Rhaemarys

Rhys and I sit at the cafe for hours, buying cake after cake, with every type of hot beverage imaginable to fend off the incoming winter chill that threatens to take over autumn early for the humans.

It was odd at first, seeing him glamoured and hidden beneath his cloak but I'd been too pent up and angry to care at the beginning. I watch him with a fascination I'd only ever felt when hunting as he laughs at my recount of Nesta tricking one of the little girls to slap a handful of cake onto another who had inadvertently made Elain cry on her birthday.

"Neve is going to be vicious as an adult." He grins at the thought, clearly imagining the same picture of male courtiers being ripped apart by her vicious words as I. But- Neve, right, because he's still a stranger I couldn't come up with anything better on the spot

"She's already a force to be reckoned with." I fight down the urge to wince at the pride I was unable to keep from my voice. Not a very smart move showing I care about them but I'm pretty sure we both have mutually assured destruction even if he does believe that his precious little brothers would be safe from my wrath behind the Night Court's shields.

"You're raising her well." Something must flicker in my expression because he places down his coffee with a concerned look. "What? Is something wrong with the girls?"

His concern for my girls warms my cold dead heart but has guilt clogging my throat.

"I-" I cleared my throat, unable to find the words. "I- em. This wasn't what I expected of my life."

He frowns but for once patiently waits.

"I was trained, built, to hunt and serve. My life was to be spent in the freedom of battle and protecting others." The view outside the quaint little coffee shop in the Human's capital is filled with bustling wares dealers, couples and horses. All of them rushing about their daily lives. "I was not expecting freedom to be so-"

I wave a hand in the air, not looking at Rhys as I question my own opinions.

"Suffocating?" He finishes for me and I nod. "What about the girls."

I swipe at my eyes, surprised to find that they were filled with tears. "I love them, more than I expected I would. I'm not sure I have known them long enough to feel the world ending, war starting rage when they're hurt, or the knowledge I would die for them or that my heartbreak when they pass away before me."

"But you could." I hide away from the understanding in his gaze wanting to remain in ignorance for a little longer. "That's why you feel caged, because if you love them they could hurt you."

"Or I could hurt them." I weakly counter.

"Never." He whispers leaning forward to take my hand in his, "You would never willingly hurt them."

I shakily nod, not believing a single word.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"You missed the show." I murmur, keeping my voice low and soft as I take in the broken look on Rhys' face as he settles down on to the soft grass of the meadow beside me.

"She kept me busy." The deadness in his voice has me fighting the urge to march straight to that god forsaken mountain and kill the bitch myself. Flames curl within my gut, molten fire tugging at my bones as my arms and hands forcefully shift into scales and claws.

Why are people so cruel?

"That's new." His voice is so blank that for a second I don't recognise the male before me, not even with the stars falling behind him, the twilight light so at home with his court yet so foreign to him.

Barely daring to breath I watch as Rhys reaches out a tentative finger to trace down the skin coloured - or rather skin coated - scales and spines. Already, pain pricks where he presses down, the spike threatening to tear through my skin as I shift.

Yet exhaustion already has them receding back into my skin till only the claws and a few errant scales remain. I wonder when i'll get my full powers back. When I'll be less traumatised and able to feel my emotions more acutely instead of as though I'm looking into my own mind as an observer.

"They feel so different." I don't bother to question him as he glides a hand up and down my arm. The tears in his eyes are testament enough to the horrors that he has already endured this night alone. "So different to her."

I should fucking hope so.

I would rather die than be considered akin that foolish general.

"Tell me about Starfall." I whisper, if only to bring back the familiar stars in his eyes. "I'm sure your family would throw grand celebrations."

A/N: A short chapter I'm afraid, what scenes / conversations would you like to see between Nesta/Elain/Feyre and Rhae?