Her Name Was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius (A ToG High School Au)

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Aelin POV

The smell of coffee filled my nostrils as I walked into Mala's Brews. The past few days have been exhausting, what with having to talk to the cadre much more than I'd like to and making sure Elide doesn't kill Lorcan, even though I wouldn't mind seeing that. Plus all of my school work. And Aedion is constantly nagging me to teach him a few tricks with the very shape blades he has seen when I come back from spying. 

However, Elide is a lot less sad. Now, she's less tearful and more... vengeful. It's a change. Hopefully for the better. Hopefully she'll get over him. It doesn't stop r from wanting to bust his balls every time I see him. Elide's not the only angry one.

"Hey, Aelin, over here!" I heard my name being called as I looked for a place to sit. Dorian was waving me over, sat opposite an apprehensive Chaol. I smiled at them and waved as I walked towards them. Dorian moved over, gesturing for me to sit next to him in their little booth. I slid into the seat, much to Chaol's dismay. He really doesn't trust me. Dorian probably shouldn't, either, considering I'm literally planning to kill his Dad.

"What's up?" I asked politely.

"Oh, nothing really." Dorian replied, "what's up with you? Is Elide okay? Manon said she was going through some shit, and I heard about the break up."

"The whole school has. She's doing alright, we try to avoid Lorcan as much as possible though." I nodded my head a little, and an awkward silence settled. between the three of us, broken only by Dorian slurping his coffee. Chaol looked at me, unblinking, as if he was trying to figure out all of my secrets. He could try, but I could guarantee he wouldn't come to the right conclusions.

"Why were you talking to Manon Blackbeak?" I asked after a while. Everyone seemed to avoid her, apart from Elide and her little gang. Hell, my time sat next to her in class certainly has set my opinion of her too high. She's very... guarded. And harsh. And sometimes she reminds me of a vampire.

Dorian blushed, "We're friends. Of a sort. I don't know. We've been out for coffee once and had some weird conversations-" Dorian blushed a deep red, almost as red as a certain Blackbeak's favoured lipstick colour, and started to ramble.

"You like her." I teased. Chaol said nothing, but I could swear a little glimmer of hurst flashed in his eyes. It did not seem very best friend-like. 

"Yes.. no... maybe... ugh, I don't know." Dorian threw his hands into the air, and I chuckled. Chaol stayed silent, but seemed a little saddened. Dorian was completely oblivious to it, maybe I was just reading into it too much.

"Well, don't come to me for advice. I'm shit at that kind of stuff." My mind momentarily flashed back to Sam, and how it took me so long to realise I had feelings for him. And how little time we got to spend together.

"Aelin?" Dorian snapped his fingers in front of my face, I must've zoned out. I blinked and came back to reality, Chaol scrutinizing me with even more intensity then before. It would've made me uncomfortable, but when you work as an assassin for a few years you tend to get used to those suspicious looks.

"What about you, Chaol? Any special people in your life?" I asked, turning the attention onto him.

"Nope." He sipped his drink - end of discussion. Although his eyes did linger on Dorian for a bit- I shook the thoughts out of my head. I should really be asking about Dorian's dad, but that'd make Chaol even warier of me, and God knows I did not want that. Silence settled on us again, and I looked around the little coffee shop, desperate for something to look at. Then my eyes settled on a pair of green eyes, a face tattoo and silver hair. Glaring right at me, for God's sake. I raised my eyebrows at him, silently asking him what he wanted.