~Lucien~
Lucien was exhausted after two long weeks of meetings and negotiating. They had gotten nowhere, and it had all just been a big waste of time and resources. He slumped into his favorite chair in front of the fireplace, brushing his hair away from his face. He took a deep breath and sighed.
"Rough day?" Jurian asked while coming to lean on the mantle.
He had been (Believe it or not) a breath of fresh air as the days passed with no progress. The humans argued almost as much as the fae did when it came to internal affairs, and it didn't help that he was fae himself.
"I do believe that they hate me more than they hate living in poverty." Lucien said in reply.
Jurian smirked knowingly and huffed a laugh.
"I could have told you that, though they hate you less than most." He was right, of course that was due his time spent trying to build trust in the lords of the mortal realm.
It was something that no other fae in Prythian had even attempted, even five years after the war.
"Hating me less than the High Lords that have forgotten them does me little good if they can't stop bickering long enough to get anything done." He could feel a headache coming on, they were regular these days and he grimaced against the influx of pain that shot through his.
"Is there a reason that you are pestering me directly after a meeting?" Lucien asked, not that he minded Jurian's company, but the man was aware of his frequent headaches and tended to leave Lucien alone until the morning after a meeting.
"Ah, always so perceptive Lucien. You have a letter from your dear friends at the Night court."
Lucien balked at that; he hadn't gotten a letter from them in months. They seemed content to let Lucien be after last solstice when he 'attempted' to give Elain a gift. It was a simple satchel filled with seeds procured from the continent that he thought she'd love. Much to his chagrin she'd burst into tears and Lucien was promptly told to leave... He had not been back since. Jurian pulled the letter out of his coat pocket and handed it to Lucien. As always, the parchment was marked with the official Night Court insignia and stamped with Rhys and Feyre's crest. He broke the seal and read.
Dear Lucien,
You and a guest are Hereby invited to this year's solstice festivities to be held at the House of Wind. We will be expectantly awaiting your reply.
Sincerely, Nesta and Cassian Archeron
He stared puzzled at the letter in his hands, of all people he had expected an invitation from Nesta and Cassian had not even made it on the list. Still the sentiment was nice and so he supposed he would have to go, even if he was slightly terrified of what the sudden invitation could mean.
"Well fill me in, what does it say?" Jurian asked. 'You and a guest' the words rang in his head as he let out a laugh loud enough to have his companion studying puzzled.
"Care for a trip to the Night Court?" He would have asked Vassa, she was more adapted to inter-court warfare, but she had been using her time as a firebird to fly to the continent to look for a way to break her curse. Jurian simply smiled in that devilish way he often did and spoke.
"What could possibly go wrong?"
~Elain~
She was in the garden when she felt it, a pull in her ribs that had her slumped from the exhaustion alone. Elain knew it wasn't her exhaustion that she was feeling but 'his'. He was tired at best and absolutely destroyed at worst. She had learned how to block it out most times but occasionally she let herself feel it, out of curiosity she told herself. What was he up to that had him exhausted to the point of near collapse? Was he fighting with his housemates? She had been told the two were notoriously hard to get along with. That didn't add up though, the last time she had seen Lucien was last solstice when he'd given her the most thoughtful gift anyone had given her in years and burst into tears.
He had brought Vassa and had been in a wonderful mood until then, gods he had been glowing literally glowing she thought. It had been mortifying and she had to have Nesta drag her to her room. She had sobbed over those seeds for weeks until it was finally warm enough to plant them. Elain shook the thought from her head. It had been enough to live through it once, best not to dwell on it. That brought back her curiosity about his exhaustion though. She shouldn't be thinking like this, it's not like she was worried about him... Right? No, of course not. She couldn't be, it was the mate bond pushing her to worry for a male that she had no interest in.
"You are thinking very loudly dear sister." Elain shot up from her crouch and staggered back a few steps. Feyre reached out to steady her before she spoke
"I didn't mean to startle you, I tried tap your shoulder, but you were too deep in thought it would seem." Elain took a deep breath and brushed herself off before turning to her sister to reply.
"It's fine, did you need something?"
"Well with the train of thought that you were practically yelling about to all of Velaris I thought it would be good to let you know that Nesta and Cass invited a certain red-headed male to Solstice this year." Feyre said sheepishly.
"SHE DID WHAT!? Feyre, I thought we had agreed that inviting was not a good idea." Elain pleaded, with how horribly it had gone last year she did think she could face him this year.
"Well yes, we agree that it is not the best idea, but that does not extend to Nesta apparently." Elain hadn't thought she needed to have a conversation about Lucien with Nesta of all people, she seemed to hate him and vice versa.
"Besides, Azriel has said that he has been working tirelessly with the Humans to bring about war relief, it's been years in the making, months of planning and weeks of meetings. It would do him good to have a break, and it would be unfair not to give him one." Shame, she felt ashamed.
Of course, that's what had him so exhausted, helping the people they had all but abandoned. He was too good to leave them be, too good to let them argue in circles and steep in their anger. The worst part wasn't that Azriel knew about his efforts, and she had not, it was the fact that after all of it she had wanted him to stay there.
"Okay, fair enough, but why is Nesta inviting him? I thought they hated each other." It was a valid question she knew, especially when Feyre threw her arms in the air and shouted.
"I have no clue; I have a feeling it was Cassian's idea; they were quite chummy during Nesta and his mating ceremony."
They had gotten along quite well to be precise. Nesta's mating ceremony had been the first time she had seen Lucien smile, then laugh and then in turn quip back with all the snark and sass that Feyre's stories said he had. It was awe inspiring how well he kept up with Cassian's banter, he hadn't wasted a second firing back in retaliation for a jab at his boots. They apparently had been a gift from Vassa and were adorned with buckles and extravagant embroidered flowers, Hibiscus she knew. They were his favorite flower she had come to find out. Elain had spent the rest of the night tracing the patterns with her eyes trying not to stare at the arm wrapped around his waist.
"The boots, really the boots are what you focused on? Not how gorgeous he looked with his hair done and his clothes tailored to a T?" She shot her head to her sister, shocked at what her sister just said.
"What!" she gaped, ridiculously, but Feyre had never commented on Lucien's looks before especially not when Elain hadn't even said anything. "Stay out of my head Feyre!"
That was twice now that she had commented on her thoughts, was she really thinking that loudly.
"I told you that you were thinking loudly, maybe it's because it's Lucien."
When Elain looked over, Feyre was smirking at her a sly look in her eye. Her sister was a hopeless busybody, and she hated it. Elain decided that she had had enough of her antics when Feyre winked at her, instead she decided she would go have a much-needed conversation with her other sister.
It took half an hour to track down someone to take her to the House of Wind, in the end she had found Rhysand in his office and had convinced him to put his paperwork down long enough to fly her over to the house. They had landed on the terrace at the front of the house and Elain barely had time to wave goodbye before Rhys was giving her a look and diving back toward the river house.
She simply shrugged and turned toward the door that led to the rest of the house. Opening the door and winding her way through the countless hallways was dizzying, she could feel a headache coming on just from the pounding in her head. She swore that the dining room wasn't this hard to find last time she was here. Maybe to the left or was it right. She was hopelessly lost, she had been in this house a thousand times and somehow, she was lost.
Elain turned a corner and then another before promptly hitting a wall. There was certainly not a wall here yesterday. Strange, the wall was warm, firm yet soft in a way walls were not. She looked up and noticed the shock red hair and the striking gold eye. Oh, gods she thought, not again.
"Well, I would say I'm happy to see you, but under the circumstances I say this is a surprise encounter?" His voice was smooth, but it held a heaviness to it.
Suddenly the headache made sense, the pounding in her head had been the beat of his heart. The confusion hadn't been hers either; it had been Lucien's.
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A/N
Hey Wattpad,
So, this is originally a Ao3 fic, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt putting it up here too. Ao3 is several chapters ahead of this version because I'm editing this as I transfer platforms so if you want to read it over there that's cool too.
If you guys have any questions or thoughts don't forget to leave a comment!