Stardust (Azriel X Reader)

Training

You opened your eyes to the morning sun coming in through your window.

Slowly, you sat up and looked out into the Night Court. It truly was beautiful. Light bounced off the morning dew, casting little rainbow colors everywhere. Everything was silent outside.

Stretching and yawning, you slid out from beneath your fluffy comforter and headed to the bathroom. One glance in the mirror told you that you had been tossing and turning, as all your hair was sticking up and piled on top of your head like a bird's nest. That would be fun to untangle.

You began your morning routine and, after struggling for 10 minutes with your hair and finally putting it into a ponytail, you headed to your closet.

Inside the doorway on a small shelf was a black pair of pants with a black T-shirt to go with it. You found a pair of black combat boots near the door.

You glanced at your clock and a wave of nervousness flooded through you. It was nearly 5am.

You had to go to meet Azriel for training soon. And the thought of being with him for the gods know how many hours had made you extremely anxious.

Azriel seemed like a brilliant warrior and a nice person to talk to, but if you couldn't control your magic while around him, things could go south really quick.

You had NO IDEA what you were capable of doing and you didn't want to accidently hurt him, even though you knew that he could handle himself in dangerous situations.

Gods, why did he have this effect on you?!? You had just met the guy, and yet he made you unfocused, self-conscious and embarrassed all at once.

There was no way that you'd end up leaving this training session still functioning.

The clock said 4:55am. It was time to go.

Taking a deep breath, you headed out the door.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Time Skip - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Ugh!" You cried as Azriel, yet again, disarmed you with his sword.

From the force of his attack, you flew backwards and hit a fence pole outlining a training arena.

"Ow..." You grumbled to yourself, rubbing your head.

The sun was shining brightly and the morning air was cool and crisp. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and, although you were getting your ass handed to you, you were enjoying being outside.

"You need to be prepared for any strategy your opponent might use. Even if it seems like they're coming from another direction to distract you." Azriel told you whilst walking in your direction, sheathing his sword into his weapon's belt.

"....Noted...." You mumbled to yourself, trying to get up off the ground without using anything for support. You weren't about to let Azriel see you weakened.

After standing, you sighed and went to retrieve your sword that was halfway across the training ring. You were extremely glad that no one was about to see you get creamed over and over again.

The sword Azriel had picked out for you for practicing was really beautiful. It had a golden handle, wrapped in strips of black leather for a better grip, and a long medium-sized blade with ornate markings carved along the edges of the blade.

It was one of the lighter weight ones, sure, but you weren't complaining, especially since you had never even held a sword before today.

After sheathing it in your own borrowed weapons belt, you made your way back over to Azriel, who was still, as always, watching you intently.

Your magic inside you squirmed, sending a shiver down your spine. Gods, he made you so nervous. You met his eyes, and your magic nearly erupted, causing you to stumble a little as you neared him.

Blushing from embarrassment, you shut your magic down to the best of your abilities, and steadied yourself.

Azriel looked at you inquisitively, but shrugged his shoulders and shook it off.

"I hope I didn't hit you too hard. Your lack of balance could indicate that I accidentally ended up giving you a concussion." Azriel said to you, a bit concerned.

"I'm fine." You told him shortly, still bright red from nearly falling in front of him.

"Are you sure? Because I didn't think you'd actually fall for that trick to be honest." Azriel told you, smirking at your now flustered state.

Not even able to come up with a good comeback, you crossed your arms and let out a disgruntled noise of frustration.

Gods, you hadn't been expecting Azriel to be so cocky and give you a dose of sarcasm this morning.

You sighed, giving up at this point to try and defend yourself against his statement. At this point, you still hadn't even learned strategy and were only supposed to be working on defensive moves today.

Azriel had added his own flare of fun into the mix with that lucky shot. You had been doing good otherwise.... Well, ok, maybe not, but you were still new to the whole fighting-with-a-sword thing.

"Whatever. Let's try it again." You sighed, unsheathing your sword again.

Azriel rolled his eyes and smirked at you before drawing out his own sword and then immediately went into lecturing you.

"Now remember, give yourself a solid base. Widen your stance a bit. Good. Remember to keep your knees bent so that the impact of our blades doesn't snap them. Keep both hands on the handle, you're not ready to try and only use one hand to block an opponent's attack. Stand up straighter. Good. Are you ready?"

"...Sure." You said, still not very confident at all.

"Okay..." Azriel said and paused for a millisecond before charging at you.

You tensed up a bit, but tried to refocus on him to figure out where he would attack from. Left or right, up or down? You saw the blade coming from your right just a little bit too late. You leaned backwards as the blade came across inches away from your face and you met the steel with your own.

A loud crack echoed throughout the training grounds. But as quick as it happened, you noticed his blade was gone again, and was instead coming straight up at you from the ground. You blocked it yet again.

You repeated to dodge and block until you felt as if you and Azriel were dancing together to the song of steel. He may be going easy on you, but still, you were feeling a bit more confident.

You matched him blow for blow, and even attempted to fake him out as to where he thought your blade would be. You saw his eyes light up mischievously as the dance of the blades continued. You knew he had a plan.

You were watching his every move, trying to decipher when his plan would come into play when you felt it.

Your magic felt off. Everything felt off. Something was wrong inside your body, you could tell. But it was in the air too. It felt as if it was crackling with lightning and it seemed to get harder to breathe.

Your brow furrowed in confusion and you let your attention slip just the slightest bit away from Azriel, giving him the perfect opportunity to lunge at you from up high while faking right.

Before you could move to block it, a seething pain rushed up your midsection and pain seemed to ring in the back of your head. It felt as if it were your magic was trying to kill you.

Your legs gave out from under you and you dropped your blade, grasping at your head. You felt nauseous and your vision got blurry. You looked up to see Azriel's shocked face as his blade cut into your arm, unable to stop his momentum in time.

You barely felt it. You could sense Azriel reverse his momentum and threw his blade across the field. He began to say something to you, but you couldn't understand a thing. It was too loud.

Just as your pain began to dim, you saw Azriel collapse just as you had, also in pain. A shockwave of power shook the entire area, sending Azriel flying far away from you. Or, you away from him. You weren't sure.

The last thing you remember seeing was Azriel in a pool of blood more than 50 feet away from you, mouthing something at you. Then you blacked out.