Nightfall {An Azriel (ACOTAR) FanFic}

Chapter 7

There was a small knock on his door and Azriel pried his eyes open. The sunlight made his eyes water and his head was still spinning but he dragged his legs over to the door and threw it open. Seeing nobody, he frowned until he remembered that not everybody in this house was as tall as him anymore. So, he lowered his head and, sure enough, Pippor smiled up at him.

"Good morning, Pippor." His greetings as more of a sigh.

"Good morning, shadow man!" The boy beamed at him.

"Shadow man." Azriel mumbled under his breath before saying, "What you you doing up so early?" The sun was barely peeking up from the clouds and the sky was bathed in red.

Pip slouched his shoulders and pouted, "It's mum. We need to go back."

"Did something happen to her?" He frantically inquired, alertness snapping into his senses.

"No." Pip shook his head. "She says we need to go back to our home."

"Ah." Azriel rolled his shoulder. "Have you told Rhysand or Feyre that you won't be here?"

"I don't know." The little kid strolled into Azriel's room. "Ask mum. Get dresses." He instructed. "I want to go quickly."

Azriel raised his brows, "You sure are bossy for someone your age." Shaking his head, he pulled out fresh clothes from a closet and, taking one last look at Pippor to make sure he wasn't playing with a weapon, shut the door to his bathroom.

His hair were still dripping wet when Pip dragged him to his bedroom and they found Heart flipping through some papers. She stuffed them into a book and stood up.

"Did you tell Feyre we're leaving?" Azriel inquired.

"I told her last night." Heart nodded and walked around the bed.

"What exactly are going back for?" Azriel asked as he held Pip with one hand and Heart held onto his other hand.

"I'm a teacher, Azriel. I have to at least make sure my students aren't falling behind." She said and he nodded with understanding.

"Oh, yes."

Pip didn't seem to take winnowing that well but Heart was quick to take him out of Azriel's arms and rub his back when he looked a little ill. Mumbling something in his ear, she entered the house with the spymaster hot on her tail. The only sound was coming from a room to their left and Azriel took his time seeing the beautiful paintings that were hanging on every wall as Heart made Pip drink some water. A door clicked open and a man stepped out of there.

He smiled at Heart and bobbed his head, "I hope I could come somewhere close to teaching like you." He said sheepishly. Azriel noticed that he was probably a few older than Heart and also a academic of some sort. Heart thanked him hurriedly before disappearing in the room that Azriel now knew was for the students.

The man took a brief look at Azriel before smiling at Pip. "Hello, Pippor. Do you remember me?"

Pip turned his head and gave the man a restrained smile. "Hello, Sir William."

Not very fond of him, huh? Azriel wondered inside his head.

Obviously, Willaim had took no notice of that and walked close to Pip until he was standing in front of him. "Where have you been lately? I thought you would completely forget about me."

Pip's smile had fallen away and now he just looked like any other sullen child. "Mum says you can only forget people that you think about." His grumpy tone didn't help much and William had to dryly laugh at the jab while Azriel turned his head to hide his smile. He decided to look out of the window and the luscious garden that spread out before him. It wasn't like Velaris but he could tell it was well looked after and might have had a lot of memories judging by the digging toys that were still lying in the grass. It seemed as if someone had planted something near a fence. That someone, of course, being Pippor. A small river ran just outside the fence. It was quiet narrow and didn't look very deep.