throne of glass & acotar crossover

05

after winnowing into the small living room of rhysand's town house, everybody just stood and stared. they didn't really know how to react to aelin's extreme fighting skills - they were speechless.

"is now a good time to tell you that three of my ribs are broken?" the queen of terrasen spoke into the silence.

everyone snapped their heads towards her - azriel bit back a laugh.

"i'll fix it, fireheart" rowan mumbled, putting a hand on her lower back and guiding her up the stairs.

rhysand had recently shown them a room with a double bed and large bathtub that they could share.

aelin was silent the whole time. fatigued and injured and just didn't want to talk.

so rowan pulled off her clothes, ran her a bath and healed her ribs. even though he was slightly exhausted after just using his magic, he picked up his wife and placed her in the warm water.

she smiled softly and thankfully.

rowan then undressed himself and sat into the water behind her, his legs stretching around her own.

"mhm" aelin mumbled, leaning back into his chest in comfort. but the fae warrior just pushed her forward again, squirting some shampoo onto his hands and massaging it into her scalp.

as he continued to wash her hair, he spoke "we haven't discussed what happened with maeve".

he saw the queen's shoulders slump and heard a small, nervous sigh escape her lips.

"i-i don't want to talk about it" she began "not because i don't trust you or because i'm stubborn, i just.."

rowan nodded.

"i'm just not ready to talk about it yet. a lot of bad stuff happened but i need some time to think about it myself first".

"of course fireheart. i'll be ready to listen when you're ready to talk"

he changed the conversation after a few beats of silence.

"when i arrived into this world" rowan started "how long were you already here?"

aelin turn to face him, brows crinkled with confusion.

"2 days, why?"

"because i think time works differently. when i drew the second word mark, it was about an hour later than when i drew the one for you".

"so you're saying," aelin understood were he was going with this "is that one day here, is an hour in erilia".

rowan rinsed his hands in the water and instantly covered them once more in soap.

he began to wash her body softly with his hands, making sure not to press hard against her still healing ribs.

"yes" he replied finally "so we can stay here another day and that means we will get back to terrasen about the time everyone returns home from their daily duties".

aelin nodded. it sounded like a nice plan - at least they could have a day to relax without having to think about death and war.

after a while, the girl had fallen asleep against rowan's chest, still in the bathtub. carefully, he lifted her out and dried them both off with a soft towel and carried her to the four poster bed.

her eyes fluttered open momentarily and she snuggled against his chest.

"i love you, fireheart" he whispered into her ear. in the dark, he could see her smile and open her mouth to say something back, but sleep had fallen swiftly over her.