The Beginnings of a Friendship

The One and Only Part

"There you are. I've been looking for you" 

I turn and I see a man. Male. 

The most handsome male I've ever seen. 

He has a tall frame with broad shoulders, his black hair swept back from his handsome face. However, the most striking thing about him is his eyes. A deep violet color that offsets his pale skin and dark hair. 

He shoos the other faeries off and turns to me. 

"What is a human girl doing here alone?"

I thought about lying to him but I was a little ticked off at Tamlin and Lucien for leaving me alone for so long. 

"One of my friends had to go run this stupid festival and I lost the other one in the crowd," I say as I flop down on a nearby root. 

"Your friends? You mean Tamlin and Lucien?" He says as he sits on the ground across from me. "Hm. Interesting." 

"Why is that interesting?" I ask. 

"Never mind. It is nothing." 

I give him a quizzical look before changing the subject. Talking to someone other than Tamlin, Lucien or Alice was... amazing. The time flys and suddenly his face is bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun. 

We've been talking for hours. 

"I should probably head back to the house. I'm not supposed to leave my room tonight." I tell him.

"I escort you."

"That's really not..."

"I insist." 

"Okay."

We walk back towards the house in silence. 

When we reach the door, I turn to him. "Thank you."

He turns to leave and before I can stop my self I blurt "come inside."

He stills.

"I understand if you want to go back to the party, but I'm going to be stuck in my room all night, and I could use some company."

He sighs. He turns towards me and closes the distance between us until our noses are inches apart. He inhaled deeply. 

"As you wish."

He grabs the doorknob from behind my back and twists, pushing the door open. 

I turn and head into the house. As we pass by the kitchen, he inhales deeply and I can hear the faint sound of his stomach growling. I gesture at him to wait there as I head in and grab an arm full of deserts. I dump the sweets in his arms and head back into the kitchen to grab my own.
When I reach the hall I turn and head back towards the stairs. He follows me up and down the hall to my room. When we reach the door he sniffs, going still. The hesitation lasts only a moment before he follows me into the room. I dump the sweets on the bed and grab a tunic and leggings before heading into the bathroom. 

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable. I need to change but I'll be right back."

Once I close the door, I realize that I just let a man I barely knew into my house. I don't even know his name. 

I change quickly and head back into the bedroom. 

He is sitting awkwardly on the side of the bed, the sweets he carried had joined mine in a pile on the middle of the bed. 

"What's your name?"

He turns to look at me, his eyes meeting mine. 

"I realized I invited you into my house--into my room and I don't even know your name." 

He considers me for a moment. 

"Rhysand."

For some reason the name feels like an answer to a question I did not know I was asking.

" But my friends call me Rhys."

"Well, Rhysand. It's nice to meet you."

"I said my friends call me Rhys."

"Oh. Are we friends now?"

"I'm sitting in your room, aren't I? Are you trying to say you make a habit of inviting strange men into your bedroom?" 

My face heats up. "No! I... I just..."

"I'm only teasing, Darling. Yes. We are friends."

I nod at him and make my way over to the bed. "As your friend, I should warn you that if you aren't careful I will eat all of these sweets by myself."

His laugh makes my stomach flutter. 

After we settled down, he turned to me. 

"So. How did you end up here. Last time I checked, Tamlin didn't have human guests."
"Well, its a long story..."

And I begin to tell him everything. I tell him about the wolf who was really Fae and Tamlin kidnapping me from my house. I tell him about my few weeks here and about the incident with the Suriel. 

"You caught the Suriel?" He said, a small smile on his face. "I'm impressed." 

After we arrived at the present day the topic changed to family. I told him about Nesta's fire and Elaine's kindness. I told him about my childhood and my father's debt and he told me stories about his chosen family.

"He did what?" 

"He destroyed a building."

"Wow."

Eventually, we nodded off. 

I woke up to growling. 

"Stand up and get behind me." 

Tamlin. 

Shit. 

I sit up slowly and survey the mess that is my bedroom. There is chocolate all over the bed sheets, and cookie crumbs on the pillows. To top it off, Rhys is lying with his face buried in one of the pillows. If not for the tense set of his shoulders I would have said he was still sleeping.
"Good morning Tam," I say. 

"Why is there a male in your room." He says, the calmness in his voice a warning of the wrath to come. 

"Nothing happened." I insist. "He saved me from three faeries yesterday and since you told me to stay in my room all night, which sounded so boring, I invited him to keep me company," I state. "And Rhys was..."

A soft shit came from the male lying beside me as a snarl ripped from Tamlin. 

"Rhysand?!"

Rhys sits up and slowly turns towards Tamlin. 

"Ah Tamlin, always a pleasure. But as it is much later than I intended to stay, I must be going." He angles his head towards me. "It was a pleasure to meet you..." 

A growl cuts me off before I can respond. 

"Ah. Well, you have excellent taste in guests, Tamlin. Goodbye"

And with that, he disappears, and I am left to face Tamlin's fury.