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This was probably a horrible idea.
Probably one of the worst ones he’d ever had in six centuries. Other than wrecking that one building in the Summer Court.
But… he couldn’t resist.
Cassian held the loosely closed box gingerly in his muscular arms as he walked the streets of Velaris, wondering if he should turn around. Mor had laughed her head off when he told her his plan. Az had shaken his head in defeat. Feyre had covered her face with the palm of her hand and Rhys had told him not to come crying to him when his balls were bruised beyond repair. But there was a very small part of him that thought maybe this was exactly what she needed.
He wished he could fly with this box. His wings ached to catch the breeze off the Sidra, but it wasn’t worth the risk. So he kept walking, and hoped he wasn’t walking into a storm.
When Cassian got to the front door, he kicked it open with his foot, and held his head high as he strolled in with the box. Nesta lifted her head up from where she sat on the couch reading, the swell in her pregnant belly finally starting to show through her dress, and she scowled at him.
“I hate when you do that. Can’t you use your hands to open the door like a civilized male?"
“Who said hands were civilized?” he purred, stopping in front of her. “I use my hands for far less civilized things than I use my boots for. You, of all people, know about that."
Nesta kept scowling, but only he would be able to notice the flicker of a smile on her face. It was only a flicker, though, as she took in the box in his hands.
“What is that?” she said as she shut her book, sitting up from her relaxed position.
“I’ll show you. Just…” Cassian started, seeing the trepidation on her face. “Don’t freak out."
“Cauldron, Cassian,” she said, exasperated. “What did you do?"
He set down the box gently and opened the lid.
The puppy’s head popped over the side of the box, his tongue lolling to the side as he panted.
Nesta glared at the dog. And then at him. He plastered an innocent smile on his face.
“What. Is. That.” She asked again, much more forcefully. Her eyes were blazing and her voice was as hard as ice. She looked like she did before she sent fire into the hearts of her enemies. Cassian smirked, but she was looking at the dog again, probably for his benefit.
“Nesta, listen,” Cassian knelt down beside the box and began petting the dog’s soft head. “Someone left a box of puppies at the Illyrian camp a few days ago. They’re going to train them to hunt, but this one was too small. They would have killed him.” He picked the mutt up, and, tail wagging, he licked Cassian’s face. “No one else would take him. I couldn’t let him die."
Nesta’s face was still hardened into a scowl and she crossed her arms. She stared at him, and he could feel her annoyance as prominently as his own emotions. The dog whined a bit at the tension in the room, and Nesta began to shake her head. “Are you trying to make me angry with you, Cass? Is this some training bullshit to make me blow this house into smoke and ash?"
“No."
She contemplated him for a moment. “Find him another home. Ask Elain. Ask Amren, for all I care. I don’t want it."
“Him,” Cassian corrected her. “And I just figured-"
“Figured what, that I’d want a dog to take care of in addition to this?” she asked, indicating her pregnant belly with one hand as she placed the other on the bump.
“I figured that we might be able to practice taking care of something - just us two. That it might ease your anxiety. And ease mine."
Nesta said nothing, but placed both hands on her stomach and looked down. Cassian walked over to the couch, still holding the dog, and sat down beside her. The dog struggled to be released from Cassian’s grip, but managed only to rub a furry paw against Nesta’s arm as he whined. She looked at the dog briefly before meeting Cassian’s eyes.
She was still furious. But that was the first and only time Cassian had ever mentioned any anxiety about their future child, and she looked as if she might understand why he brought the dog home.
“He can stay. For now.” But Cassian was already holding the dog up to her face to allow him to lick her nose. Nesta recoiled and Cassian laughed, teasing her with the dog’s eagerness to love her. “Stop it, you prick. I’m serious about asking other people. I don’t want the thing to die, I guess, but try to find him a permanent home."
“Of course, sweetheart,” he said, grinning widely at her.
“I’m dead serious. Actually try."
“I will.”
“Mother save you if that thing gets anywhere near my shoes,” she said, standing up, and she walked into the next room, leaving Cassian with the dog on the couch.
Cassian grinned. That had been a lot easier than he thought it would be.
-----
Cauldron save her.
Cassian would bring a gods damned dog home with no notice and no respect for the fact that they had a baby on the way.
Nesta wasn’t even surprised. She was just incredibly annoyed.
After Cassian had fashioned a pen for the dog out of some old wire he’d come across, he placed the dog inside and Nesta made him dog-proof the entire house. She had him erect a shield at the foot of the stairs so the dog would stay confined to the first floor of the townhouse. She made Cassian the sole bearer of the responsibility of cleaning up after his accidents. She spent the better part of an hour fighting with him when he requested that the dog sleep in bed with them, and the only way she’d been able to win that argument was with the fact that certain bedroom activities would be limited should a dog join them upstairs every night.
Fae males with pregnant mates. So persuadable.
Cassian was now in the kitchen cooking stew for their dinner, and Nesta was back on the couch attempting to read.
But it was whining.
She had read the same sentence six times and the stupid thing was whining from its kennel in the corner of the room.
It barked once, softly.
“Cassian, shut your dog up."
“I can’t sweetheart, I’m a little tied up at the moment,” he called from the kitchen, the amusement thick in the tone of his voice. Prick.
She slammed her book shut and stood up. Cauldron, it was already hard to sit down and stand up and she was barely pregnant. She’d kick Cassian’s ass for the next decade for doing this to her.
The dog whined as she approached the kennel and stood five feet back from it, arms crossed and scowling. It stood up on its hind legs and pawed at the wire.
“You’re more desperate for attention than my mate, you know,” she said to the dog, and she heard Cassian laugh from the kitchen. “And I’ll rarely appease him. What makes you think I’ll give you any?"
The dog cocked its head to the side. And whined.
And, Mother above, she was talking to a dog.
But he was at least a nice looking dog. His golden fur was long, but not shaggy, and his large brown eyes pierced her blue-gray ones with longing. Before she knew what she was doing, she reached out and pet his head. The whining stopped, mercifully.
“Oh, so you’re friends now?” Cassian said, grinning from the doorway, three bowls of stew in hand. She pulled her hand from the dog’s soft fur.
She ignored his question. “You’re feeding it our food?"
“Dogs have to eat to,” Cassian shrugged as he dropped the smallest bowl into the kennel, and the dog wagged his tail enthusiastically as he began to eat.
“If you’re done here,” he drawled, and Nesta dragged her eyes away from the dog. She wanted to blast his smug expression off of his handsome face. She flashed him a rude gesture and stalked off to the table, and she tried not to look over at those begging brown eyes as they ate dinner.
-----
“Cassian."
Her mate shifted slightly in his sleep, moving the arm that was draped over her from her chest to her stomach, but did not awake.
“Cassian.” Nothing.
Nesta was going to burn his ass in the morning, she decided. She pushed his arm off her and sat up, that dog’s incessant whining gritting at her last nerve. It had woken her up three times during the night and she had no idea how Cassian was sleeping through it.
Nesta pulled on her discarded nightgown and stormed out of the bedroom, trudging down the stairs as her eyes adjusted to the light.
Those brown eyes pulled at her in the dark. The dog whimpered.
“Be quiet, you insufferable beast,” she hissed at the dog, stomping toward the kennel. “Your whining could wake the dead. Not Cassian of course, the prick, but you woke me and the baby,” she closed her eyes as the child kicked once, softly, inside her.
The dog stared up at her, one paw on the wire. And let out a slow, high-pitched whine.
“Fine,” Nesta huffed, and she picked the dog up out of the kennel. It immediately began attacking her face.
“Cauldron, save me, please,” she begged as she set him down and sat on the floor with the dog. It began running in circles around her, and it made her so dizzy that she picked him up again. “How do you have so much energy?"
He licked her pointed ear and she scowled. “Calm down."
She began petting his soft head again, and he settled into a seated position in front of her, closing his eyes. There. That would keep him subdued.
Nesta glanced at the clock on the fireplace as she continued soothing the dog. It was nearly dawn, and she had to go to the Illyrian camp to check on the female warrior ranks some time before noon. She was tired just thinking about it.
The dog laid down, his paws in her lap, and she watched as he began to breathe more slowly, falling asleep.
What would she do with the dog when she and Cassian were both away? She supposed Feyre would take him, maybe Nuala and Cerridwen could look after him.
Cauldron, she was worrying about a dog. She felt a flicker of annoyance. Just a flicker, though.
She didn’t know how much time had passed since she’d come downstairs, but before she knew what she was doing, she was laying on the floor beside the dog. And falling asleep.
-----
When Cassian woke up at dawn, the bed was cold. He reached out blindly - but Nesta wasn’t there.
He started. As he sat up, he saw her nightgown that he had not-so-carefully discarded last night was no longer on the floor. So she hadn’t been kidnapped, then.
He reached down the bond as he stood up, and she was sleeping.
What Cassian saw when he stood at the top of the steps was… not what he expected.
His mate was curled on the ground and using the dog as a pillow. Both were sound asleep.
He grinned.
-----
“Nesta."
“Mmm."
“Sweetheart. I get that you hate our mattress, but is the floor really more comfortable?"
“What?” She opened her eyes. Her mate was standing beside her and she was, indeed, on the floor.
With a furry golden pillow under her head. The dog.
Cassian’s grin was enough to make her want to swing out her leg and trip him.
“You prick,” she started, sitting up and wiping her hair out of her face. “This dog was whining so much last night and you would not wake up. So I had to sleep on the floor, because it was the only way I was getting any sleep last night."
He kept grinning. She smacked his shin, and the dog awoke, tail wagging. He licked her face. “Attack him,” she told the dog, pointing at Cassian. The dog only began jumping up on Cassian’s legs, begging for his attention.
“So first you’re friends, and now you’re plotting against me? I’m injured."
“You will be if you don’t wipe that grin off your face,” Nesta said, and she allowed a flicker of annoyance to resonate in her voice, but it wasn’t enough that Cassian wouldn’t be able to see through it. She held out her hand for him, and he helped her off the floor. “Let’s go, Ember, time for breakfast."
Cassian raised his eyebrows at her. “You named him?"
She shrugged. “If I’m the one who’s going to wake up in the middle of the night and take care of him, I get to name him."
“Oh? And does the same apply for our child?” Cassian caught her around the waist and pulled her close to him.
She snorted. “All I’m saying is if I try to wake you to tend to our crying child, Cauldron help you if you don’t.” She kissed him lightly, and he pressed her against him, deepening the kiss. The dog scratched at her heels and she pulled away. “Duty calls,” she mused, bending down to pet Ember.
“I see. You’re going to prioritize your attention for the dog now.”
“Well,” Nesta purred. “If you hadn’t gotten him in the first place, you’d have a few more months of me all to yourself.” She smirked as his face dropped. “Your loss, Cassian."
“I’ll take him back,” Cassian said gruffly.
“No, no,” Nesta flicked her hand through the air and let the dog lick her face. “I’m attached now. You’ll live."
And with that, she picked Ember up and walked into the kitchen to feed him, leaving her dumbfounded mate behind her.
-----
He was right.
It was a horrible idea.
But, somehow, seeing Nesta caring for that dog made it all worth it.