Read it on Tumblr: aztec. tumblr. post/615932112062824448/the-one-where-elain-definitely-did-not-have-a

Read it on AO3: /works/23754199

(on the Tumblr link, please add com/ in-between tumblr. and post/. on the AO3 link, please add archiveofourown . org before /works.)

Warnings: Language.

Azriel wanted to slam his head against a wall.

It was eight in the morning, his head was throbbing, he hadn't completed his biology assignment, and it was hot – then again, it was the beginning of summers, and Azriel's fault for wearing a black t-shirt, underneath his black jacket, along with black jeans, paired off with black boots that were specifically meant to be worn during winters.

"Az!" Mor exclaimed, poking him in the arm, jolting him out of the sleepy haze he had fallen into.

Azriel blinked, looking around the cafeteria before glancing at Mor, who was giving him an annoyed look. Realizing that he must have blanked out while she was talking, he gave her an apologetic smile.

"Ah, Azriel! Welcome back to the land of the living," Rhys announced, walking up to stand in front of him, an apple in his hand. "Though I'm afraid you just missed breakfast."

Azriel's stomach chose that moment to let out a loud growl, and he groaned. Rhys raised an eyebrow. "Still in hangover mode?" he teased, taking a bite out of his apple. "That explains why you don't want to talk."

Mor huffed, glaring at her smirking cousin. "I told you not to tell him about that party! But no! When was the last time you listened to me?"

"In my defense," Rhys began, raising his arms in mock surrender, "I only told Az that there was a party happening in the northern side of campus, close to where a young Archeron's dorm was located."

Azriel felt his face flush. Rhys was right. All it had taken was for him to say that Elain Archeron would have been having a late class in the science lab, and Azriel had found himself standing amongst a horde of drunk students, feeling uncomfortably out of place. Amren, who'd mercifully agreed to tag along with him, had handed him a red cup filled with something she called 'liquid courage', and after one gulp, Azriel had found himself in his dorm room the next morning with a splitting headache.

"You baited me," Azriel finally grumbled, glaring at Rhys. His adopted brother gave him an unapologetic grin, his violet eyes crinkling in the corners. He glanced at something behind Azriel's shoulder, and his smile turned positively evil. "What are you looking—"

Azriel stumbled forward, feeling as if a train had hit him. Turning around, he looked down at the tiny blonde who had stumbled into him, a backpack slung over her shoulder, her head ducked as she rubbed her nose. She glanced up, and Azriel found himself staring in the face of Elain Archeron.

"S-sorry, Azriel!" the young girl stuttered, her ears turning a bright red. She glanced frantically across the cafeteria before looking at the grand clock, her eyes widening. "I'm late!"

Elain side-stepped him and ran towards the exit that would lead her out to the greenhouse, ducking under Cassian's out-stretched arms as he gesticulated to his Economics partner.

"Woah!"

"Sorry, Cassian!"

Rhys chuckled, staring after the blonde girl. "She never fails to amuse me, that girl." Glancing at Azriel, he smirked widely. "You need some sunscreen, Az? Your face looks like a tomato."

"Shut up."

⁑

Azriel attempted to sink further into his seat in a futile attempt to make himself seem smaller, considering he was one of the tallest students in Velaris University for Every Subject CreatedTM – which, yes, was the actual name of the school – and captain of the basketball team.

After he had hesitantly approached his biology teacher to let her know that he hadn't been able to complete his assignment, she had given him the most scathing look in history and chewed him out on how he never was able to submit his tasks on time, and probably would have torn him a new one had the class not started.

Azriel struggled to keep his eyes on the board. He was studying engineering, for cauldron's sake! Why did he even need biology?

"It'll be interesting, Mor said," he grumbled under his breath. "It'll teach you something, she said."

Azriel spent the next five minutes restlessly tapping his feet on the ground before caving and fishing his phone from out of his front pocket and opening Pinterest. Hopefully, he'd be able to spend the rest of the class looking at trashy memes to keep himself alive.

Instead, he noticed a message from Cassian.

Cass: So, I've been thinking.

Azriel raised his eyebrow.

Az: Cassian thinking? Practically unheard of.

His phone buzzed again, and Azriel noticed his desk partner craning his neck in an attempt to see his messages. Angling his phone down, he read what Rhys had written.

Rhys: I know right?

Cass: FU.

Mor: Why are you all texting? Aren't your classes going on?

Cass: Ah, yes, my dear Mor, but I have devised a plan to kill two birds with one stone.

Amren: And by one of those birds, you're referring to Azriel's non-existent love life.

Cass: Quite right.

Azriel let out a quiet groan. Whenever Cassian got a plan, it either ended in a complete disaster or an absolute – albeit surprising – success. The results tended to fall in the former category.

Rhys: What about the second bird?

Cass: Batty.

Mor: …what?

Cass: The plan is, we're gonna take Batty to Elain, she'll work her magic and tell us what's wrong with him, Azriel strikes up a conversation with her on goldfish and asks her out, and we'll all be happy.

Mor: And why would we be taking him to Elain?

Cass: Seriously?

Mor: Yes.

Rhys: Yes.

Amren: Yes.

Cass: ELAIN HAS A MINOR IN ZOOLOGY, PEOPLE! Azriel, I thought you'd know this!

Az: I have a crush on her, Cassian. I'm not her fucking stalker.

Amren: Could've fooled me.

Az: Amren!

Cass: Don't deny it, Az. We all know you're her stalker.

Az: Famous words coming from somebody who stalks Elain's sister.

Mor: But Rhys didn't say anything? Are you guys having a conversation on a separate group chat that I'm not a part of?

Amren: LMAO.

Rhys: Not funny, Amren, and fuck you, Mor. Fuck you very, very much.

Az: I was actually referring to Cass, but Rhys works too.

Rhys: Fuck all of you.

Cass: CAN WE PLEASE FOCUS ON THE PLAN?!

Mor: Okay, so, Cassian kidnaps, sorry, convinces Elain to check out Batty, she gives a diagnosis, Azriel starts talking to her about goldfish, he asks her out, and we're all happy.

Cass: That's pretty much the plan.

Rhys: Excellent thinking, genius, but where would we meet?

Amren: Classroom 13B doesn't get used that frequently.

Mor: And you know this because…

Amren: Varian and I go there sometimes.

Cass: TMI. TMI. TMI.

Amren: That's not TMI. TMI would be telling you that Varian likes to use me as a nude model. Wearing only my necklace.

Mor: And now I shall never be able to look at my desk partner in the eye ever again. Thanks for ruining Design for me, Amren.

Amren: Pleasure.

Az: Do I get a say in this plan?

Rhys: Nope!

⁑

Azriel sighed as he leaned on the desk that he had propped his elbows on. "I do not like this plan one bit."

"Should've said something earlier then," Amren snickered. She swung her legs lazily as she sat on the teacher's desk.

Azriel gave her a half-hearted glare. "I would've, had somebody—" he turned his head to glare at Rhys "—not started an argument on the group chat, causing my phone to get confiscated."

Rhys opened his mouth to retort but instead was shushed by Mor. "Shut up! I think I hear them coming." She pried open the classroom door slightly and peered her head into the empty corridor. "Nevermind. What's taking them so long?!"

"I dunno," Rhys said. "Maybe Cassian kidnapped Elain only to secretly profess his undying love for her, and they both decided to run away to Peru to get married and have loads and loads of children—"

"Shut up!" Mor yelped, jumping away from the classroom door. "They're here!"

Right at that moment, the door burst open, revealing Cassian, who dragged in Elain behind him.

"What was that for?! I almost—" The blond cut herself off with a strangled sound as she looked around the room, and Azriel resisted the urge to cower when her eyes landed on him. "What are you all doing here?"

Azriel's brain short-circuited. Why were they all here? He glanced around the room, distractedly noticing Cassian grabbing Batty's fishbowl as he tried to formulate a response.

"It's a personal thing," Rhys said smoothly, having apparently sensed his minor meltdown.

Elain furrowed her eyebrows, which just made her look cuter. "That's the same thing Cassian said."

"Well then, we're part of the personal thing," Azriel finally said, regaining the control over his mouth.

"Here's the personal thing," Cassian announced, making his way to stand in front of Elain, holding the fishbowl up.

Elain stared at the fishbowl before giving him a bewildered look. "Your personal thing is just a fish?"

"It's not just a fish!"

Azriel's cheeks flushed heavily at his outburst, and he mentally cringed. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "What we mean is that this fish is extremely symbolic to us."

Mor, the angel she was, jumped in immediately to settle the matter. "What they mean is that they're extremely attached to Batty 'cause they won him in a fair a decade ago."

Azriel shot her a grateful look before turning back to Elain, who was chewing on her bottom lip – dear god did he want to kiss her – and staring at Mor with a dark look in her eyes that he couldn't place exactly.

"You named your fish Batty?"

Amren snorted. "You could argue that they were already batty."

Everybody collectively turned to glare at Amren, who shrugged flippantly. "What? I'm just telling the truth."

Elain peered at the fishbowl. "So, what's the problem with, um, Batty?"

Cassian immediately got a worried look on his face, and Azriel was reminded that it was he who had won the fish from the fair game that they had played. "He's been, sluggish, lately. Like he doesn't swim around a lot, and he's stopped taking his food."

"Mor said that you got him a decade ago?"

"Twelve years to be exact," Rhys piped before going back to gnawing on his thumbnail, a nervous habit that he had picked up from when he was in high school.

Elain glanced at Cassian. "Do you know how long goldfish live?"

Cassian shook his head, and Elain looked at the rest of them. Seeing the blank expressions on their faces, she sighed and said, "I'm no zoologist, but I'm pretty sure goldfish don't live for more than five years, ten being max. Batty's lived an impressive twelve. It's just nature taking its course."

Cassian immediately began tearing up, and Azriel would be a dirty liar if he said that his eyes hadn't started getting misty too. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. Are you telling me that Batty's dying?"

Elain gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm afraid so."

She looked down at Batty, a frown making its way on her face, and leaned forward. The faint sunlight leaking through the classroom windows were caught in her hair, making them shine like gold. Azriel had the sudden urge to run his fingers through each individual strand. "Hey, Cassian. Is Batty a Tosakin?"

Cassian blinked rapidly. "A what?"

"A Tosakin. They're a really rare breed of goldfish. They're valuable because they're quite hard to breed."

Cassian scrunched his nose. "Oh. In all honesty, I've never heard of these goldfish before."

"Nor have I," Azriel said before he could stop himself. "You're brilliant."

A faint blush bloomed across Eain's cheeks as she ducked her head bashfully. She peered at Batty once more, and Azriel couldn't help but notice her tongue as it peeked out of her mouth to lick her lips or the faint glint of metal on her—

Oh. Oh. Mother above.

Azriel felt his cheeks burn as realization slapped him right across the face.

Elain motherfucking Archeron had a tongue stud.

And from the faces of the others, they had noticed it too.

Elin glanced up at him, blinking innocently, which did nothing to quell his blood, which flowed towards his cheeks as well as other places. "Is something wrong?"

Was there something wrong? Definitely.

"A-a-absolutely," Cassian stuttered out. "Not, I mean," he hastily added.

"Have you seen the time?!" Mor yelped, looking frantically at the clock that was hung above the doorway. "We're going to late for our next lesson!" She scrambled forward, grabbing Azriel's hand – he was thankful for that because he was pretty sure if he had tried walking on his own, he'd have fallen over – and yanked him out the door. He heard the Cassian shout a hurried thanks to Elain before the classroom door shut, and they all ran.

⁑

Azriel couldn't recall the last time he had climbed a staircase as fast as he did after fleeing the classroom. Probably because he hadn't.

The dorm that he shared with Cassian and Rhys was mercifully on the first floor, and with the speed he and the others used between the landing and the door to their dorm, nobody would have been able to notice the massive blush staining his cheeks.

"You all saw what I saw, didn't you?" Cassian gushed the moment the door was closed.

A low murmur of agreement shrouded the room. Azriel groaned as he ran his hand over his face.

Damn Elain, and damn her tongue stud. He was so screwed.

⁑

It was hot. Again.

At least this time, Azriel had learned from his mistakes and wasn't dressed in head-to-toe black. Instead, decked in loose trousers and a short-sleeved t-shirt, he hefted his messenger bag higher on his shoulder, fingers tapping restlessly on the handle of his suitcase. "How much longer until the bus arrives?" Azriel asked, his voice embarrassingly high.

Cassian sympathetically clapped him in the shoulder. "At least half an hour."

Azriel groaned, opting to scan the campus courtyard, noting all the people who still remained. The quietness of the ground was a stark contrast to the usual hustle and bustle of students moving through the corridors in between classes.

He fleetingly looked towards the tree against which Elain Archeron was leaning on, scrolling through her phone and occasionally shooting glances at the gate, obviously looking for her sisters.

It had been one and a half months since their fateful encounter, and Azriel had spent every single minute of it wondering how he would be able to look his crush in the eye again.

Elain was beautiful, smart, and entirely out of his league. She'd probably end up with people like Graysen, one of the more popular students of Prythian University, not bastard orphans like him.

Azriel's thoughts were cut off as he felt a harsh smack being delivered to his arm. "Stop it," Mor ordered, glaring at him.

"Stop what?"

"Your moody, teenage angst."

Azriel stared at her. "But I'm not a teenager."

"Exactly."

He grumbled at Mor before looking back at Elain. He blinked, realizing that she wasn't where he had seen her only a moment ago. He craned his head, catching sight of her right before she hugged—

"Oi, Rhys," Azriel snorted, shoulder checking his adoptive brother. "Look who just turned up."

Rhys gave him an annoyed look and glanced at the front gate. His cheeks turned a warm red as he stared at Feyre Archeron, his conversation with Amren long forgotten. Cassian guffawed at his expression.

Amren smirked. "Nesta's here too."

Cassian's laugh was immediately cut off as he whipped his head so fast, Azriel was surprised that he didn't get whiplash.

He looked back at Elain, who was having an animated conversation with her sisters, grinning from ear-to-ear. Whatever she was saying was causing Nesta's cheeks to flush ever so slightly, as she glared at Feyre, who then proceeded to stick her tongue out.

Azriel blinked, and then blinked some more before letting out a startled laugh as he looked at the blue stud on Feyre's tongue before it disappeared back into her mouth. Glancing at Rhys, he noted the heavy flush of his cheeks. "You need some sunscreen, Rhysie? You look like a tomato," he parroted back at him.

Mor snickered before bursting into giggles, and Azriel got sight of a silver ring on Nesta Archeron's belly button as she stretched her body, rising onto her toes before tugging her t-shirt back down. Cassian's sharp inhalation of air was all Azriel needed to burst into laughter, turning to clap him on the shoulder.

Cassian roughly shook his hand off, face burning red. "Shut up, asshole."

Azriel gave him a shit-eating grin before looking back, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw Elain turn around to gaze at him. He positively melted as she gave him a shy smile and a wave, which he returned, before disappearing through the gates.

Azriel shifted his bag higher on his shoulder. The day wasn't as warm anymore.

It didn't turn out as great as I hoped it would, but I hoped you enjoyed! Let me know what you think.

-Aztec