ACOTAR One Shots

Pretty Exhausting

Azriel was exhausted, but, as usual, he refused to let it show. He had a job to do as Rhys' shadowmaster and didn't have time to be tired. Rhys needed him to constantly be alert and ready for anything. There was no margin for error as far as Azriel was concerned, even if Rhys would never criticize him for being exhausted—especially after the long hours he put in.

Elain, however, had no such qualms about letting out yawn after yawn as they sat down to eat their morning breakfast.

Neither of them had gone to bed last night until well past midnight. He knew it was partly his fault. Okay, mostly his fault. He had been gone on a mission for Rhys for a little over two weeks and had just gotten back by midafternoon yesterday. That meant that he had a lot of catching up to do with his wife... the kind of catching up that Azriel liked to be thorough with.

But as Elain let out yet another yawn, Azriel couldn't help but smirk and feel slightly satisfied.

"Elain, sweetheart?" Azriel said, failing to keep the smirk out of his voice.

Elain yawned again, "Yeah, Az?"

He let out a soft laugh, "Yeah, you must be so tired being that pretty." Azriel had once told Cassian that he didn't need to resort to flattery words and poetry to pick up on women—and he didn't. But he did enjoy the slight blush that usually appeared on Elain's face when he gave her compliments. In fact, nothing made him feel more satisfied.

But instead of the blush that he expected to take over Elain's face, she just tilted her head at him. A smirk of her own graced her features, and that was when Az started to worry. Elain gazed at him, and then stated very plainly as if she was just stating another fact, "Then you must be exhausted."

Azriel felt the heat rise to his face almost instantly. Elain laughed, the sound filling the air around him. He ducked his head, tucking it into his arms, and allowed his shadows to wrap around his body. This was mortifying, he decided. Utterly mortifying to be defeated by his wife. And she had said the words with such smoothness and utter conviction! How was Azriel supposed to defend against that?

His mortification only caused Elain to laugh harder.

The Shadowsinger had never blushed so hard in his entire life, nor had he been so outsmarted by a female before—much less his wife. Azriel decided that if this ever got out to Cassian or even Rhys, Cauldron help him, they would never let him live it down.