mariaofdoranelle
maria
22 | INFP | she/her I write Rowaelin fics. Hi. Feel free to stalk me (and I kinda hope you do) I also have a writing side blog, which I call Maria (Polished Version)
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*used a different image editing site that I did not like so sorry if the image is weird*
Welcome to the May Prompts for TOG Micro fics!
You can write for everyday or just one.
Combine prompts or not, interpret as you want.
Write the story in less than 1k words.
Write for whichever ship you want, or general characters/relationships.
Be sure to @ us and we'll reblog your work here for all to see!
Be sure to add triggers if/as needed :)
Any other questions? Send an ask or dm!
FAQ // Intro Post
Text list of the prompts below the cut
Queen
Firelight
Sleight-of-Hand
Whimsy
Echo
Tapestry
Rebirth
Sculpture
Fate
Maroon
Picture
Pathway
Thief
Rapture
Justice
Home
Charged
Sapphire
Vision
Mystery
Grove
Heal
Tide
Crossfire
River
Tarnish
Daybreak
Sentry
Entourage
Fortify
Petrichor
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WHY SLEEPING PILLS IS ROWIE IS NEXT DOOR
“That wasn't her sleeping meds--it was a goddamn aphrodisiac.” AKANDJAJDJAJSJS i told her so!!
“Against her will, that image suddenly lost its pants.” yeah, sure lol
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!!! and i need details!!!!!!!! are they friends? DID HE HEAR HER TOO?
sleepless in terrasen
@throneofglassmicrofics instead of final papers i wrote...this 🫣
prompts: Sleepless & Rapture & Elixir
word count: 1,059 (whoops)
warnings: NSFW CONTENT OOPSIES
enjoy!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She hadn't been able to sleep.
After two hours of tossing and turning, silken sheets rustling in agitation beneath her flushed skin, Aelin groaned in frustration and rolled out of her bed. Damn the man sleeping one door away from her. Damn his stupid sexy smirk and his stupid hot lips and his stupid big hands. Damn Rowan Whitethorn for kissing every coherent thought out of her head and locking the door behind him as he went to his own damned room.
Damn that gentlemanly tendency of his.
With a half-grunt, half-moan of frustration, Aelin reached for the small vial of medicine that she always kept with her whenever she traveled. Whether it was a long business trip with her parents and the rest of their government staff or a trip like this, a simple two-day drive from university back to her home, she always kept some sleep medication on hand. After nearly a decade of chronic insomnia, she knew how handy even a single does of that elixir was.
Fumbling in the dark, her hand soon closed around the familiar bottle. She quickly unscrewed the top, lifted the tiny glass bottle to her lips, and drank down the slightly-sweet medicine. After she placed the empty vial back on the nightstand, she tucked herself back into the very comfortable hotel bed, rolled onto her side, and waited for the familiar drowsiness to wash over her body.
Instead of sleepiness, though, a powerful wave of heat spread through her.
Shocked, Aelin flipped on the bedside lamp and grabbed the tiny glass bottle, squinting at the tiny print. Slowly, the words became clear.
Oh, fuck.
"Intensify Her Pleasure!" screamed the crimson lettering on the small black label. That wasn't her sleeping meds--it was a goddamn aphrodisiac.
And the need pulsing through her veins reared its head in full force, her nipples peaking to stiff little points at the thought of needing stimulation. Craving stimulation. From a certain pair of rough, calloused hands that had just recently gripped her hips as the man who owned them pressed her back into the wall and kissed a fire into her blood.
Gods. Aelin flipped the light off, dropped the bottle, and curled herself into a tight little ball under the sheets, willing the lust to calm itself down. Willing the image of Rowan's shirtless chest out of her--holy gods. Against her will, that image suddenly lost its pants.
And the fire in her veins burned brighter, demanding attention.
She stretched out, sliding the worn cotton shirt off her body. His shirt, its pine scent warm, comforting, familiar. Even the gentle rasp of the fabric against her peaked nipples sent a shudder through her body, and she lowered her hands to her breasts, gently circling the hardened buds. Harder. Rougher. Like she imagined Rowan would do if he wasn't so insistent on being a gentleman.
She didn't need him to be gentle with her.
As she slipped one hand between her thighs, Aelin couldn't muffle her soft moan. Fuck, she was so wet, turned on by the heated kiss, her need intensified by the damn aphrodisiac. Her fingers found her needy, throbbing clit, and she groaned, then grabbed a pillow and pressed it over her mouth, muffling her sounds. She should have been embarrassed that Rowan's name left her mouth in a broken moan as she slid two fingers into her pussy, but she wasn't. She wanted that man. Needed him.
And her fingers weren't nearly as good as she dreamed his thick, rough ones would be. Fuck. Breathing heavily, she reached her free hand into the nightstand drawer and grabbed her vibrator, switching it on to the lowest setting and trailing the bright blue toy over her nipples. She moaned louder, the sound muffled by the pillow, and slid it down her stomach, replacing her fingers with the vibe and flicking up the speed of the toy.
One more speed, love. Rowan's imagined voice filled her ears. That's a good girl.
"Rowan," Aelin moaned, pushing the vibrator harder against her clit and flipping on the suction as she flicked it up to its highest speed. "Oh my god, Ro!" Eyes closed, legs spread, fingers twisting her nipples with just the right amount of roughness, her body shook as she fractured, her orgasm tearing through her like wildfire as she pictured Rowan's darkened eyes gleaming up at her from between her legs.
Too slowly, she turned the vibe down and pulled it away, chest heaving as she caught her breath from the powerful orgasm. From the dream that had fueled it.
She really didn't know how she was going to manage spending six hours in a car next to Rowan tomorrow, as if she hadn't just pictured him devouring her pussy while she used her favorite vibrator. On the other side of the wall, she heard a faint shifting of sheets, as if Rowan was just as sleepless as her.
Though that couldn't be possible, since she was the one who'd just gotten off thanks to taking the wrong medicine.
"Aelin..." She jerked upright, half believing she was dreaming. As silently as she could, she pressed her ear to the rather thin hotel wall, listening carefully. On the other side of the wall, Rowan's bed creaked, and he groaned. "Fuck, Aelin!"
Holy. Fuck.
In a split second, Aelin made a Very Bad Decision. She pushed herself out of bed, tugged Rowan's shirt over her bare body, and went to the door that separated their two rooms. Knowing Rowan had left it unlocked, she turned the handle and quietly opened the door and stepped into his room before the embers still sparking in her blood could cool her impulsiveness.
In his bed, Rowan yanked himself upright, his sweaty chest glistening in the slivers of moonlight that spilled in through the gauzy curtains. His eyes widened as he took in her flushed, wild-haired appearance, her parted lips. Her breathing hitched as she drank in his bare skin and the bulge barely hidden beneath the sheets.
"Aelin?" he whispered. Rough, jagged, hopeful.
"Rowan," she breathed. Rough, jagged. Needy.
He pushed the sheets aside and stood, and her knees weakened even as the fire in her blood roared right back to life.
"Come. Here." A demand. A promise.
She dropped her shirt to the floor and did just that.
~~~
TAGS:
@live-the-fangirl-life
@superspiritfestival
@thegreyj
@wordsafterhours
@elentiyawhitethorn
@morganofthewildfire
@mariaofdoranelle
@rowanaelinn
@house-of-galathynius
@tomtenadia
@julemmaes
@swankii-art-teacher
@charlizeed
@booknerdproblems
@earthtolinds
@goddess-aelin
@sweet-but-stormy
@clea-nightingale
@autumnbabylon
@darling-im-the-queen-of-hell
@llyncooljones
@silentquartz
@aelinschild
@renxzs
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9 people you'd like to know better
@wishfulimaginings thank you!! i love this kind of game!! ❤️
Last song: espresso by sabrina carpenter. it’s dangerously addictive.
Favourite colour: red/pink (i’m terribly indecisive)
Currently watching: fallout on prime video but i’m about to drop
Sweet/Savoury/Spicy food: definitely sweet
Relationship status: dating!
Current obsession: clarice lispector. it’s an on-and-off phase since i was 18
Last thing I googled: “amazon series new” since i didn’t remember the name of the tv series i last watched 🥴 it’s just that unexciting.
Currently reading: the rosie effect by graeme simsion but i’m not enjoying it as much as my friend promised
tagging but no pressure: @aelinschild @leiawritesstories @tomtenadia @autumnbabylon @aelinchocolatelover @rowanaelinn @renxzs @elentiyawhitethorn @sassyhobbits
9 people you'd like to know better
thanks for tagging me @castielspelvis!
last song: Lady May - Tyler Childers
favorite color: green
currently watching: embarrassingly - reaction videos to Game of Thrones. LOL, i haven't watched a new show in a bit
sweet/savory/spicy: savory
relationship status: married
current obsession: This fandom and writing fanfiction. It's all I do in my free time and all I'm thinking about.
last thing you googled: Robert Mapplethorpe
no pressure tagging @crazy-ache @starsreminisce @works-of-heart @goghwilde @bettdraws @animezinglife @olenvasynyt @wishfulimaginings @tilseptemberends
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Hey how are you doing? How's writing? 💖💗
OMG NONNIE HI!!! sorry i disappeared!! i’m well aware that i have that i have 2 asks, more laun and tcd’s climax to post 😅
i was on a doctor’s note last week, and instead of taking my time to rest and write, i decided to skip classes and ✨work✨ for my uni’s dean elections, which led to last saturday’s meltdown
but i’m better now! deleted instagram from the time being and i’m taking it easy since i’m adapting to this new antidepressant. not even my nose-tearing cold can bring me down 💀
i’m also going to the beach next week!! and i also found out this morning that my dog has an uterus infection to be surgically solved. i feel like so much has happened in the past week!?!!?!(!!
every once in a while, my mom says fuck everything and books an impulse plane ticket to her hometown in the northeast. this time, she booked 7 days in advance. last year, she booked for the following day. she does pay for most of my existence so she’s the boss can i go where you go or whatever taylor swift said🫡
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behind every attempt to “cancel” someone, there’s a 22yo social media manager who takes 4 psych meds a day going insane while the person they’re actually trying to hurt is vaguely aware of what’s going on
#this is me btw#life has been WILD#that’s why i disappeared#but the dean elections will be next wednesday#THANK GOD
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Aelin: The real treasure was the memories we made along the way.
Lorcan: I almost died.
Aelin: That... was my favorite memory.
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TERRASEN’S ASS!!!!
Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius ✨⚔️
High quality files and 🌶️ version on Patre0n 💕
To be honest this wasn't supposed to be spicy but who could blame me for not wanting to cover this delicious anatomy?
Inspired by Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
‼️DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION!
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You guys just have to trust me on this one and click here okay?
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Rowan: “Are you really reading smut at the table? It’s Yulemas, we have guests.”
Aelin: “Shhhh, there’s only one bed at the inn.”
Dorian across the table, also reading: *gasp* “There’s only one bed at the inn.”
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Heheheh thank you!!! 🩷💓🩵❣️❤️
Look at Us Now - Easter Outtake
Fic masterlist
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY TO LAUN!!
SURPRISE!! I’m late to my own party, and I 100% apologize for that
But!
I can’t believe LAUN is a year old already 🥹🥹 they grow up so fast!! I don’t think an Easter celebration is canon compliant at all, but I couldn’t let the opportunity slip away when LAUN’s 1st anniversary came right on Easter 🥹🥹🥹 I’m so emotional 🥹
I’m also aware that not everyone here celebrates Easter, but honestly this was just an excuse to write fluff and chocolate gift-giving. I hope everyone finds a way to enjoy it!
And I feel like we all deserve a post-epilogue glimpse after an entire year of these two idiots heheheh
Warnings: cranky teenager Maisie, sibling fights (lots)
Words: 3k
Every time Aelin mocked Rowan for spoiling their kids too much, it completely lacked the awareness that she was the one he spoiled the most.
Or at least that was on Maisie’s mind as she strolled down the supermarket’s aisles with her little brother, because Mom wrote in the family group chat that she wanted pasta for dinner, so Dad asked Maisie to buy the ingredients after school.
“Finn,” she called her unrequited companion, “do you remember which olive oil Dad likes?”
“Uh…” The boy hesitated without taking his eyes off his Nintendo Switch. “I dunno, that green one?”
Maisie slapped her brother’s forearm with the back of her hand. “Are you being for real right now?”
Startled, the boy raised his head to see row after row of different green bottles of olive oil. They all looked exactly the same, but she knew better than to grab the first one they saw, knowing how fussy her dad could be sometimes.
“Gods! Just call him—that’s why you have a fucking phone,” Finn said while rubbing off the sting on his forearm.
Maisie rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell him you dropped a F-bomb.”
“And I’ll tell him you slapped me.”
“He’d be on your side,” she said while texting Rowan about the olive oil. “You’re so much shorter than me—he’d say it’s not a fair fight.”
“Take it back!” He ran towards Maisie for a second, since she was on her way to get tomatoes now. “When I get taller than Uncle Lorcan, you’ll wish you were less mean to me.”
Well, that would be a problem for future Maisie. At ten years old, Finn was so short, taunting him about it was almost too easy.
“Yeah, whatever.” She tapped her brother’s shoulder and pointed at another direction. “Go get the parmesan cheese.”
Finn turned to leave, but swung back to her. “Can we have ice cream later?”
Ice cream that she would have to pay, because she couldn’t report to the parental unit about illicit ice cream before dinner, let alone request a refund.
“Fine, just—“
“Alright! I’m there!”
Ever since Maisie got her first job, her brother started acting as if she was a millionaire. Sometimes, she wondered if he believed that her salary was the same as their parents’, which would be highly inaccurate. Despite the age gap, her parents never asked Maisie to act in any way that resembled a parental role—still, she liked to treat her siblings once in a while, give their jobless selves a taste of freedom, let them see what it’s like to have ice cream before dinner just because you can.
Before she knew it, he was back with the cheese.
“Can you buy me that Kinder Easter egg?” He pointed at a cardboard display filled with them. “The one with the dinosaur.”
Maisie narrowed her eyes on Finn. “You told Mom you wanted another one.”
“Yeah, because she only let me pick one.”
Her eyebrows shot when she came closer and saw the price tag. “Hell, no. I’d rather pay for a new haircut.”
“Hey!” Finn protested, running a hand through his newly cut hair. “Mom said she likes it!”
“You look ridiculous.”
“I’m so gonna tell her you said that.”
“Do it. Deep down, she agrees with me.”
˜˜
When she arrived, the house was calmer than usual.
“You aren’t magic!” Eamon shouted to his smirking, completely unfazed sister. “You’re not!”
Maisie walked past them towards the kitchen, where her dad prepped dinner as if the twins weren’t about to rip each other’s heads off in the living room.
“Hey, Maisy Daisy,” he called without looking away from the onion he was chopping. “Did you get everything?”
She put the bags on the counter as an answer, then her dad kissed the crown of her head in thanks and promised to repay her later.
Things didn’t seem to progress at all in the living room—actually, they did, if one could count Eamon getting angrier as progress.
“You don’t fly! You don’t control fire! You don’t teleport!”
Enid giggled. “I know how, I just don’t want to.”
“NO! YOU CAN’T!”
Maisie cut in, “I mean, she could.”
That made the boy stop and narrow his eyes on her, begrudgingly hanging on to whatever she was about to say. Since she was more than twice the twins’ age and the wisest of them all, sometimes her siblings actually listened to something Maisie said.
“I mean…” she shrugged. “We don’t know where you two came from, so maybe she really does have magic.”
Enid crossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
“FINN!” Maisie shouted and waited a moment for her brother to come out of his room. “Do you remember when we found Enid and Eamon in the trash?”
“That’s a lie!” Her ever-so-cool little sister yelled, her green eyes welling up.
“Oh, yeah.” Finn said after taking a moment to process the information, acting nonchalant—if he laughed, it was game over. “That day was wild.”
Eamon stood frozen in shock, while Enid bellowed an ear-shattering cry.
“Maisie! Finn!” Rowan yelled from the kitchen. “Stop telling your siblings we found them in the trash!”
“But they need to know the truth!” Maisie shouted back, wondering if her dad heard her over Enid’s cries.
“What on Earth is going on here?” Her Mom showed up, wrapped in a towel with her hair wet.
Eamon ran to hug Aelin’s middle, his eyes teary. “Are you not my mommy?”
Maisie rolled her eyes. Mama’s boy.
“Of course I am, honey.” She frowned. “What’s going on?”
With a sigh, Dad was finally able to join the rest in the living room. “Finn and Maisie told the twins they’re adopted.”
Aelin sent them her classic Are you kidding me? mom look, as if Maisie was to blame, then proceeded to soothe the seven-year-olds.
If they fell for it, it was their fault for being stupid. There’s a picture of Dad as a kid on Grandma Rory’s hallway from when he was Eamon’s age, and they look like the same person in there.
“The only one adopted here was Fleetfoot,” Dad said.
“No, she’s not. I gave birth to her.” Mom sent him a mischievous look. “I went into labor for her.”
“Um—“ Maisie cleared her throat. “Fleetfoot’s mine.”
Dad sent Mom an apologetic smile. “She really is Maisie’s.”
“I want a dog too!” Enid cut in.
“Yeah, me too!” Finn joined.
Maisie hummed. “We could give them a country name…”
“Like Eyllwe,” Eamon said.
Rowan’s eyes widened. “No! Fleetfoot’s everyone’s,” he said, completely contradicting himself after the threat of more poop for him to clean.
˜˜
From the looks of it, dinner would be ready on time for breakfast.
To be fair, her dad was never late to finish dinner, but his desire to make this a special one and the boiling tomatoes in order to make the sauce from scratch led to this.
It was kinda cute, how Dad conjured something special out of thin air just because his wife hinted that she was feeling like it over text while they were at work.
Maisie saw a glimpse of her parents canoodling in the kitchen on her way to her bedroom, but almost ran to the toilet instead. They were so adorably disgusting, all that love made her want to throw up.
Her parents were no better than any PDA-addicted straight couple she saw at school, except that while the average high schooler couple lasted about three months, her parents have been at it for a little over a decade.
At least, a light peck was the furthest they got in front of their kids—or ever. For all Maisie knew, she and her three siblings came from artificial insemination.
A savior from her thoughts, Finn knocked on the door.
“We need to talk,” he said, looking crestfallen.
“C’mere.”
Maisie sat on the side of her bed, and tapped the free space beside her for him to sit. Instead, he sat on her lap. Weird.
She was about to ask him what was going on when a low, rumbling sound coming from him filled the air.
The little bitch had just farted on her.
Finn ran away, giggling, while Maisie screamed the most irate shriek ever known to man.
He locked himself in his bedroom, but her quickened pulse only energized her, aiding tense upper arms to pound against his door.
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU,” Maisie shouted at her hiding brother.
He’d get out sometime, and when he did, she’d be there.
On the kitchen’s threshold, Aelin peeked her head into the hallway. “What’s going on here?”
The teenager slowly turned to her mom, jaw tight, and seethed, “Why. Was. He. Born?”
With a sigh that came deep from her soul, Aelin fully stepped into the hallway. “What did your brother do now?”
Maisie pointed at her closed bedroom door. “Smell it!”
Her mom stepped in and out of the bedroom, coughing. “Gods, Finn!”
In a feeble attempt to fix the situation, Aelin opened Maisie’s bedroom’s window and sprayed some air freshener inside—one hand on the bottle, another clamping her nose. Still, the girl didn’t trust to go back into her room for the next hour or so.
Aelin knocked on Finn’s door twice to get his attention. “That was way too stinky, honey, I’m cutting off some of your junk food!”
“Come on!” he complained from the other side of the door.
Too bad Finn couldn’t see her triumphant smirk. It’d rile him up beautifully.
Two taps to her shoulder. “Dinner’s almost ready. Come help me set the table.”
“What was that?” Dad asked when Mom got back to the kitchen, focused on the stove.
“Finn farted in Maisie's room and she threatened his life.”
“Oh,” was all he said, mixing something on the tomato sauce.
She desperately needed to meet whoever taught her parents how to live this peacefully amidst chaos.
“On my room? He farted on me.” She flailed her arms, trying to explain her brother’s audacity. “He sat on my lap, his butt to my thigh, and farted.”
Aelin snorted. “I told you the kids shouldn’t spend that much time with Aedion.”
Rowan’s eyes lit up. “You did tell me some awfully similar stories from when you were younger.”
After the table was set, Mom was back to her occasional glass of wine, and all was left to do was her dad’s finishing touches to dinner.
Maisie cleared her throat. “I was thinking…”
Her dad immediately turned around and pointed a spoon at her. “If it’s about that party, don’t bother.”
“Not a party!”
“Money, then.” Aelin smirked behind her glass of wine.
The girl crossed her arms. Her mom’s grin turned smug.
Maisie groaned. “Fine! But it’s good, I promise.”
“Go on,” Rowan said.
“I want to buy Easter eggs for Finn and the twins, but I can’t afford the cool ones.”
“Aw, honey, that’s so sweet.” Her mom melted right on spot. “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that.”
Maisie’s face fell. “What.”
Even her dad seemed a little confused, though he tried to hide it.
Aelin sat straighter to explain, “You see, if we help you with this, your siblings will ask to do the same, and it wouldn’t be fair to say no to them after…”
Maisie rolled her eyes. Her parents and their “equal treatment”—
“Do not roll your eyes at your mother,” Rowan warned.
Aelin continued, “Next thing we know, we spent our entire paychecks on chocolate, Finn is farting on our faces all day, the twins will never fall asleep again from the sugar rush, and your dad will be shoving food down your throat because of some crazy diet you saw online to get rid of the Easter weight.” She raised her brow in that infuriating mom way of hers. “Did I miss something?”
“Fine!” Maisie held both arms up in surrender. “You want me to buy your kids lame chocolate, is that it?”
“If they can’t appreciate whatever you can afford, I’m not raising them right.”
“Ugh!” Maisie groaned, and sat facing away from her mother.
A moment later, Dad sent her off to tell her siblings dinner was ready, and soon everyone was at the table, ready to attack the food that took ages to be ready.
Except that, when she asked for the parmesan cheese, Enid took it and kept waving it in front of her instead of just passing it over.
After seven years of Enid, Maisie was unimpressed. “Are you trying to tease me?”
The little girl giggled. “No, you can have it, but I want to see your eyes light up first!”
With a sigh, Rowan took it from Enid’s hand and passed it over to Maisie. “Can we just try to be rational for once?”
“I was rational once,” Eamon said, frowning.
With his mouth full, Finn said, “I want the next special dinner to be at one of those fancy pasta places with two forks.”
“Manners,” Aelin warned the wild beast she called a son.
“Mom and Dad never take us to fancy restaurants for a reason,” Maisie said while giving a pointed look to Finn, who was by her side.
The boy rolled his eyes and mimicked in a high-pitched voice, “MoM aND dAD nEVer tAkE uS tO fANcY rEStAuRaNts FoR a rEasOn.”
Maisie slapped her brother’s forearm, and that’s when her parents lost patience.
Rowan lifted his pointed finger, “Do not—“
“Maisie, Finn, for Mala’s sake…” Aelin started, pinching the bridge of her nose.
˜˜
Later that night, Maisie was scrolling on TikTok before sleep, but two knocks on her bedroom door stopped her short.
It was Finn, holding his blanket. More often than not, he slept in Maisie’s room—she wasn’t sure why, but it’d been this way since he was little. Already knowing what was about to happen, Fleetfoot moved to the foot of the bed to give him space. Her bed might look big, but it didn’t have nearly enough space for two people and a person-sized dog.
When she was taking off her many pillows to find some space for her brother, a bulky-looking folded paper caught her eye.
Maisie hid it back with the pillow and said, “Go get me some water.”
Finn complained, but complied.
Quickly unfolding the paper in the little time she had, Maisie recognized her dad’s writing and a fuckton of cash—not too much for an Air Force major, but enough to make a teenager who had a minimum-wage part-time job feel like a billionaire.
Groceries refund + your delivery fee
Don’t mention it—ever
Maisie’s grin grew wicked. She fucking loved her dad.
˜˜
Finding a reason to get out of the house on Easter was tough, but she managed it.
Maisie had already picked her dad’s sushi-filled Easter egg at the restaurant, since he hated chocolate, and the other ones had been retrieved from its hiding place at Uncle Aedion’s.
Inside her house, Finn was the first one to greet her.
He eyed her bags suspiciously. “What’s all that?”
Without a word, she took one Kinder egg that fit in her palm, and handed it to him. Finn took it in his hand, contemplated it for a second with a silly half-smile, then hugged Maisie tight, squeezing her waist.
“Gods!” She lightly slapped his head. “You’re so dumb.”
Before he processed what happened, Maisie got his actual Easter egg, the Kinder with the dinosaur he wanted.
His eyes lit up and his mouth hung open, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Then, her brother crushed her into a hug that knocked her breath out of her lungs.
“Thanks, Mais.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She took a second to take it in, than wiggled out of his hug to hand the twins’ ones.
They looked so happy, it didn’t even look like Mom and Dad gave each of them giant Easter eggs three hours ago.
Her parents were watching them from afar, wearing one of those weird, sentimental parent smiles.
When she took out her dad’s from the bag, Rowan finally looked surprised—which was easily detected by his wife.
The “shell” part of his Easter egg was just nori and rice, but it was filled with seafood. Dad twirled his sushi egg in his hands, mouth ajar. “Honey, I didn’t think you’d get me something too. You didn’t have to.”
“Too?” Mom asked, lips quirked up. Her eyes sparkled, darted between Maisie and Rowan, then landed on her daughter. “Good to know you found a way to afford it.”
“I’m my father’s daughter.” Maisie shrugged. “Of course I know how to save money.”
She also knew how to spend it like her mother, but it wouldn’t be smart to mention right now.
At that point, Maisie knew Aelin figured out that Rowan gave her the money, and Mom knew Maisie knew she knew. Neither of them would say a word, though, and it was best this way.
She handed her mom’s next, a chocolate hazelnut Easter egg the size of Aelin’s head.
“I didn’t know Dad bought you the same one,” Maisie said with a sheepish smile.
“You won’t hear me complaining, honey.” Her mom kept intense eye contact with her Easter egg, likely unwrapping it in her mind as if she didn’t have a half-eaten identical one in her bedroom.
Aelin put her gift on the coffee table near them and hugged Maisie. “I love you, honey,” she said before kissing her daughter’s head. “Thank you for the gift. You’re such a great big sister.”
“I know, right?”
However, their hug was abruptly broken by shouting coming from the other side of the living room.
“Stop. Being. An idiot!” Enid shouted at Eamon for whatever reason they decided to bicker over this afternoon.
“We’re both idiots, but you’re the bigger idiot!” he fought back.
Maisie tapped her mom’s shoulders. “Go tame your evil twins.”
“Don’t call your siblings that!”
She sighed, not surprised by how quickly their moment of peace—a rarity in her home—was broken.
Weirdly enough, her parents seemed to enjoy it.
A/N: In the plans of this outtake I have deep into my notes app, Aelin mentions that since her husband doesn’t like chocolate, her Easter gift to him would be given “later tonight”. I thought you’d like to know *wink*
2nd A/N: Yes I left Maisie’s exact age in the dark on purpose heheheh this one spoiler I’m not handing out like this.
You can get notified when I update by either turning notifications on for @mariaofdoranelle-fics or entering my (sometimes glitchy) tag list!!
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I couldn’t tag the people in bold, sorry!
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@gracie-rosee
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Look at Us Now - Easter Outtake
Fic masterlist
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY TO LAUN!!
SURPRISE!! I’m late to my own party, and I 100% apologize for that
But!
I can’t believe LAUN is a year old already 🥹🥹 they grow up so fast!! I don’t think an Easter celebration is canon compliant at all, but I couldn’t let the opportunity slip away when LAUN’s 1st anniversary came right on Easter 🥹🥹🥹 I’m so emotional 🥹
I’m also aware that not everyone here celebrates Easter, but honestly this was just an excuse to write fluff and chocolate gift-giving. I hope everyone finds a way to enjoy it!
And I feel like we all deserve a post-epilogue glimpse after an entire year of these two idiots heheheh
Warnings: cranky teenager Maisie, sibling fights (lots)
Words: 3k
Every time Aelin mocked Rowan for spoiling their kids too much, it completely lacked the awareness that she was the one he spoiled the most.
Or at least that was on Maisie’s mind as she strolled down the supermarket’s aisles with her little brother, because Mom wrote in the family group chat that she wanted pasta for dinner, so Dad asked Maisie to buy the ingredients after school.
“Finn,” she called her unrequited companion, “do you remember which olive oil Dad likes?”
“Uh…” The boy hesitated without taking his eyes off his Nintendo Switch. “I dunno, that green one?”
Maisie slapped her brother’s forearm with the back of her hand. “Are you being for real right now?”
Startled, the boy raised his head to see row after row of different green bottles of olive oil. They all looked exactly the same, but she knew better than to grab the first one they saw, knowing how fussy her dad could be sometimes.
“Gods! Just call him—that’s why you have a fucking phone,” Finn said while rubbing off the sting on his forearm.
Maisie rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell him you dropped a F-bomb.”
“And I’ll tell him you slapped me.”
“He’d be on your side,” she said while texting Rowan about the olive oil. “You’re so much shorter than me—he’d say it’s not a fair fight.”
“Take it back!” He ran towards Maisie for a second, since she was on her way to get tomatoes now. “When I get taller than Uncle Lorcan, you’ll wish you were less mean to me.”
Well, that would be a problem for future Maisie. At ten years old, Finn was so short, taunting him about it was almost too easy.
“Yeah, whatever.” She tapped her brother’s shoulder and pointed at another direction. “Go get the parmesan cheese.”
Finn turned to leave, but swung back to her. “Can we have ice cream later?”
Ice cream that she would have to pay, because she couldn’t report to the parental unit about illicit ice cream before dinner, let alone request a refund.
“Fine, just—“
“Alright! I’m there!”
Ever since Maisie got her first job, her brother started acting as if she was a millionaire. Sometimes, she wondered if he believed that her salary was the same as their parents’, which would be highly inaccurate. Despite the age gap, her parents never asked Maisie to act in any way that resembled a parental role—still, she liked to treat her siblings once in a while, give their jobless selves a taste of freedom, let them see what it’s like to have ice cream before dinner just because you can.
Before she knew it, he was back with the cheese.
“Can you buy me that Kinder Easter egg?” He pointed at a cardboard display filled with them. “The one with the dinosaur.”
Maisie narrowed her eyes on Finn. “You told Mom you wanted another one.”
“Yeah, because she only let me pick one.”
Her eyebrows shot when she came closer and saw the price tag. “Hell, no. I’d rather pay for a new haircut.”
“Hey!” Finn protested, running a hand through his newly cut hair. “Mom said she likes it!”
“You look ridiculous.”
“I’m so gonna tell her you said that.”
“Do it. Deep down, she agrees with me.”
˜˜
When she arrived, the house was calmer than usual.
“You aren’t magic!” Eamon shouted to his smirking, completely unfazed sister. “You’re not!”
Maisie walked past them towards the kitchen, where her dad prepped dinner as if the twins weren’t about to rip each other’s heads off in the living room.
“Hey, Maisy Daisy,” he called without looking away from the onion he was chopping. “Did you get everything?”
She put the bags on the counter as an answer, then her dad kissed the crown of her head in thanks and promised to repay her later.
Things didn’t seem to progress at all in the living room—actually, they did, if one could count Eamon getting angrier as progress.
“You don’t fly! You don’t control fire! You don’t teleport!”
Enid giggled. “I know how, I just don’t want to.”
“NO! YOU CAN’T!”
Maisie cut in, “I mean, she could.”
That made the boy stop and narrow his eyes on her, begrudgingly hanging on to whatever she was about to say. Since she was more than twice the twins’ age and the wisest of them all, sometimes her siblings actually listened to something Maisie said.
“I mean…” she shrugged. “We don’t know where you two came from, so maybe she really does have magic.”
Enid crossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
“FINN!” Maisie shouted and waited a moment for her brother to come out of his room. “Do you remember when we found Enid and Eamon in the trash?”
“That’s a lie!” Her ever-so-cool little sister yelled, her green eyes welling up.
“Oh, yeah.” Finn said after taking a moment to process the information, acting nonchalant—if he laughed, it was game over. “That day was wild.”
Eamon stood frozen in shock, while Enid bellowed an ear-shattering cry.
“Maisie! Finn!” Rowan yelled from the kitchen. “Stop telling your siblings we found them in the trash!”
“But they need to know the truth!” Maisie shouted back, wondering if her dad heard her over Enid’s cries.
“What on Earth is going on here?” Her Mom showed up, wrapped in a towel with her hair wet.
Eamon ran to hug Aelin’s middle, his eyes teary. “Are you not my mommy?”
Maisie rolled her eyes. Mama’s boy.
“Of course I am, honey.” She frowned. “What’s going on?”
With a sigh, Dad was finally able to join the rest in the living room. “Finn and Maisie told the twins they’re adopted.”
Aelin sent them her classic Are you kidding me? mom look, as if Maisie was to blame, then proceeded to soothe the seven-year-olds.
If they fell for it, it was their fault for being stupid. There’s a picture of Dad as a kid on Grandma Rory’s hallway from when he was Eamon’s age, and they look like the same person in there.
“The only one adopted here was Fleetfoot,” Dad said.
“No, she’s not. I gave birth to her.” Mom sent him a mischievous look. “I went into labor for her.”
“Um—“ Maisie cleared her throat. “Fleetfoot’s mine.”
Dad sent Mom an apologetic smile. “She really is Maisie’s.”
“I want a dog too!” Enid cut in.
“Yeah, me too!” Finn joined.
Maisie hummed. “We could give them a country name…”
“Like Eyllwe,” Eamon said.
Rowan’s eyes widened. “No! Fleetfoot’s everyone’s,” he said, completely contradicting himself after the threat of more poop for him to clean.
˜˜
From the looks of it, dinner would be ready on time for breakfast.
To be fair, her dad was never late to finish dinner, but his desire to make this a special one and the boiling tomatoes in order to make the sauce from scratch led to this.
It was kinda cute, how Dad conjured something special out of thin air just because his wife hinted that she was feeling like it over text while they were at work.
Maisie saw a glimpse of her parents canoodling in the kitchen on her way to her bedroom, but almost ran to the toilet instead. They were so adorably disgusting, all that love made her want to throw up.
Her parents were no better than any PDA-addicted straight couple she saw at school, except that while the average high schooler couple lasted about three months, her parents have been at it for a little over a decade.
At least, a light peck was the furthest they got in front of their kids—or ever. For all Maisie knew, she and her three siblings came from artificial insemination.
A savior from her thoughts, Finn knocked on the door.
“We need to talk,” he said, looking crestfallen.
“C’mere.”
Maisie sat on the side of her bed, and tapped the free space beside her for him to sit. Instead, he sat on her lap. Weird.
She was about to ask him what was going on when a low, rumbling sound coming from him filled the air.
The little bitch had just farted on her.
Finn ran away, giggling, while Maisie screamed the most irate shriek ever known to man.
He locked himself in his bedroom, but her quickened pulse only energized her, aiding tense upper arms to pound against his door.
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU,” Maisie shouted at her hiding brother.
He’d get out sometime, and when he did, she’d be there.
On the kitchen’s threshold, Aelin peeked her head into the hallway. “What’s going on here?”
The teenager slowly turned to her mom, jaw tight, and seethed, “Why. Was. He. Born?”
With a sigh that came deep from her soul, Aelin fully stepped into the hallway. “What did your brother do now?”
Maisie pointed at her closed bedroom door. “Smell it!”
Her mom stepped in and out of the bedroom, coughing. “Gods, Finn!”
In a feeble attempt to fix the situation, Aelin opened Maisie’s bedroom’s window and sprayed some air freshener inside—one hand on the bottle, another clamping her nose. Still, the girl didn’t trust to go back into her room for the next hour or so.
Aelin knocked on Finn’s door twice to get his attention. “That was way too stinky, honey, I’m cutting off some of your junk food!”
“Come on!” he complained from the other side of the door.
Too bad Finn couldn’t see her triumphant smirk. It’d rile him up beautifully.
Two taps to her shoulder. “Dinner’s almost ready. Come help me set the table.”
“What was that?” Dad asked when Mom got back to the kitchen, focused on the stove.
“Finn farted in Maisie's room and she threatened his life.”
“Oh,” was all he said, mixing something on the tomato sauce.
She desperately needed to meet whoever taught her parents how to live this peacefully amidst chaos.
“On my room? He farted on me.” She flailed her arms, trying to explain her brother’s audacity. “He sat on my lap, his butt to my thigh, and farted.”
Aelin snorted. “I told you the kids shouldn’t spend that much time with Aedion.”
Rowan’s eyes lit up. “You did tell me some awfully similar stories from when you were younger.”
After the table was set, Mom was back to her occasional glass of wine, and all was left to do was her dad’s finishing touches to dinner.
Maisie cleared her throat. “I was thinking…”
Her dad immediately turned around and pointed a spoon at her. “If it’s about that party, don’t bother.”
“Not a party!”
“Money, then.” Aelin smirked behind her glass of wine.
The girl crossed her arms. Her mom’s grin turned smug.
Maisie groaned. “Fine! But it’s good, I promise.”
“Go on,” Rowan said.
“I want to buy Easter eggs for Finn and the twins, but I can’t afford the cool ones.”
“Aw, honey, that’s so sweet.” Her mom melted right on spot. “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that.”
Maisie’s face fell. “What.”
Even her dad seemed a little confused, though he tried to hide it.
Aelin sat straighter to explain, “You see, if we help you with this, your siblings will ask to do the same, and it wouldn’t be fair to say no to them after…”
Maisie rolled her eyes. Her parents and their “equal treatment”—
“Do not roll your eyes at your mother,” Rowan warned.
Aelin continued, “Next thing we know, we spent our entire paychecks on chocolate, Finn is farting on our faces all day, the twins will never fall asleep again from the sugar rush, and your dad will be shoving food down your throat because of some crazy diet you saw online to get rid of the Easter weight.” She raised her brow in that infuriating mom way of hers. “Did I miss something?”
“Fine!” Maisie held both arms up in surrender. “You want me to buy your kids lame chocolate, is that it?”
“If they can’t appreciate whatever you can afford, I’m not raising them right.”
“Ugh!” Maisie groaned, and sat facing away from her mother.
A moment later, Dad sent her off to tell her siblings dinner was ready, and soon everyone was at the table, ready to attack the food that took ages to be ready.
Except that, when she asked for the parmesan cheese, Enid took it and kept waving it in front of her instead of just passing it over.
After seven years of Enid, Maisie was unimpressed. “Are you trying to tease me?”
The little girl giggled. “No, you can have it, but I want to see your eyes light up first!”
With a sigh, Rowan took it from Enid’s hand and passed it over to Maisie. “Can we just try to be rational for once?”
“I was rational once,” Eamon said, frowning.
With his mouth full, Finn said, “I want the next special dinner to be at one of those fancy pasta places with two forks.”
“Manners,” Aelin warned the wild beast she called a son.
“Mom and Dad never take us to fancy restaurants for a reason,” Maisie said while giving a pointed look to Finn, who was by her side.
The boy rolled his eyes and mimicked in a high-pitched voice, “MoM aND dAD nEVer tAkE uS tO fANcY rEStAuRaNts FoR a rEasOn.”
Maisie slapped her brother’s forearm, and that’s when her parents lost patience.
Rowan lifted his pointed finger, “Do not—“
“Maisie, Finn, for Mala’s sake…” Aelin started, pinching the bridge of her nose.
˜˜
Later that night, Maisie was scrolling on TikTok before sleep, but two knocks on her bedroom door stopped her short.
It was Finn, holding his blanket. More often than not, he slept in Maisie’s room—she wasn’t sure why, but it’d been this way since he was little. Already knowing what was about to happen, Fleetfoot moved to the foot of the bed to give him space. Her bed might look big, but it didn’t have nearly enough space for two people and a person-sized dog.
When she was taking off her many pillows to find some space for her brother, a bulky-looking folded paper caught her eye.
Maisie hid it back with the pillow and said, “Go get me some water.”
Finn complained, but complied.
Quickly unfolding the paper in the little time she had, Maisie recognized her dad’s writing and a fuckton of cash—not too much for an Air Force major, but enough to make a teenager who had a minimum-wage part-time job feel like a billionaire.
Groceries refund + your delivery fee
Don’t mention it—ever
Maisie’s grin grew wicked. She fucking loved her dad.
˜˜
Finding a reason to get out of the house on Easter was tough, but she managed it.
Maisie had already picked her dad’s sushi-filled Easter egg at the restaurant, since he hated chocolate, and the other ones had been retrieved from its hiding place at Uncle Aedion’s.
Inside her house, Finn was the first one to greet her.
He eyed her bags suspiciously. “What’s all that?”
Without a word, she took one Kinder egg that fit in her palm, and handed it to him. Finn took it in his hand, contemplated it for a second with a silly half-smile, then hugged Maisie tight, squeezing her waist.
“Gods!” She lightly slapped his head. “You’re so dumb.”
Before he processed what happened, Maisie got his actual Easter egg, the Kinder with the dinosaur he wanted.
His eyes lit up and his mouth hung open, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Then, her brother crushed her into a hug that knocked her breath out of her lungs.
“Thanks, Mais.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She took a second to take it in, than wiggled out of his hug to hand the twins’ ones.
They looked so happy, it didn’t even look like Mom and Dad gave each of them giant Easter eggs three hours ago.
Her parents were watching them from afar, wearing one of those weird, sentimental parent smiles.
When she took out her dad’s from the bag, Rowan finally looked surprised—which was easily detected by his wife.
The “shell” part of his Easter egg was just nori and rice, but it was filled with seafood. Dad twirled his sushi egg in his hands, mouth ajar. “Honey, I didn’t think you’d get me something too. You didn’t have to.”
“Too?” Mom asked, lips quirked up. Her eyes sparkled, darted between Maisie and Rowan, then landed on her daughter. “Good to know you found a way to afford it.��
“I’m my father’s daughter.” Maisie shrugged. “Of course I know how to save money.”
She also knew how to spend it like her mother, but it wouldn’t be smart to mention right now.
At that point, Maisie knew Aelin figured out that Rowan gave her the money, and Mom knew Maisie knew she knew. Neither of them would say a word, though, and it was best this way.
She handed her mom’s next, a chocolate hazelnut Easter egg the size of Aelin’s head.
“I didn’t know Dad bought you the same one,” Maisie said with a sheepish smile.
“You won’t hear me complaining, honey.” Her mom kept intense eye contact with her Easter egg, likely unwrapping it in her mind as if she didn’t have a half-eaten identical one in her bedroom.
Aelin put her gift on the coffee table near them and hugged Maisie. “I love you, honey,” she said before kissing her daughter’s head. “Thank you for the gift. You’re such a great big sister.”
“I know, right?”
However, their hug was abruptly broken by shouting coming from the other side of the living room.
“Stop. Being. An idiot!” Enid shouted at Eamon for whatever reason they decided to bicker over this afternoon.
“We’re both idiots, but you’re the bigger idiot!” he fought back.
Maisie tapped her mom’s shoulders. “Go tame your evil twins.”
“Don’t call your siblings that!”
She sighed, not surprised by how quickly their moment of peace—a rarity in her home—was broken.
Weirdly enough, her parents seemed to enjoy it.
A/N: In the plans of this outtake I have deep into my notes app, Aelin mentions that since her husband doesn’t like chocolate, her Easter gift to him would be given “later tonight”. I thought you’d like to know *wink*
2nd A/N: Yes I left Maisie’s exact age in the dark on purpose heheheh this one spoiler I’m not handing out like this.
You can get notified when I update by either turning notifications on for @mariaofdoranelle-fics or entering my (sometimes glitchy) tag list!!
TAG LIST
I couldn’t tag the people in bold, sorry!
@aelinchocolatelover
@autumnbabylon
@bookcide
@booksandteaonarainydayislife
@cookiemonsterwholovesbooks
@courtofjurdan
@dreamer-133
@elentiyawhitethorn
@elizarikaallen
@emily-gsh
@empress-ofbloodshed
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@gracie-rosee
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#rowaelin#rowan whitethorn#aelin ashryver galathynius#throne of glass#rowaelin fanfiction#rowan x aelin#aelin x rowan#rowaelin fanfic#throne of glass fanfic#look at us now
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DO NOT DO THIS!!!
If a website has a paywall, like New York Times, DO NOT use the ctrl+A shortcut then the ctrl+c shortcut as fast as you can because then you may accidentally copy the entire article before the paywall comes up. And definitely don't do ctrl+v into the next google doc or whatever you open because then you will accidentally paste the entire article into a google doc or something!!!! I repeat DO NOT do this because it is piracy which is absolutely totally wrong!!!
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Rowan and Aelin - Throne of Glass
Artist: @chelzd_art
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i love this!!
Hmm... number 7 for Rowan and Aelin? :>
7…to shut them up for Rowaelin
"You know who I am!" Aelin places her hands on her hips, glowering up at her mate.
"I know who you are," he answers with a smirk.
"Then don't tell me what to do."
"I didn't tell you what to do, Fireheart."
"Don't call me that. Not right now. Not when I am angry at you." She furrows her brow even more, trying to glare at him, but his smirk only grows. "And you did tell me what to do. You said it would be too dangerous for me to go there."
"Semantics, Fireheart. I only said that it would be dangerous, not too–"
"I know what you said, don't deny it now. You said–"
Rowan cradles her chin in one broad hands and slams his lips against hers, shutting her up. He smiles in triumph when he hears Aelin gasp and uses the moment to slide his tongue into her mouth, kissing her deeply, and with so much hunger it makes a blush creep into her cheeks.
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YOU GOT ME SO HOOKED
Darkness in the Distance
Another entry for @throneofglassmicrofics! I wanted to write something with a spooky atmosphere so here ya go! I dont really have a prompt I wrote it for (maybe it could fit into fight or flight/accident/punished??)
Words: 1.096
TW: Blood, Monster, possible Death, Panic
It was storming outside like crazy and it was only Aelin, Fenrys, Elide and Lysandra in the palace. Rowan was gone with Lorcan and Aedion for the afternoon and meant to be back by dinner time but the storm held them back, they would surely come home when the storm had calmed a little. The staff of the castle Aelin had sent home before the storm picked up, so they could be with their families.
Lysandra was sprawled on the green couch, eating grapes as she listened to the stories Fenrys was telling. Some purely fictional, some mixed with older stories from when he was younger.
As Aelin was applying nail polish on Fenrys’s freshly manicured fingernails, Elide stood up, finished braiding Fenrys’s blonde hair. “It's such a shame Yrene couldn't come,” she sighed. Both women had become closer over the years as they looked for ways to fix Elide’s foot. It has been hard work but Aelin saw the hope in Elide’s smile and it had been beautiful, she knew that Elide was looking forward to fix anything that's fixable.
A rage bubbled up in Aelin as she thought about the source of Elide’s injuries and focused even more to not look at her friend as she limped towards the door. She calmed herself down after Elide vanished behind the wooden doors, excusing herself to the bathroom. She loved Elide and this evening was for them all to get together, a girl's night so to speak. Plus Fenrys.
Lysandra huffed a laugh as he explained how the white haired prince saved the princess with a table leg, when the candles flickered in the room. Pausing what she did and putting the nail polish to the floor, Aelin looked around, her hand inching to where she put down her dagger.
“It was probably just the wind,” Fenrys said when he looked at her, reading her thoughts, but he sat straighter himself.
“Maybe there's a window–” Lysandra started when all the candles flickered out all at once. It took them all less than a second to jump up, Aelin grabbing her dagger in record time.
Two glowing eyes watched her from across the room and Aelin’s heart was thundering, before her eyes adjusted to the dark, pretty well because of her heightened senses, and she realized it was the form of a snow leopard. Lysandra.
Fenrys slowly stepped closer to Aelin when a silence spread between them. Not a silence like everyone stopped silence, something even quieter. As if everything in, every living being in the palace, in the whole of Orynth, stopped breathing. The hairs on Aelin’s neck stood.
“Something is wrong.” she whispered.
They all startled when the room was illuminated for a split second as lightning struck outside, followed by the deafening rumbling of thunder.
They waited but nothing happened. No one stormed the room, nothing attacked, no sound–
A scream rattled through the palace. A female scream.
“Elide!” Aelin said, her throat closing at the sound of horror in her scream. She didn't have to say anything as she sprinted out of the room, Lysandra and Fenrys followed her. The door of the nearest bathroom stood wide open. Aelin used her powers to summon fire in her palm, looking around. A stack of fresh towels was in a heap on the floor, the plant the stood beside the sink was thrown over and a crack that wasn't there before showed in the mirror.
Panic washed over Aelin, usually calm and collected, and she screamed, “Elide?” a few seconds of silence. “ELIDE!”
And if she wouldn't have stayed silent, even if one of them had breathed too loud, they wouldn't have heard it. A faint “Help!” in the distance. Elide’s voice.
So far away that she couldn't have made the distance alone in such a short time.
Someone was in the palace.
And Elide’s voice…she was fighting. Her Elide was fighting.
Lysandra sprinted first in the direction of Elide’s voice, Fenrys and Elide right behind her.
Elide would be fine, Aelin told herself. She would be fine. She had survived so much, she had to be fine.
They were running through corridor after corridor, full spedy corner after corner, until Lys took a corner too sharp and crashed into a wall. The whole palace was filled with pure darkness, the only light Aelin’s fire.
A string of curse left her mouth and she helped Lysandra up, scanning her quickly for injuries and Aelin’s heart dropped when she found a big bloody spot on Lysandra’s head.
“That's not her own blood,” Fenrys said behind them, out of breath. And when they looked at him, he pointed at the wall behind them.
Aelin followed that direction, until…
You and your friends are next, Fire-Bringer.
Scribbled in blood.
On her wall.
Aelin stumbled back, right into Fenrys.
“Whose…” she couldn't bring herself to finish that question, because she couldn't bear the answer.
Whose blood is that?
“Elide!” she yelled again, hoping to hear her childhood friend’s voice again, yelling back. Just one sign that she was alive. Only one.
Aelin breathed heavily, blinking the tears in her eyes away. Elide had to be somewhere, somewhere in this palace. Aelin would find her.
“Lysandra,” she turned to the snow leopard, stretching out her palm so the fire could illuminate her. “You need to–”
Aelin stopped abruptly as she didn't find the snow leopard standing beside her. “Lys–”
Aelin stared down the length of the corridor and there, at the end, barely visible, was a white tail, limp, looking like it was dragged away.
Fenrys’s heat left Aelin’s back as they hurried down the hallway. “We need to get them! Should we part ways?” Aelin looked over her shoulder and was so shocked by what she saw, she stumbled.
A huge claw, wholly made out of shadows, grabbed Fenrys as he kicked and swung his sword but without any luck.
Out of instinct, Aelin speared her power toward that shadow. Raging hot flame. It hissed at the impact, but that was it. The spear of fire vanished, as if the darkness absorbed it.
A sob escaped Aelin as she met Fenrys’s eyes, but she couldn't interpret the widening of his eyes as he looked behind her, before someone, or something, pulled something over her head.
She fought, and kicked and tried to scream, to no avail.
Something pressed on her throat and the last thing she heard before the blackness fully enveloped her was Fenrys as he yelled her name, panic flooding his voice.
Then it was all gone.
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heheheh thank you so much!! 💖❤️🩷🩵🩷💕
“Relationship 101 from Maisie” she’s wiser than her parents, i fear 🫣
Look at Us Now - ch. 24
Fic masterlist
I’m so happy to get this one out!! I’ve been thinking about this chapter for an insane amount of time. Enjoy!
Warnings: sex shop stuff
Words: 3,3k
Of all the times Rowan listened to his dumbass coworkers out of curiosity, he never thought he’d follow through with any of their advice. Yet, there he was, in the rope section of Doranelle City’s newest sex shop.
At first, he couldn’t believe that an old small-ish supermarket closed, and in its place someone opened a giant adult shop. Then, Rowan couldn’t believe he came here to check what the fuss was all about. He had more than enough confidence to stand tall while checking the most bizarre aisles, but he wasn’t used to picking and choosing vibrators the same way he did his groceries.
Still, regret was the furthest thing from his mind when he saw the lingerie section.
There, hanging between lots of blacks and reds, a scrap of golden fabric caught Rowan’s attention. After hurrying there with his basket, he took a good look at it. The tag said ‘three-piece embroidered lace garter lingerie set’, but he was struggling to understand where each part went. All he saw was so many straps around the sheer lace that was the actual lingerie, and gold. Not yellow—real, metallic gold.
This. He just found the perfect, most selfish apology for those ripped panties.
Getting the bra sizing right was a struggle, though. Rowan squinted at his hand, muscle memory mimicking how it grabbed Aelin’s breast, and tested the different sizes on his palm.
It was almost time to go, so he made his way to the clit vibrator section. Aelin’s only one was attached to a penetrative stimulator, and while it was great, it didn’t quite fit this specific idea he had in mind.
However, right before entering his aisle of choice, Rowan spotted an awfully familiar blonde head.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Retreat.
He stood where Aedion couldn’t see him and checked the time. A little more and he’d be late, which wasn’t an option. Rowan was going to pick Maisie up at school alone because Aelin wanted to take a nap after work—he couldn’t afford to wait until Aedion left.
In a bold move, Rowan entered the aisle, standing on its end while the other man was in the middle. He wouldn’t be able to see everything, but hopefully enough to pick what he needed.
Still, he kept an eye on Aedion, briefly glancing at him every now and then while looking at all kinds of clit suction vibrators.
In one of those times, Aedion was already looking at him. Shit.
For once, he was glad that the families didn’t know about his relationship yet. Aedion had no idea that he was here with ravishing Aelin in mind, and the last thing Rowan wanted to know was the purpose of the other man’s… purchases.
Turquoise eyes met pine-green, but he still looked around to see if the Aedion was looking at someone behind him. Nothing. They were alone in this aisle, staring at each other for what felt like ages.
Rowan took a step forward. “Hey,” he said in a stiff greeting.
“Hey.” Aedion’s greeting was almost a wince. “You…”
“Just buying some stuff.” Rowan’s neck felt on fire with embarrassment as he played nonchalant. He hid the chosen purple clit sucker deep inside his basket, as if the man beside him hadn’t seen it already. “For myself.”
“Same.” Aedion’s unusual lack of words was a relief.
Rowan eyed the vibrator and anal beads inside the man’s own basket. Well, good for him.
˜˜
“YOU’RE SORRY!” Maisie shouted on the garage floor, trashing in her father’s arms.
“I’m not, love, you can’t play drums while your mother’s asleep.”
The little girl screamed louder, tears streaming down her already puffy face. After a lot of improvised, unpolished drumming sessions, Rowan and Aelin enrolled her in weekly lessons. While they encouraged the little girl to keep practicing, her learning process was hard on their eardrums.
It broke Rowan’s heart to see Maisie like this, but work has been running Aelin ragged lately; he couldn’t allow their daughter to play when her mother was finally letting herself rest.
Still, the little girl threw herself on the floor, then threw a drumstick at her father. The wooden mallet hit him in the chest, and though it didn’t hurt at all, its weight wore down his thinning patience.
Who. The fuck. Gave. This child. Drums.
He drew a deep breath to calm himself, but it didn’t stop his Dad Voice, as Aelin would call it. “Maisie Whitethorn,” he chided, “if you throw another one of these… forking sticks at me, you won’t see them again for a helluva long time, you hear me?”
Defiant as the day she was born, Maisie held her head high despite the teary eyes, squared her shoulders, picked the same drumstick off the floor and threw at Rowan again.
That’s when the unwavering patience he reserved for his daughter snapped.
Blood boiling, he threw her over his shoulder—her five-year-old body was lighter than a potato sack anyway—and left her in the garage, ready to put her in time-out for eternity. Maisie trashed, likely hurting his back as she did it, but it was hard to pay attention to it over the pounding on his ears, caused by anger and her shouting both.
“What’s going on?”
Aelin’s voice coming from the living room stopped him short. Rowan took in his girlfriend’s messy hair and slightly puffy face from her nap on the couch; his heart sank with the realization that she woke up anyway, and it was his fault.
“I told her to stop the drums so you could sleep, then she threw the drumsticks at me and is about to get grounded for eternity.”
Aelin gestured for him to pass Maisie over at the same time the little girl wiggled out of his grip, even with her head on Rowan’s back, away from her mom; it sometimes stunned him, how in sync these two were.
She sat with their still crying daughter on her lap. “Maisie, we don’t hit the people who feed us.”
“Or anyone,” Rowan added, eyes hard.
He was a firm believer that, sometimes, violence happened to be the last and only resource to resolve things. It wasn’t a good lesson to teach a little kid, though, especially when she could think that a minor conflict at the playground required extreme solutions.
Aelin wiped out Maisie’s tear-streaked cheeks and combed her hair out of her face with her fingers, showing a gentleness she rarely showed for people outside her family. “Do you understand why we’re upset with you, honey?”
“Daddy said I’d be in trouble if I threw another stick!” The girl’s high-pitched voice cracking and raspy as she tried to defend herself. “I didn’t! I threw the same one!”
Rowan’s mouth fell open as he felt disoriented with his daughter’s Aelin-like defense. If she was like this at five years old… he didn’t want to think about what would happen in ten to twelve years.
“Maisy Daisy,” Aelin warned in a calm yet alarming tone. “You know you shouldn’t have thrown that stick at all.”
“We can’t find loopholes for hitting people,” Rowan added, still stunned, and looked at Aelin. “She’s still getting grounded. Maisie’s not playing anything if she acts like she was raised in the wilderness ”
“But I didn’t throw another stick!”
Aelin winced, and from her looks she seemed to say she has a point, Buzzard. A sigh. “What about cutting drumming time in half this week?”
Maisie gaped, outraged.
Rowan tilted his head, pretending to think this through. Reducing something instead of cutting it off usually worked best in his family, but he still threatened with the worst option for impact. When suspended something completely, if Maisie didn’t convince her father to suspend the punishment at all—which completely weakened his authority in the long term—she’d have several more meltdowns they couldn’t avoid because she was still learning to regulate her emotions.
“Sounds reasonable,” Rowan finally said.
However, Maisie shook her head. “I don’t like that.”
Aelin snorted. “You’re not supposed to like your punishment, honey.”
They settled in the living room when Maisie cooled down, her and Fleetfoot playing in the mat as quiet Rowan could expect a kid and a puppy to be.
He and Aelin stayed on the couch, her soft body resting half above him, in a drowsy state.
“It’s almost dinnertime,” he said. “We could order pizza.”
Aelin’s only response was a grimace, but Maisie’s loud cheer made her agree to it.
Rowan would be lying if he said it didn’t bother him. For days now, her sleeping and eating patterns were off, and it could only mean one thing: a depressive episode.
He knew it, because he studied it. He had every sign engraved in the back of his mind, alert for when she needed him again, to not let her down again. Ready to be there and support her in any way he could, Rowan just didn’t think she would be the one to evade him.
He thought they were better at communicating, better than this, but each time Aelin shut him off and said she was feeling emotionally good, just a little tired even if all signs pointed otherwise, his heart sank with doubt.
“Hey, Buzzard.” Aelin ran a thumb over the crease between his brows, where a frown must’ve formed at some point during his musings. “What got your feathers all ruffled?”
Well, since she asked, he might as well tell her. “I—“ Rowan’s eyes zeroed on Maisie. This wasn’t something to discuss in front of a little kid. “Mais, it’s almost time to go to your mother’s. Can you go pack your bag?”
“No,” the little girl said, plain and simple as if his request wasn’t a polite order.
Aelin sat back, leaving their cuddling position with both brows up. “Excuse me?”
“I’ll go pack my toys to go to my other house, then Dad’ll go with us, and we’ll do the same things we were doing before, but in another house. Every. Time.” Maisie’s brows remained drawn together, her little arms crossed. “I’m so tired from packing my toys that much.”
Rowan and Aelin both froze, staring at their daughter after this bomb she just dropped. To be fair, Maisie was completely right. They kept the same custody arrangement as before, but one parent would follow the other to be together, so the three of them were basically going from one house to another.
He could point out that packing a bag of toys wasn’t nearly as much work as the packing her parents did, but Rowan didn’t want to argue with his daughter because he agreed with her. They were so worried about maintaining a steady routine for Maisie, they weren’t expecting her to point out that this arrangement made no fucking sense anymore.
And most of all, Rowan really wanted to take a bunch of next steps with Aelin.
“We’ll take this into consideration,” Aelin said, reluctant. “For now, you’ll still have to pack your toys.”
Maisie got up and complied, but not without grunting a few complaints, Fleetfoot hot on her heels.
The second their daughter closed her bedroom door, Aelin jumped on Rowan, trapping him with both arms on the couch.
“She’s right, you know?”
Rowan snorted. “You’re taking advice from a child now?”
Looking oddly invigorated by how Maisie brought up the subject, Aelin was undeterred. “Let’s move in together.”
Yes. Rowan opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. “I thought you wanted to take things slow.”
The three-month mark she requested to tell people about their relationship was so close he could taste it, but no matter how much Rowan wanted to test her boundaries, he couldn’t. She was the one to request them, which made him question this sudden change of heart.
An adorable blush creeped up her neck and cheeks. “Because that’s the responsible thing to do. Don’t you hate being responsible sometimes?”
Rowan chuckled, amused, because not being responsible was never an option for him, the only exception being when it came to Aelin. Still, they weren’t two twenty-somethings moving in together on a whim to share rent. They had logistics to discuss, Maisie to think about, and their on-base housing that would be incredibly hard to regain if either of them gave up on it.
He kissed the bony tip of her nose. “We can talk things over until we’re ready, yeah?”
And by that, Rowan meant that he just wanted to wait long enough to be sure she wasn’t crossing her own boundary in an impulse decision she’d regret later. He was so fucking ready to move in with her for real and stop ironing his uniform at 5:30 a.m. because it got rumpled in his bag.
Aelin nodded, eyes intent on him. “Sure. That’s where we’re headed, right? Moving in together, I mean.”
“Fuck, yes, we are,” he said while giving her a crushing hug.
With a silly grin, Aelin cupped his face and kissed him. It was sweet and shallow, since they were smiling too much to deepen it, but Rowan loved it. Every kiss with her, every time, it blew his mind.
However, they were brutally interrupted by a high-pitched scream, painfully loud in a way only horror movies could muster—and Maisie, apparently.
The little girl stood rooted where the hallway met the living room, panicked green eyes widened with the sight of her parents making out.
“Why— WHY’DYOUKISSDAD!?”
Aelin slowly detangled herself from him, and Rowan’s mind was going a mile a minute. Of all the parenting preparation he did, no one ever taught how to explain to your child that you’re dating their mother.
“I was kissing your father because we’re in a relationship now.” Aelin’s voice was gentle, but it left no room for argument.
Rowan added, “We were planning to tell you soon.”
Maisie was still frozen in place, and he felt like beating himself for letting his daughter find out about his relationship this way.
“Honey, I—“ Rowan scratched the back of his neck, feeling his face heat. One might think they were two teenagers getting caught by their parents, but it was actually two thirty-somethings explaining themselves to a five-year-old. “Your mother and I, we’ve been very close lately. Sharing a bed. Are you actually surprised that we’re dating?”
Maisie narrowed her eyes on her father. “I share my bed with Fleetfoot. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re right,” Rowan agreed, determined not to taint her innocent way of thinking. “But we’ve also been spending all our free time together. You see us cuddling plenty and—“
“I thought we were cuddling all the time because we’re a family and we love each other, not because you’re boyfriend and girlfriend! Ew!”
Aelin leaned closer to her on the couch. “Maisie, love, can you tell us how you’re feeling?”
The little girl eyed her mother’s phone on the coffee table, grabbed it and ran away, locking herself in the bathroom as quickly as she could.
Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so throughly fucked.
The day Maisie learned how to call her grandmother, he knew he’d never know peace again.
He sighed. “I think she—“
“She absolutely is.”
Rowan met her gaze, slightly panicked, and stared at her grin with no small amount of confusion. Something about him made her burst, so she held onto his arm, shaking and losing her breath with laughter.
“That’s not funny!” He looked between his girlfriend and the bathroom door that hid his distraught daughter, not knowing what to do.
“Come on.” Aelin leaned on him, her outburst subdued. “It is a little.”
Rowan relaxed back on the couch, letting himself think about what happened in a different light, and the corners of his mouth quirked up. “The way she never suspected anything…”
“Ugh!” Aelin hugged him tight. “I want her to stay this little forever.”
“She did grow up too fast,” Rowan said in a pensive tone, and it made him think about how much he wanted to watch other tiny people grow up with Aelin. One thing at a time, though. “She’s likely telling my mother everything before the three-month mark, and—“
“Your mom will tell everyone she knows.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“It’s okay. I mean, we were close to the mark already, but…” Aelin closed her eyes and breathed deep, a small smile on her lips as she finished. “I feel great. It’s not how I wanted to do it, but I feel like it was about time.”
“Okay.” Rowan kissed her cheek. “I’m okay with it if you’re okay with it.”
Aelin caressed his face with her thumb. “I’m very okay with it.”
Her face was a breath away from his when his phone rang.
Mom
Aelin mouthed good luck at the same time he took the call.
“Rowan Whitethorn, you are in so much trouble.”
“Is that so?” he asked, unbothered by his mother’s dramatic antics.
“I cannot believe I have to learn from Maisie that you’re dating again!”
“I couldn’t hide it forever, it’s not my fault Maisie ruined the reveal we—“
“Every night, I prayed to Mala for you and Aelin to get together—for years, Rowan. Years! And when it finally happens, you can’t even bother to let me know…”
He tuned his mother off when his daughter left the bathroom, looking calmer, and sat facing her mother.
“Maisie’s here. I’ll have to hang up.”
“I’m not finished—“
He hung up.
Sitting back beside Aelin, he asked, “Do you feel like talking now, Mais?”
The little girl crossed her arms. “Are you married?”
Rowan’s eyes bulged out. “No—“ He sneaked a quick glance at Aelin. “I mean, not yet. Why’d you ask?”
His daughter hummed. “So you have a kid and you’re together, but you’re not married?”
“Yes.”
“This is weird,” Maisie mused, sitting on an armchair before them. “You tell me that people choose boys or girls to have kids, puppies or kittens with, until death or divorce; but you mixed it up and you’re doing it all confusing.”
Rowan winced. “I’m painfully aware of that.”
Aelin cleared her throat, focused on Maisie. “My relationship status with your dad might’ve changed, but nothing about you ever will. You will always come first, and we’ll always love you very much, no matter what. This doesn’t change anything for you.”
“Anything?” Maisie asked, perking up.
Aelin slowly nodded. “Anything.”
“Do I still get two Yulemas gifts?”
Cackling, Aelin squeezed her daughter in a hug. “I don’t know,” she said in a playful tone. “Rowan, does she still get two Yulemas gifts?”
“Huh.” Rowan tilted his head, pretending to think hard while a warm feeling spread through his chest. “I don’t know, I guess she’ll have to wait and find out.”
Aelin winked—she knew that being an only child and only granddaughter on both sides, Maisie was spoiled rotten by her family on Yulemas. “Any other requests?”
“No kissing!”
Aelin gasped. “No kissing?” she asked in a dramatic, almost theatrical way for her daughter’s amusement.
Maisie shook her head. “Nuh-uh!”
The mother pouted. “Then how am I going to do this…”
Next thing they knew, Aelin was pecking quick kisses all over the little girl’s face, earning those high-pitched squeals he adored so much. Rowan watched that scene, grinning and with a familiar tingling in his chest, when his phone rang again.
His mother, of course.
He showed Aelin the screen. “I should take this before she books a flight.”
“Sure.” She bit her lip, looking unsure. “She sounded angry before.”
“Actually, this is her best-case scenario for my love life. She’s just upset that I didn't tell her sooner.” Rowan kissed her cheek. “I’ll be right back,” he said before leaving to answer this phone call that could take anything between 20 minutes and 2 hours.
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Look at Us Now - ch. 24
Fic masterlist
I’m so happy to get this one out!! I’ve been thinking about this chapter for an insane amount of time. Enjoy!
Warnings: sex shop stuff
Words: 3,3k
Of all the times Rowan listened to his dumbass coworkers out of curiosity, he never thought he’d follow through with any of their advice. Yet, there he was, in the rope section of Doranelle City’s newest sex shop.
At first, he couldn’t believe that an old small-ish supermarket closed, and in its place someone opened a giant adult shop. Then, Rowan couldn’t believe he came here to check what the fuss was all about. He had more than enough confidence to stand tall while checking the most bizarre aisles, but he wasn’t used to picking and choosing vibrators the same way he did his groceries.
Still, regret was the furthest thing from his mind when he saw the lingerie section.
There, hanging between lots of blacks and reds, a scrap of golden fabric caught Rowan’s attention. After hurrying there with his basket, he took a good look at it. The tag said ‘three-piece embroidered lace garter lingerie set’, but he was struggling to understand where each part went. All he saw was so many straps around the sheer lace that was the actual lingerie, and gold. Not yellow—real, metallic gold.
This. He just found the perfect, most selfish apology for those ripped panties.
Getting the bra sizing right was a struggle, though. Rowan squinted at his hand, muscle memory mimicking how it grabbed Aelin’s breast, and tested the different sizes on his palm.
It was almost time to go, so he made his way to the clit vibrator section. Aelin’s only one was attached to a penetrative stimulator, and while it was great, it didn’t quite fit this specific idea he had in mind.
However, right before entering his aisle of choice, Rowan spotted an awfully familiar blonde head.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Retreat.
He stood where Aedion couldn’t see him and checked the time. A little more and he’d be late, which wasn’t an option. Rowan was going to pick Maisie up at school alone because Aelin wanted to take a nap after work—he couldn’t afford to wait until Aedion left.
In a bold move, Rowan entered the aisle, standing on its end while the other man was in the middle. He wouldn’t be able to see everything, but hopefully enough to pick what he needed.
Still, he kept an eye on Aedion, briefly glancing at him every now and then while looking at all kinds of clit suction vibrators.
In one of those times, Aedion was already looking at him. Shit.
For once, he was glad that the families didn’t know about his relationship yet. Aedion had no idea that he was here with ravishing Aelin in mind, and the last thing Rowan wanted to know was the purpose of the other man’s… purchases.
Turquoise eyes met pine-green, but he still looked around to see if the Aedion was looking at someone behind him. Nothing. They were alone in this aisle, staring at each other for what felt like ages.
Rowan took a step forward. “Hey,” he said in a stiff greeting.
“Hey.” Aedion’s greeting was almost a wince. “You…”
“Just buying some stuff.” Rowan’s neck felt on fire with embarrassment as he played nonchalant. He hid the chosen purple clit sucker deep inside his basket, as if the man beside him hadn’t seen it already. “For myself.”
“Same.” Aedion’s unusual lack of words was a relief.
Rowan eyed the vibrator and anal beads inside the man’s own basket. Well, good for him.
˜˜
“YOU’RE SORRY!” Maisie shouted on the garage floor, trashing in her father’s arms.
“I’m not, love, you can’t play drums while your mother’s asleep.”
The little girl screamed louder, tears streaming down her already puffy face. After a lot of improvised, unpolished drumming sessions, Rowan and Aelin enrolled her in weekly lessons. While they encouraged the little girl to keep practicing, her learning process was hard on their eardrums.
It broke Rowan’s heart to see Maisie like this, but work has been running Aelin ragged lately; he couldn’t allow their daughter to play when her mother was finally letting herself rest.
Still, the little girl threw herself on the floor, then threw a drumstick at her father. The wooden mallet hit him in the chest, and though it didn’t hurt at all, its weight wore down his thinning patience.
Who. The fuck. Gave. This child. Drums.
He drew a deep breath to calm himself, but it didn’t stop his Dad Voice, as Aelin would call it. “Maisie Whitethorn,” he chided, “if you throw another one of these… forking sticks at me, you won’t see them again for a helluva long time, you hear me?”
Defiant as the day she was born, Maisie held her head high despite the teary eyes, squared her shoulders, picked the same drumstick off the floor and threw at Rowan again.
That’s when the unwavering patience he reserved for his daughter snapped.
Blood boiling, he threw her over his shoulder—her five-year-old body was lighter than a potato sack anyway—and left her in the garage, ready to put her in time-out for eternity. Maisie trashed, likely hurting his back as she did it, but it was hard to pay attention to it over the pounding on his ears, caused by anger and her shouting both.
“What’s going on?”
Aelin’s voice coming from the living room stopped him short. Rowan took in his girlfriend’s messy hair and slightly puffy face from her nap on the couch; his heart sank with the realization that she woke up anyway, and it was his fault.
“I told her to stop the drums so you could sleep, then she threw the drumsticks at me and is about to get grounded for eternity.”
Aelin gestured for him to pass Maisie over at the same time the little girl wiggled out of his grip, even with her head on Rowan’s back, away from her mom; it sometimes stunned him, how in sync these two were.
She sat with their still crying daughter on her lap. “Maisie, we don’t hit the people who feed us.”
“Or anyone,” Rowan added, eyes hard.
He was a firm believer that, sometimes, violence happened to be the last and only resource to resolve things. It wasn’t a good lesson to teach a little kid, though, especially when she could think that a minor conflict at the playground required extreme solutions.
Aelin wiped out Maisie’s tear-streaked cheeks and combed her hair out of her face with her fingers, showing a gentleness she rarely showed for people outside her family. “Do you understand why we’re upset with you, honey?”
“Daddy said I’d be in trouble if I threw another stick!” The girl’s high-pitched voice cracking and raspy as she tried to defend herself. “I didn’t! I threw the same one!”
Rowan’s mouth fell open as he felt disoriented with his daughter’s Aelin-like defense. If she was like this at five years old… he didn’t want to think about what would happen in ten to twelve years.
“Maisy Daisy,” Aelin warned in a calm yet alarming tone. “You know you shouldn’t have thrown that stick at all.”
“We can’t find loopholes for hitting people,” Rowan added, still stunned, and looked at Aelin. “She’s still getting grounded. Maisie’s not playing anything if she acts like she was raised in the wilderness ”
“But I didn’t throw another stick!”
Aelin winced, and from her looks she seemed to say she has a point, Buzzard. A sigh. “What about cutting drumming time in half this week?”
Maisie gaped, outraged.
Rowan tilted his head, pretending to think this through. Reducing something instead of cutting it off usually worked best in his family, but he still threatened with the worst option for impact. When suspended something completely, if Maisie didn’t convince her father to suspend the punishment at all—which completely weakened his authority in the long term—she’d have several more meltdowns they couldn’t avoid because she was still learning to regulate her emotions.
“Sounds reasonable,” Rowan finally said.
However, Maisie shook her head. “I don’t like that.”
Aelin snorted. “You’re not supposed to like your punishment, honey.”
They settled in the living room when Maisie cooled down, her and Fleetfoot playing in the mat as quiet Rowan could expect a kid and a puppy to be.
He and Aelin stayed on the couch, her soft body resting half above him, in a drowsy state.
“It’s almost dinnertime,” he said. “We could order pizza.”
Aelin’s only response was a grimace, but Maisie’s loud cheer made her agree to it.
Rowan would be lying if he said it didn’t bother him. For days now, her sleeping and eating patterns were off, and it could only mean one thing: a depressive episode.
He knew it, because he studied it. He had every sign engraved in the back of his mind, alert for when she needed him again, to not let her down again. Ready to be there and support her in any way he could, Rowan just didn’t think she would be the one to evade him.
He thought they were better at communicating, better than this, but each time Aelin shut him off and said she was feeling emotionally good, just a little tired even if all signs pointed otherwise, his heart sank with doubt.
“Hey, Buzzard.” Aelin ran a thumb over the crease between his brows, where a frown must’ve formed at some point during his musings. “What got your feathers all ruffled?”
Well, since she asked, he might as well tell her. “I—“ Rowan’s eyes zeroed on Maisie. This wasn’t something to discuss in front of a little kid. “Mais, it’s almost time to go to your mother’s. Can you go pack your bag?”
“No,” the little girl said, plain and simple as if his request wasn’t a polite order.
Aelin sat back, leaving their cuddling position with both brows up. “Excuse me?”
“I’ll go pack my toys to go to my other house, then Dad’ll go with us, and we’ll do the same things we were doing before, but in another house. Every. Time.” Maisie’s brows remained drawn together, her little arms crossed. “I’m so tired from packing my toys that much.”
Rowan and Aelin both froze, staring at their daughter after this bomb she just dropped. To be fair, Maisie was completely right. They kept the same custody arrangement as before, but one parent would follow the other to be together, so the three of them were basically going from one house to another.
He could point out that packing a bag of toys wasn’t nearly as much work as the packing her parents did, but Rowan didn’t want to argue with his daughter because he agreed with her. They were so worried about maintaining a steady routine for Maisie, they weren’t expecting her to point out that this arrangement made no fucking sense anymore.
And most of all, Rowan really wanted to take a bunch of next steps with Aelin.
“We’ll take this into consideration,” Aelin said, reluctant. “For now, you’ll still have to pack your toys.”
Maisie got up and complied, but not without grunting a few complaints, Fleetfoot hot on her heels.
The second their daughter closed her bedroom door, Aelin jumped on Rowan, trapping him with both arms on the couch.
“She’s right, you know?”
Rowan snorted. “You’re taking advice from a child now?”
Looking oddly invigorated by how Maisie brought up the subject, Aelin was undeterred. “Let’s move in together.”
Yes. Rowan opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. “I thought you wanted to take things slow.”
The three-month mark she requested to tell people about their relationship was so close he could taste it, but no matter how much Rowan wanted to test her boundaries, he couldn’t. She was the one to request them, which made him question this sudden change of heart.
An adorable blush creeped up her neck and cheeks. “Because that’s the responsible thing to do. Don’t you hate being responsible sometimes?”
Rowan chuckled, amused, because not being responsible was never an option for him, the only exception being when it came to Aelin. Still, they weren’t two twenty-somethings moving in together on a whim to share rent. They had logistics to discuss, Maisie to think about, and their on-base housing that would be incredibly hard to regain if either of them gave up on it.
He kissed the bony tip of her nose. “We can talk things over until we’re ready, yeah?”
And by that, Rowan meant that he just wanted to wait long enough to be sure she wasn’t crossing her own boundary in an impulse decision she’d regret later. He was so fucking ready to move in with her for real and stop ironing his uniform at 5:30 a.m. because it got rumpled in his bag.
Aelin nodded, eyes intent on him. “Sure. That’s where we’re headed, right? Moving in together, I mean.”
“Fuck, yes, we are,” he said while giving her a crushing hug.
With a silly grin, Aelin cupped his face and kissed him. It was sweet and shallow, since they were smiling too much to deepen it, but Rowan loved it. Every kiss with her, every time, it blew his mind.
However, they were brutally interrupted by a high-pitched scream, painfully loud in a way only horror movies could muster—and Maisie, apparently.
The little girl stood rooted where the hallway met the living room, panicked green eyes widened with the sight of her parents making out.
“Why— WHY’DYOUKISSDAD!?”
Aelin slowly detangled herself from him, and Rowan’s mind was going a mile a minute. Of all the parenting preparation he did, no one ever taught how to explain to your child that you’re dating their mother.
“I was kissing your father because we’re in a relationship now.” Aelin’s voice was gentle, but it left no room for argument.
Rowan added, “We were planning to tell you soon.”
Maisie was still frozen in place, and he felt like beating himself for letting his daughter find out about his relationship this way.
“Honey, I—“ Rowan scratched the back of his neck, feeling his face heat. One might think they were two teenagers getting caught by their parents, but it was actually two thirty-somethings explaining themselves to a five-year-old. “Your mother and I, we’ve been very close lately. Sharing a bed. Are you actually surprised that we’re dating?”
Maisie narrowed her eyes on her father. “I share my bed with Fleetfoot. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re right,” Rowan agreed, determined not to taint her innocent way of thinking. “But we’ve also been spending all our free time together. You see us cuddling plenty and—“
“I thought we were cuddling all the time because we’re a family and we love each other, not because you’re boyfriend and girlfriend! Ew!”
Aelin leaned closer to her on the couch. “Maisie, love, can you tell us how you’re feeling?”
The little girl eyed her mother’s phone on the coffee table, grabbed it and ran away, locking herself in the bathroom as quickly as she could.
Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so throughly fucked.
The day Maisie learned how to call her grandmother, he knew he’d never know peace again.
He sighed. “I think she—“
“She absolutely is.”
Rowan met her gaze, slightly panicked, and stared at her grin with no small amount of confusion. Something about him made her burst, so she held onto his arm, shaking and losing her breath with laughter.
“That’s not funny!” He looked between his girlfriend and the bathroom door that hid his distraught daughter, not knowing what to do.
“Come on.” Aelin leaned on him, her outburst subdued. “It is a little.”
Rowan relaxed back on the couch, letting himself think about what happened in a different light, and the corners of his mouth quirked up. “The way she never suspected anything…”
“Ugh!” Aelin hugged him tight. “I want her to stay this little forever.”
“She did grow up too fast,” Rowan said in a pensive tone, and it made him think about how much he wanted to watch other tiny people grow up with Aelin. One thing at a time, though. “She’s likely telling my mother everything before the three-month mark, and—“
“Your mom will tell everyone she knows.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“It’s okay. I mean, we were close to the mark already, but…” Aelin closed her eyes and breathed deep, a small smile on her lips as she finished. “I feel great. It’s not how I wanted to do it, but I feel like it was about time.”
“Okay.” Rowan kissed her cheek. “I’m okay with it if you’re okay with it.”
Aelin caressed his face with her thumb. “I’m very okay with it.”
Her face was a breath away from his when his phone rang.
Mom
Aelin mouthed good luck at the same time he took the call.
“Rowan Whitethorn, you are in so much trouble.”
“Is that so?” he asked, unbothered by his mother’s dramatic antics.
“I cannot believe I have to learn from Maisie that you’re dating again!”
“I couldn’t hide it forever, it’s not my fault Maisie ruined the reveal we—“
“Every night, I prayed to Mala for you and Aelin to get together—for years, Rowan. Years! And when it finally happens, you can’t even bother to let me know…”
He tuned his mother off when his daughter left the bathroom, looking calmer, and sat facing her mother.
“Maisie’s here. I’ll have to hang up.”
“I’m not finished—“
He hung up.
Sitting back beside Aelin, he asked, “Do you feel like talking now, Mais?”
The little girl crossed her arms. “Are you married?”
Rowan’s eyes bulged out. “No—“ He sneaked a quick glance at Aelin. “I mean, not yet. Why’d you ask?”
His daughter hummed. “So you have a kid and you’re together, but you’re not married?”
“Yes.”
“This is weird,” Maisie mused, sitting on an armchair before them. “You tell me that people choose boys or girls to have kids, puppies or kittens with, until death or divorce; but you mixed it up and you’re doing it all confusing.”
Rowan winced. “I’m painfully aware of that.”
Aelin cleared her throat, focused on Maisie. “My relationship status with your dad might’ve changed, but nothing about you ever will. You will always come first, and we’ll always love you very much, no matter what. This doesn’t change anything for you.”
“Anything?” Maisie asked, perking up.
Aelin slowly nodded. “Anything.”
“Do I still get two Yulemas gifts?”
Cackling, Aelin squeezed her daughter in a hug. “I don’t know,” she said in a playful tone. “Rowan, does she still get two Yulemas gifts?”
“Huh.” Rowan tilted his head, pretending to think hard while a warm feeling spread through his chest. “I don’t know, I guess she’ll have to wait and find out.”
Aelin winked—she knew that being an only child and only granddaughter on both sides, Maisie was spoiled rotten by her family on Yulemas. “Any other requests?”
“No kissing!”
Aelin gasped. “No kissing?” she asked in a dramatic, almost theatrical way for her daughter’s amusement.
Maisie shook her head. “Nuh-uh!”
The mother pouted. “Then how am I going to do this…”
Next thing they knew, Aelin was pecking quick kisses all over the little girl’s face, earning those high-pitched squeals he adored so much. Rowan watched that scene, grinning and with a familiar tingling in his chest, when his phone rang again.
His mother, of course.
He showed Aelin the screen. “I should take this before she books a flight.”
“Sure.” She bit her lip, looking unsure. “She sounded angry before.”
“Actually, this is her best-case scenario for my love life. She’s just upset that I didn't tell her sooner.” Rowan kissed her cheek. “I’ll be right back,” he said before leaving to answer this phone call that could take anything between 20 minutes and 2 hours.
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