High School Diaries (A Throne of Glass Fanfiction)

Chapter 13

 Aedion modern AU fan art by margahg!^^^

Celaena was on the roof, smoking with Rowan when it happened.

It had somehow become a pattern to miss Quinn's class and come up on the roof. Not that she was having some immediate stress or something, well, not more than usual, but this daily routine had made her less anxious.

It was easy, especially when Dorian talked Chaol into marking her proxy. So there wasn't any low attendance issue when it came to the class she was bunking daily. Chaol was pissed, the ever good and righteous fellow, but he always put his foot down when it came to Dorian. Even though Dorian had teased her about having a secret boyfriend, tried asking her seriously, she hadn't told him about where she went.

Besides someone like Rowan wouldn't be her boyfriend, such a stark contrast to Sam. Nor would he have a girlfriend like her. What was his type anyway?

She looked up at him from their usual position: her sitting down and him standing opposite her, leaning on the wall. Even though they'd been acquaintances for around a month, she studied him for the first time.

Tall, broad shouldered, every inch on him seemingly corded with muscle, he was a male blooded with power. His silver hair gleamed in a single shaft of sunlight making way to them.

As if his presence wasn't enough to scare the living shit out of everyone, a wicked-looking tattoo was etched down the left side of his neck, the whorls of blank ink stark against his sun-kissed skin, stopping just at the edge of his jaw. Like he wanted to draw on his face too but couldn't.

The markings could easily have been decorative, but Celaena's interest in history and literature recognized them as words, even in such an artistic rendering. She had a feeling the markings continued down the rest of him too, concealed by the uniform. She realized he might have been handsome, if it were not for the evergreen promise of violence in his pine-green eyes, juxtaposition with his predatory stillness, often mistaken for calmness.

Another thing she'd noticed that Rowan always moved with lethal grace and surety, scanning everything like he was on a killing field. Something she was taught to do as an assassin. He could've been naturally cautious, but something in Celaena told that he was hiding as much as she was, if not more. Even though she hadn't seen him, he felt like a person related to underground. Despite the fact that he hadn't asked his remaining 2 questions (undeterred by her pestering) or about the now visible bite marks on her forearm (fuck you, Rourke Farran), she couldn't let her guard down. As well as catch him off track.  

Celaena sighed, tilting her head to rest it on the wall, turning the lighter on and off. Today she hadn't smoked, just inhaled the sooty trail of Rowan's cigarette. This was another reason she hadn't told Dorian or anyone else about Rowan. Other than obvious smoking inside school premises being banned, she could just sit in silence with him, without feeling lonely. There was a different side of her personality that fit with Dorian and friends: all fun and games, and utterly different with Rowan: realism. And she didn't want the two to mix. Both were important to her in some way.

She suddenly wondered if Rowan told his friends about her. Lorcan had stopped giving her stink eye, resolving to ignore her. Gavriel smiled a little at her, which she returned and Fenrys winked at her, which she did not. Vaughan and Connall didn't bother. But none of them had tried to approach or really talk to her, so she guess not?

She didn't know how to feel about it.

"Celaena?" Oh how she loved the way her name sounded on his tongue, the subtle accent she couldn't put a finger on, the soft rolling purr.

"Huh?" Unfortunately, she wasn't blessed with that kind of propriety in speech.

"Your hand."

She blinked once. Then once again, registering Rowan's words and glanced at her hands. She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed that the lighter's flame was now touching her left hand.