cassian. He’s teased Mor and I for years about how our ears move, especially when we’re annoyed.” Feyre snorted at the thought. The Illyrians had ears similar to a human’s, so it made sense that Cassian would be the one to bring it up. “And for the record, you were correct. What I was reading was something I didn’t like.”
The curl of concern that rushed through her must have slipped through her mental shields, because Rhys was quick to continue.
“Nothing you need to worry about, Darling. It’s just some courtiers bickering endlessly and expecting me to sort out all their problems.” This time she could tell he exaggerated flattening his ears, and her answering snort must have been the desired effect because he merely grinned as he straightened them again.
“I can’t believe I’ve never noticed before how expressive our ears are.” Feyre huffed out a small laugh, “Although, now that I have, I can’t stop noticing it.”
Rhys had an amused glimmer to his eyes, far more starlight there than there had been just a few minutes ago. “It’s interesting, you know.”
Feyre felt her own ears do the thing she had called funny only a moment before, “What is?”
“Seeing what parts of being Made from human to High Fae you adapt to without thinking, and which seemingly mundane things catch more of your attention. I’ve never heard another High Fae mention the way our ears move, it’s just a fact of life for us.”
Feyre nodded, thinking over what he’d said, “Some things I got used to more quickly.” She wiggled her fingers, “My hands being more slender was one of them, but other seemingly random things keep catching me off guard, like the ears.” She shook her head, “And not just them being expressive either. I still get jumpscared and think there's a bug in my hair from time to time when I go to move hair out of my face, and my hand grazes the point of my ear.” She rolled her eyes at her own idiocy, “I even smacked the hell out of the tip of my ear once thinking it was a bug.” She rubbed at the ear in question, “It fucking hurt.”
“I-I can’t say I’ve heard of that happening before…” Rhys cackled slightly, “But I can attest that our ears are more sensitive in a physical sense.” He shuddered slightly, lifting a hand to his right ear, “See the ridge right along here?” He pointed out a faint horizontal line across his ear and she nodded, “How it happened, I’m still not certain, but in the war, one of my opponents managed to snap the cartilage completely in half.”
Feyre flinched, hand going to her own ear, “Ow…”
“Yeah, it hurt like a bitch.” He sighed, “But thankfully it healed well, no one notices it unless I point it out.” He was right about that, if he hadn’t said something, she never would have noticed the faint, uneven line. He chuckled slightly, “I was relatively young at the time, so after that I swore off getting any ear piercings…it just didn’t seem appealing anymore.”
Thinking it over, Feyre had noticed that nearly as many males had piercings as females. Not just in Velaris either. She’d noticed it amongst the nobles in the Spring court as well as the High Fae Under The Mountain. Most of them had intricate earrings or fine chains that connected multiple piercings along the shell of their ear together. Even still, Rhys had none.
“That makes sense…” She paused as another thought struck her, “How the hell do piercings even heal properly?” Rhys blinked at her in confusion, so Feyre moved her ears slightly as a demonstration, “I mean they move so much, that can’t be good for the healing.”
Rhys chuckled for a moment before responding, “You’re still thinking like a human, Darling.” She tilted her head to the side, her now more expressive ears flattening down slightly on instinct. “Fae have expedited healing. Wounds as small as a piercing heal in less than a day.”
Feyre felt her cheeks flush as she remembered that that was common knowledge she had casually forgotten “Right…”
“Don’t be embarrassed, you’ve had your entire biology changed. You have a lot of new things to learn and remember. It only makes sense that a few would slip your mind from time to time.” He shook his head, “The difference in healing time is one I would likely forget myself if I was suddenly human, but in that case it would be far more detrimental.”
“I guess that’s true…” Her hand went back to her ears as a thought struck her, “Would mine heal faster than the average High Fae?” When Rhys blinked she continued, “Ya know, because I have Dawn magic…”
Rhys considered it for a moment, “They most likely would…probably cutting down the healing time from a day to closer to twelve hours. Why?”
Feyre shrugged, “Because if it only takes a few hours to heal, why not get mine pierced?”
“I guess there’s nothing stopping you…If you want to know who’s best in the city to do it, I suggest asking Morrigan.” He rolled his eyes, “She has the most ear piercings out of all of us.”
“Not Amren and all her jewelry?”
Rhys shook his head with a chuckle, “No, we’re fairly convinced she can change certain aspects of her form at will, so she doesn’t have them pierced normally.” He paused for a moment, “At least not that I know of.”
“I’ll have to ask Mor at dinner then.”
—
Feyre did in fact ask Mor at dinner about possibly getting her ears pierced.
The next morning after training, she took Feyre down to the shop she trusted most. By the time they were done, Feyre had multiple new piercings in the lobes and cartilage of her ears. Each was adorned with a piece of white gold jewelry that took the shape of a star or moon.
She was told by the piercer that by the next day she would be able to change the earrings as often as she liked and use the earrings that connected to one another with fine chains. Of course that had led to Morrigan taking her all over the Palace of Thread and Jewels to find her plenty of new earrings to wear once she’d healed.
Throughout the shopping trip Feyre quickly learned to stop twitching her ears at every sound, as the motion threatened to bring tears to her eyes. She was thankful then for the fae’s swift healing abilities.
—
Feyre walked back into the townhouse late in the afternoon after a few hours of promising Mor that she had enough jewelry, but her friend took her to visit more shops regardless. She’d just insisted Feyre get more and more earrings, and of course necklaces and bracelets to match them. She’d stopped fighting it after the third store and just let Mor grab whatever she wanted, Feyre was relatively certain the blonde would end up borrowing it anyway.
Heading up to her room, she put the small paper bag full of boxes and smaller bags of precious metals and gems on her vanity but didn’t bother unpacking them yet. Going into the bathing room, she glanced in the mirror, smiling softly at the glittering silver on her ears. She tested a small twitch, and already she could tell it hurt far less than it had earlier. Another few hours and she wouldn’t be able to tell they had ever been hurting at all.
Twisting each of them a few times as the piercer had instructed, she made sure the moons and stars were straight again. Just before heading downstairs in search of a snack, she took one specific item from the bag and placed it in her pocket.
Rounding the corner into the kitchen, Feyre found Rhys leaning against the counter, waiting for a kettle to boil. “Hello, Feyre Darlin–” He stopped as his gaze snagged on her ears, his own twitching in response, “I see you went through with the idea to get your ears pierced.”
Feyre grinned, “I did. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would.”
Rhys didn’t look as though he believed her, but smiled anyway, “I’ll take your word for it.”
“I thought you might say that.” His ears moved in that confused way that still made her snicker. Reaching into her pocket, she took the item she had retrieved from the bag and tossed it to Rhys. He caught it without issue, and began to look at it as she spoke. “It’s a cuff. It goes around the shell of the ear without any need for piercing.”
In reality she’d had no idea such things existed until she’d passed a display of them in one of the ample shops Mor had dragged her into. When she had spotted the silver one engraved with the mountain and stars that made up the insignia of the Night Court, she’d added it to their haul without much thought. Mor hadn’t even questioned it.
Now Rhys looked it over, a fond smile forming on his lips. “Thank you, Darling.” Reaching up he placed it on the shell of his ear, twitching it slightly so it settled in a comfortable position. “How do I look?”
She rolled her eyes at his smirk, but another voice spoke before she could, “Fishing for compliments again, cousin?” Mor rounded the corner and blinked when her eyes landed on Rhys, “I thought you had sworn off getting your ears pierced?”
“I have, but our dear Feyre Darling noticed this lovely cuff on your trip today. No piercing required.”
Mor gave an ever suffering sigh, “Centuries of trying to get this male to wear jewelry! Centuries!” She whirled around to Feyre in disbelief, “And you manage it in a week?!”
Feyre grinned, “Technically I did it in one conversation. He didn’t know I was going to get it. I just handed it to him.”
Mor groaned, turning to storm out of the kitchen, growling one disgruntled sentence to the heavens, “Centuries…and she does it in a day?!”
As soon as the front door slammed shut the pair of fae left in the house slowly turned to face one another. As soon as their eyes locked they were roaring with laughter. Both of them well aware it wasn’t the outburst that had caused it, but the way Mor had flattened her ears as she’d stormed away.
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