Rowaelin au

Chapter 7

Not my art. 

It was almost Christmas. They had just gotten out for Christmas break. Aelin was so excited! No more school, no more practice, and most importantly, she didn't need to work on the project with Rowan. She was practically skipping home. She went to her room and walked to her stash of the money she had me saving up. She shuffled the money around and counted out exactly two hundred twenty-two dollars. Score! she thought.

Aelin bundled herself in her coats and scarves and put on her thick fur-lined boots. She walked down the stairs, where Aedion greeted her, "Where are you off too?" he asked. 

"I'm going to meet up with someone at the mall." That was a half-truth. Sure, she was going to the mall, but she wasn't meeting up with anyone.

Aedion crossed his arms over his chest, "Oh yeah? Who are you going out with?" 

Well crap. He knew it wasn't Lysandra or Elide. It definitely wasn't Manon since they barely got along. Dorian and Chaol were out of the picture, and she didn't really see eye to eye, with any of the cadres. So the only person she could think of was, "Nesryn. I'm going out with Nesryn." 

"Nesryn? Isn't that the one Chaol is dating?" Aedion tried to put the pieces together, "When have you two ever hung out?" He asked. 

"We're uh... study buddies." Aelin lied as she toyed with a strand of her hair. 

"Study buddies? Everyone knows that Nesryn is top of her class. Why would she need to study?" Aedion mused. 

Aelin groaned, "Alright, Alright, you've caught me. I was going to go to buy everyone Christmas presents." 

"With what money?" Aedion asked since he knew that she didn't do anything to earn extra cash. 

"Well, I may have hustled some money from students and maybe, just maybe stole a bit from Arobynn." She smirked in approval of herself. 

"Okay. Bye then." Aelin waved then headed out the door. She wondered what that was about, but shrugged it off and walked to the mall. 

She was probably wandering the mall for a few hours before she got home. "I'm home!" She shouted. 

Lysandra threw a plastic water bottle at her head, "Keep it down. I'm watching the news." She snapped her head to look at Aelin, "What's that?" She jerked her chin to the bag in Aelin's hand, before she added, "It better not be another bomb. I can't go through that again." 

Aelin smiled at the thought of bringing home another bomb, while she shifted the bag from one hand to the other, "Just a few Christmas gifts for us." 

"Oh, now I need to get you a Christmas gift too," she said as she settled herself on the arms of the couch. 

"No Lys, I just wanted to. I know this year has been hard for you, with you and your debt with Clarisse. I know you don't like it so I decided to go get you a gift." Aelin smiled even though her "job" as a courtesan made her want to go to Clarisse and make her feel as much pain as Lys feels every time she books a "job". 

"But, you have it bad too A. You're a god damn assassin for heaven's sake. I know you don't like it either yet you do it for us. You've brought in most of the income this year and we need to show you that we are thankful for that." Lysandra argued even as she picked at her nails. 

"Do what you want Lys, just don't hurt yourself." With that, she walked up the stairs and started wrapping the gifts. 

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