Summary: Y/N's from the Spring Court, and a good friend of Feyre's. They always stood by her side whenever they could, and when she left the Spring Court for good after setting up its internal collapse, Y/N went with her. There's no doubt that the Night Court is a better place to call home, but still, Y/N can't help feeling a little homesick. Thankfully, they're surrounded by good people who can help them feel a little closer to home.
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I stared out the window of my new-temporary home, looking into the streets of Velaris. Families strolled down the sidewalk with smiles on their faces, and I could hear children laughing even through my closed window. It was certainly a different sight from the Spring Court, in a lot of very positive ways.
Yet, for some reason, I found myself feeling incredibly homesick.
A few days ago, I'd arrived in Velaris with Feyre and Lucien. I'd served in Tamlin's court for decades, and watched everything there deteriorate year by year under Amarantha's rein. Feyre had saved us from that in the end, but Tamlin had almost destroyed her afterwards. I did my best to be there for her, to take her side and defend her, but I didn't have much power in Tamlin's court. Finally, she'd managed to escape, but Tamlin had made a deal with Hybern to drag her back. For me, that was the final straw. I knew Feyre wouldn't have come back just to give in to Tamlin, so I did everything I could to gather information and listen in on conversations when nobody noticed me. Finally, when Feyre made her escape, I went with her.
I didn't regret it one bit. But still, it was hard to leave the place I'd called home for so long.
I sighed, turning from the window at last and heading for the door. I couldn't hide up here forever, no matter how much I might want to. It wouldn't help anything in the long run.
I wandered into the kitchen to find Feyre and Rhys sitting at a table fully filled with breakfast foods. I gave Feyre a small smile as I sat down next to her, and she perked up right away.
"Y/N. I'm glad to see you're awake," she said. I smiled, but didn't say anything. "How are you feeling? You don't have any lingering injuries from our fight, do you?"
Feyre, Lucien, and I had been pursed by Lucien's horrible brothers during our escape from the Spring Court. We'd managed to escape, thanks to Cassian and Azriel of the Night Court and of course Feyre's fantastic powers, but it had been a close call. I'd never been much of a fighter, so I'd quickly been sidelined and hadn't taken too many injuries.
"No, I'm doing fine," I replied. "Thank you for checking."
"Thank you for all the work you did in the Spring Court," Rhys chimed in. His voice was quiet, and I could tell he was being gentle with me, but I didn't have it in me to protest or insist I was fine. "The information you gathered will be a big help in planning our war effort."
I inclined my head ever so slightly and gave Rhys a small smile.
"I'm glad I could help."
I didn't say anything else, and I could tell Feyre and Rhys were having a frantic conversation through their mating bond. They really weren't very good at hiding it when they did that. Finally, after a few seconds of silence, Feyre spoke again.
"So Y/N, do you have any plans for the day? I was thinking if you were interested, you could come with me to-"
"Why did no one tell me breakfast was ready?"
Feyre was interrupted by a loud voice as a large figure burst through the door to the kitchen. I turned to find Cassian, the loud, brash general of the Night Court coming through the door and striding right for the table. He took the seat next to me, and didn't spare any of us a single glance before digging into the food before him.
"Cassian, would it kill you to have a little more decorum?" Rhys deadpanned. Cassian just looked up at him and answered with a mouthful of food.
"If it slowed me down on the way to getting breakfast? Yes."
I couldn't help a small laugh. I didn't know the general very well, but even just spending a few hours with him and seeing him interact with the rest of the court was like a breath of fresh air. If anyone had dared to say anything like that to Tamlin, they would've ended up in the infirmary in seconds.
Cassian glanced at me, then quickly returned to his breakfast. The four of us passed the rest of the meal with idle chatter, until Feyre and Rhys stood up to start their days.
"So, Y/N, would you like to come with me to the Palace of Thread and Jewels? I have a few things I need to pick up, and it might be a good chance for you to see a little more of the city."
I gave Feyre a smile I didn't entirely feel.
"No, that's alright. I appreciate the offer, but I think I can manage on my own today."
"Alright..." Feyre looked concerned, but she also didn't push me, which I appreciated. "Well, I guess we'll see you when we get home."
I nodded, and she and Rhys left the kitchen. I sighed, then turned back to stare at the table, only to find Cassian looking at me curiously.
"Don't you want to see Velaris?" he asked.
"Yes, I do, I just... I don't want to see it now."
A terrible, unconvincing lie. I felt confident Cassian would see right through it and push me for the real answer, but he just stared at me for a few moments before turning back to his breakfast with a shurg.
"Fair enough."
I shook my head, although Cassian couldn't see me. This certainly was different from the Spring Court.
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A week passed, and I did eventually venture into Velaris. It was a truly beautiful city, a peaceful, wonderful place of business and art and community. Mor took it upon herself to introduce me to the best restaurants and dance clubs in existence, and Feyre had talked me into joining her "Inner Circle", as they called themselves, for dinners in the city. All of the people I now found myself spending time with were truly wonderful, but still I couldn't help feeling homesick.
Velaris and the Night Court were just... so strange to me. And most of the time, I appreciated the differences. In a lot of ways, all the changes were good. But I couldn't deny that I missed constant, warm spring days, with all the blooming fields of flowers and babbling brooks. Being in the Spring Court just felt closer to nature than the Night Court, and I missed that more than I wanted to admit.
Another bright, sunny Saturday morning had me wandering downstairs to breakfast with an especially nostalgic feeling in my chest. If I were in the Spring Court, I would've found a way to sneak out of the palace and away from Tamlin to have a picnic in my favorite field of flowers. Here, that wasn't really an option.
I wandered into the kitchen to find Cassian already there. He'd declined going out with Mor, Azriel, and I last night, much to my surprise, and I supposed the result of that was him not being hungover and asleep for breakfast this morning.
"Good morning, Cassian," I said absentmindedly as I sat down next to him. As soon as he noticed me, he shot up in his seat, fully alert and fixing me with an intense stare.
"Morning, Y/N." He hesitated, like he had something to say but didn't quite know how to say it. I waited patiently, and after a few seconds, he spoke up again. "Feyre says she thinks you're homesick. Are you?"
Well, he certainly wasn't beating around the bush. I sighed heavily and looked away, but I couldn't bring myself to lie.
"Yes, I am. I know it sounds ridiculous, especially considering the state of the place I lost, but-"
"Hey," Cassian interrupted me with a gentle hand on my arm, instantly getting my full attention. "It's not ridiculous. I know what it's like to love a home when it doesn't make sense."
I gave him a soft smile. I hadn't expected a tender moment with the chow hound general of the Night Court, but it was nice now that it was happening.
"Thank you, Cassian," I said. "And really, there are so many things I don't miss about the Spring Court. But I miss the flowers, and the sunshine on my face in the middle of a meadow. On days like this especially, I feel it."
Cassian nodded thoughtfully for a few seconds. Then, without a word, he shot out of his seat and started heading for the door.
"Stay here!" he called over his shoulder. "Gimme half an hour."
****************
I wasn't sure what Cassian was up to, but I stayed in the dining room and waited for him. It's not like I had much else to go and do, especially when everyone else in the house was either not home or not awake.
Finally, after a little closer to an hour, Cassian returned. He had a massive smile on his face which only made me curious as he approached me at the table and offered me his hand.
"Come with me," he said simply. I just stared back at him.
"That's it? You disappear for an hour with nothing more than 'Stay here' and you're not going to give me any more explanation than that?"
"Nope. Now let's go."
I sighed, but took his hand anyway. He pulled me up with a grin, then led me out to the front porch of the townhouse.
"Do you trust me?" he asked, looking at me with a troublemaker's smile that didn't exactly make me want to say yes.
"...Maybe?"
"Close enough."
With that, Cassian swept me into his arms and took off from the ground with a hard push. We shot into the sky, and I grabbed onto Cassian like my life depended on it and buried my head in his chest.
"Cassian!" I cried. I didn't know if he'd be able to hear me over the wind, but apparently, he did.
"What?"
"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed back. Cassian just chuckled, and I would've scowled at him if it didn't mean lifting my head and risking the sight of the ground far below us.
"Just relax, Y/N. I promise you're safe, and you're going to love where we're going."
I grumbled, but didn't say anything else. Finally, just as I'd started to adjust to the wind and altitude, Cassian dove towards the ground at a million miles and hour. I couldn't hold back a scream, which sounded a lot more ridiculous when it continued after we landed.
"Relax, you're alright," said Cassian as he dropped my legs, letting my feet hit the ground. I probably would've fallen over if he hadn't steadied me.
"What the hell was that?" I demanded, giving Cassian a hard shove in the chest. It didn't do much against the massive Illyrian, true, but it still felt good.
"It was the fastest way to get you here," he said simply. When I just gave him a quizzical look in response, he gestured for me to turn around.
When I did, I found myself standing in a small field of flowers. Not as big as any in the Spring Court, true, but just as beautiful and peaceful as I remembered. In front of me sat a picnic, with places set for two. My hands flew to my mouth as I took it all in, and when I turned back to Cassian, I had tears pooling in my eyes.
"Cassian... did you do this for me?" I asked, a little breathlessly. Cassian blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, seeming a little sheepish.
"Yeah, I did. I knew you were homesick and I wanted to do something about it, but it's not like I could bring you back to the Spring Court. This was the next best thing."
I closed the distance between us and raised up on my tiptoes to give Cassian a kiss on the cheek. He stared at me in awe as I pulled back, and I just smiled.
"It's perfect." Cassian grinned, and after a few moments, I cleared my throat and turned back to the feast in front of us. "Well, let's dig in. Knowing you, it must've been torture to wait this long."
****************
Cassian and I laughed and talked all through lunch. He'd packed a delicious meal (although I had no doubt he'd had help from Nuala and Cerridwen), and it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with him outside the context of Velaris, the townhouse, or various business and war meetings.
He had a big heart, and he was also hysterically funny. As far as I was concerned, that was the whole package.
Once I finished my lunch, I wasted no time laying back in the grass and staring up at the sky. The wind was blowing the clouds into all kinds of cool, different shapes, and staring at them like this with the sun on my face, it was like I'd never left home.
Next to me, Cassian fidgeted on the blanket. I glanced over at him with a smirk.
"What's the matter, general?" I asked, a teasing tone to my voice. "You seem a little antsy."
He shook his head. "It's nothing. Just not used to sitting in the grass doing nothing, especially with a war brewing on the horizon."
"Well, I have a feeling your High Lord has already told you this, but it's important to enjoy the small moments when you can. It gives you something to fight for." Cassian nodded, but I could tell he still wasn't totally at ease. I reached up and grabbed his hand, gently pulling it towards me to get him to lie down. He did, albeit a little reluctantly.
"So... what now?" he asked, looking over at me from where he laid in the grass, his wings spread out on either side of him. He watched me with a small smile, which I returned.
"Now, we look at the clouds," I said simply. I turned my attention back to the sky, but I could still feel Cassian's eyes on me.
"And what are we looking for in the clouds?" he asked.
"Anything that catches our eye." I paused, searching for an example, then reached out my arm to point to a particularly fun cluster of clouds. "See, like that. That one looks like Az, surrounded by the wisps of his shadows."
Cassian chuckled, and I heard him shift next to me as he looked into the sky.
"You know what? I see it," he said. "Look, the cloud's even got an uncomfortable look on its face now that we're staring at it."
I laughed, and Cassian quickly joined in. I turned to look at him again, a broad smile on my face as I met his hazel eyes. He really was handsome, and once I'd started looking at him, I found it almost impossible to look away.
"Cassian... thank you for this," I said, my voice suddenly much quieter. "I truly appreciate it. Cauldron knows you're busy with a million other things right now, so the fact that you took an afternoon to help cure my homesickness? Well... it means a lot to me."
Cassian rolled onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow as he looked down at me, the two of us now almost chest to chest.
"I'm happy I could help," he said. Gently, he reached out and moved a strand of hair from where it'd been dangling in front of my face to behind my ear. He left his hand cupping my cheek when he was done, staring at me with a softness I hadn't yet seen since meeting him a week and a half ago.
"Cassian..." I breathed. He just smiled back at me, and before I could over think it, I rolled forward and closed the distance between us. Cassian's wing curled up behind me, along with one of his arms, to wrap around my waist, and I glanced at him one last time before finally leaning in the rest of the way to kiss him.
Cassian immediately returned the kiss, pulling me even tighter against his chest. I quickly lost myself in him, and as he deepened the kiss, the last lingering homesickness finally faded away. There were plenty of beautiful places in the Night Court, including some that were close enough to home that I could visit when I needed to. And, most importantly, the people of the Night Court were a serious upgrade from Tamlin and his cronies.
Especially Cassian.