Decade | | Azriel

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A/N: Wrote this solely for my bff betterdemons and decided to publish after letting it sit in the drafts for months bc I love it!! This is all set pre-ACOTAR!!

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No one knew where he went, but every Friday night for the last decade or so, Azriel vanished without a word. Sometimes he was back by Saturday morning, other times he was gone until Monday evening. Cassian asked him once about where he disappeared to, and the question was met with a sharp "none of your business." No one ever asked again.

It was Friday now, and Azriel was already ready to vanish from the group. He finished up having dinner with everyone before slipping away as the rest of the group found themselves in some card game Cassian swore was the best but none of the others had ever heard of. He claimed he picked it up in the Summer Court, and it had something to do with the building he demolished.

Azriel had no interest in sticking around for it.

He left without a word to anyone, just like he did every Friday night. He arrived at his destination right on time, going in through the side door he had been given access to. He made his way through the halls, keeping his head down despite the fact that he was cloaked in shadows anyway.

He stopped outside of a door with the number five painted on it in gold. He knocked—once, twice, three times. He lowered his fist then, tucking his hands into his pockets. He waited. One second, two, three—the lock clicked as it was turned.

It was all as it always was, down to the number of seconds it took for the door to be unlocked and then opened. There was exactly one second between the door being unlocked and being opened.

And then there she was—long hair black as night, left down because she knew that was how he liked it. It ended right at the curve of her ass, her perfect ass he spent so many years obsessing over. Her green eyes were so bright, a stark contrast to her dark hair. Her skin was paler than it had been when they first met—Azriel had been telling her for the last two years that she should go outside more, she hardly got any fresh air anymore. She was over a foot shorter than him, but stood tall with confidence. She didn't bother with makeup other than mascara on her eyelashes, and she only spent any time on that because she knew he liked the tracks it made on her cheeks when he made her cry from how good he made her feel. She wore black. It was his favorite on her. A black lacy bra and matching black lacy panties and, around her neck, a thick black leather collar he had given her six years ago.

Azriel stepped in through the open door, and it was only when the door closed behind him that he let the shadows receded. The door was never locked when he was in here with her. That was a strict rule that even he had to follow despite all the exceptions that had been made for him. The door was never locked when a client was in, not even if the client was someone as...loyal as he was.

"You look tense," she commented, her voice so soft and sweet. "Long day?"

"Long week," he confessed with a shrug as he glanced around the room. It was always spotless in here when he first came in. It was never that way when he left. "Do you have any other appointments this weekend?"

"I'm free until Monday," she answered, twirling her hair around her finger.

"Night?" he filled in, and she nodded. "I'll take the whole weekend then. Until Monday morning."

"I'll write it in," she told him, walking passed him to the calendar on the wall. It was all blurred to him, to any client that came into this room. She wrote something out on it, and he knew it was copied onto the calendar at the reception desk. That one was a blur to clients too, hidden so no overzealous clients couldn't know where the girls would be at any given time. It was one of the many protection measures the owner of this club took.