Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was two days until Winter Solstice, and the world's hard edges were softened by frost and family. 

At the River House, the inner circle had gathered for their usual festivities. They had managed to cultivate a mood of geniality over board games, full glasses and food. So much food. This year the house felt fuller than ever with love - and clashing schedules. As of yet, no one had been cursed, eyes had barely been rolled and no blood rubies had arrived on the doorstep.

The disaster was brought about - as many often are - by insufficient plumbing. 

Feyre, while her taste was impeccable, had not fully planned for the amount of time each of her immortal friends loved to take at their ablutions. So while the beautifully appointed guest bathrooms were something the inner circle had oohed and ahed over when the house was first built they now drew forth sighs and occasionally yells of frustration. The main problem was there were two guestrooms for every guest bathroom. This sounds fine in practice but once you throw umpteen immortals into the mix the situation quickly becomes unmanageable.

Feyre found Nesta muttering and pacing in the hallway outside one such guest bathroom. Her hair was clearly unwashed and she wasn't dressed yet for the trip that Feyre knew Cassian had planned into Velaris’ bustling markets. Everyone knew Nesta was terrible at buying gifts - not picking them, she would often come up with multiple options for each member of their group she could just never decide which one was the best . Every year it was Cassian's job to cajole her into making a choice, usually right at the last minute. 

Nesta caught sight of Feyre and sighing loudly she announced to the bathroom door, “if this ancient creature doesn't emerge from her realm of steam soon I will break down this door and drown her in her dirty bath water!” 

All Feyre heard in response was Amren’s wicked cackle as it reverberated around the tiled room. No doubt she would be in there for hours if she hadn't been already. Feyre winced. This would end the peace.

“Why aren't you using your own shared bathroom?” 

Nesta rolled her eyes, “My darling mate decided it would be efficient to plan out who could use the bathroom this morning. Gwyn and Az have the next two slots.” 

“But you need in now?”

“I need in now.” Nesta slumped against the dark purple wall behind her, “I don't think I can deal with being late on top of having to pick presents today. I know Cassian won't mind but we have our whole day plotted out.” she shut her eyes and pressed her hand to her face pinching her nose as if she could squeeze all of the pressures of the holidays out of herself. 

Feyre knew that Nesta put a lot of pressure on herself now because of the few years she was less than stellar company at Solstice celebrations. 

“I have an idea,” Feyre clapped her hands and gestured for her older sister to follow her. “You can just use mine!”

“Are you sure?” 

“Rhys and I aren't planning to go out today, we're going to wrap presents in front of the fire later but that's about it. It's all yours.”

Nesta’s smile was answer enough that Feyre had fixed this problem. 

She didn't know why people always complained about holidays with family, this shit was easy - well, it was now that everyone got along.

As they walked along the hall, Feyre talked aimlessly about the wrapping paper she had bought in The Rainbow, it sparkled and its rich colours shifted in the light like nebulas. She talked about the menu Elain and the twins had begun preparing that morning for Solstice which was still days away. Nesta nodded along but Feyre could tell she would remain stressed until she got back on schedule. She quickened her pace as they rounded the last corner before her and Rhys’ suite of rooms. 

As Feyre went to close the door to the large bathing suite Nesta called out, “thanks Feyre.”

“Thank me once you've tried the water pressure.”

Feyre thought she heard a stifled eww from her sister but knew Nesta would deny her baby sister had got under her skin. So she left her to it.

Rhys was having a bloody fantastic Solstice so far. No one had fought - other than that tussle he and Feyre had late last night over who had prettier eyes (winner still undecided) - and he had been delightfully tipsy for three days straight. Long may it continue . He raised his tumbler in a silent salute to joy as he ambled back towards the bedroom he shared with his mate. Speaking of that sexy minx, he owed her for that hold she had got him into last night. Not that he had really tried to get out of it. 

As he drew closer to their rooms he picked up on the sound of running water. Excellent. Feyre drenched was one of his favourite states to catch her in unawares. By the cauldron was she even more slippery but it just meant you had to find more inventive ways of holding on.

Rhys opened the door quietly.

Through the veils of steam shrouding the bathroom he managed to glimpse well-muscled legs that went on and on and… Wait. Feyre was not that tall. Oh fuck.

That was when Nesta screamed. Rhys dropped his tumbler of whisky. And Cassian managed to appear out of fucking nowhere. 

“Why are you in their bathroom?” Cassian looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or start swinging his fists. “And why the hell are you looking at my mate naked?”

Rhys glimpsed Nesta out of the corner of his eye - he was trying very hard not to look -  hurriedly grabbing a towel and aggressively wrapping herself up in it.

“Don't they teach you manners when they raise you to be a High Lord?” She gestured as if knocking on a door while she spoke. Now that she had a towel Nesta managed to regain some of her viper tongue. Rhys braced himself for the lashing. What he wasn't expecting next was the laugh. A bubbling sound not too dissimilar to water from a tap was breaking free from the hand she had pressed to her mouth. “Sorry but you look like you're about to die of embarrassment. I don't think I've ever seen you look this uncomfortable before.” 

Rhys instantly schooled his features into his practised expression of neutrality. Which only served to make Nesta laugh even harder. He could see Cassian was cracking now too.

“Oh, fuck off, both of you.” His shoulders slumped as this only increased their hilarity.

“Rhys, it's fine. I'm just as mortified as you are.” Nesta shrugged, trying to make light of the incident. “Although I think I should be more so, I was the one who was naked after all?!”

And at that Rhys knew it really was fine. Family gatherings were supposed to have silly little incidents like this. They could draw a line under it and laugh about it at Inner Circle dinners for years to come.

Cassian felt pretty confident that the logic he had applied to come to his conclusion was sound. Not so sound that he felt it was necessary to share with anyone; Nesta, for example, did not need to hear of his plan. One level of his thoughts, somewhere in a dark recess of his brain, tried to warn him this was not a good idea. Nesta would be incensed. Wrathful. Really fucking angry.

But Cassian would be lying if he said fear boners weren't the best kind. After all, if Nesta never got mad they would never have sex. He sighed to himself, picturing her murderous glare as he sauntered through the River House towards the master bathroom suite.

His plan was simple. He needed to see Feyre naked. Not because of anything sexual, he wasn't a perv! No, it was because it would even the playing field.

He'd obviously seen Rhys naked, they'd been friends for five bloody centuries. And he was sure Nesta had seen Feyre naked and vice versa - they lived in a two-room cottage for years and they were siblings. So that seemed a given. 

The one remaining link after Rhys’ epic blunder - Cassian would relish the opportunity to recount how Rhys’ face looked in the moments after but he couldn't do that, not yet. Not until Nesta wasn't the only one feeling really fucking awkward. Until they were all laughing at each other’s stupidity. 

The one thing his logic hadn't accounted for was Nesta and her ability to predict his every move. 

As he rounded the corner to the wing of the house where his High Lady and Lord kept their rooms he ran into his clever mate. 

“You are not going to try and see my sister naked you giant lump.” Nesta jokingly smacked the side of his head. Damn, it was always a shame when she saw the humour of the situation. He had been starting to get aroused as soon as he realised he had been caught. 

“I won't even actually look, I just want everyone to be on the same level of awkward not-making-eye-contact-at-the-dinner-table.” Cassian whipped out his not-so-secret weapon. The puppy dog eyes, “is that so bad?”

He restarted his advance towards the bathroom door. Perfect, there was water running. The scent of lavender and opportunity was in the air.

“No, Cassian, stop.” Nesta whisper-hissed. It was genuinely comical to see her grab onto his bicep and try to tow him backwards. He knew, that she knew how to actually stop him with a few well-placed jabs so he took that as a sign to continue. If she really wanted him to stop, she would stop him. 

He reached out his hand towards the doorknob. Nesta grabbed desperately at his arm, trying to stop the inevitable.

Cassian moved slowly right up until his hand touched the cool brass and then he flung the door wide. 

Shit.

His eyes immediately made contact with a pair of piercing violet irises. 

Feyre was not bathing alone.

Dimly, he heard Nesta yelp from behind him and cover her eyes. 

Rhys growled.

Feyre seemed to flush an even deeper shade of red at the sound. 

Moments passed.

Two people were still very much naked. 

Very much naked and holding each other in an embrace that could only be described as steamy. However, Cassian could not fully appreciate the pun at this moment in time.

“Oh, it is so fucking on,” Feyre’s eyes narrowed at Cassian before flicking her wrist, summoning magic to slam the door in his face.

Nesta felt that something had perhaps gone wrong in her life, that this was the second time today she was having to prevent a family member from bursting into a bathroom unannounced. Because of course, Feyre would take Cassian’s actions from earlier as a challenge to see him naked. Rather than being mortified - as Nesta had been - Feyre found the whole thing hilarious and seemed to be relishing the opportunity for shenanigans.

Nesta had been comfortably tucked away on a window seat, back from shopping and feeling much more relaxed now that she had all her gifts purchased. Her sweeping romance book was also helping to distract her from the fact that her brother-in-law had seen everything . She had just been about to start the chapter that she knew would have the male lead make a grand declaration of love when Feyre had snuck around the corner. 

As soon as she spotted Nesta her baby sister had frozen in a comical pose. Like a deer in the headlights. Half-crouched, on her tip toes with eyes wide. Nesta breathed a long sigh.

“You don’t want to do that,” Nesta intoned as Feyre crept towards the bathroom door across the hall from the window seat on which Nesta remained perched. 

Shh. Feyre mouthed back.

Nesta rested her head against the wall behind her and stared at the ceiling, beseeching the Mother for strength to withstand all this idiocy. 

Just as she was about to say Feyre wait…

Feyre opened the door.

Nesta had instinctively leapt from her seat. Which meant that she was again seeing someone naked that she had no business seeing naked.

Nesta had known it was not Cassian in the bathroom, she probably should have stopped Feyre a bit sooner. She always forgot how quickly Feyre could move and how impulsive she could be.

This wasn’t even Nesta and Cassian’s bathroom for fuck’s sake.

Feyre was standing in stunned silence.

Nesta could see over her shoulder a surprised-looking Lucien. Holding what surely must be a smaller-than-usual facecloth over his now much less private parts. He stood next to a bath that was overflowing with bubbles and a sweet floral scent filled the air.

“Huh,” Feyre huffed. “I never took you for a bubbles guy Lucien.”

Lucien flipped her off in response. Dropping the facecloth in the sink, he smirked as both of their jaws dropped and strolled over to shut the door calmly in Feyre’s face.

Nesta and Feyre stood in stunned silence staring at the hardwood door for what felt like ages. Their jaws still hanging open.

“I really need to speak to Elain about why she is avoiding all of that ,” Feyre finally turned to Nesta a grin spreading across her face, making her look impish.

“Stay out of her business, you meddler,” Nesta paused then added quietly and with a small smile of her own. “But, yes, I completely agree.”

Cassian and Rhys found them both still giggling and blushing an hour later.

It was late evening, and Lucien had heard all about the bathroom antics of the day. He now understood Feyre’s motivation for bursting in on him naked. It hadn’t bothered him. He was a Fae male after all. What was the point of looking like this and not letting everyone see it?

Like Cassian, he felt that things had been left unbalanced. Feyre had seen him naked, you’re welcome Feyre . Which had the bonus of pissing off Rhys. Lucien hadn’t missed the way the muscle in Rhys’ jaw had ticked when Feyre salaciously described how she and Nesta had been frozen in place by Lucien’s glorious body (Feyre’s words not his). 

He had also noticed the way Elain’s eyes flared with a little jealousy and possessiveness. Another bonus.

So now he just wanted to catch Feyre in a compromising position. Mainly because he was bored and also because he had seen the challenge in her eyes at dinner. A glint that said you’re never catching me wily fox . He might also be a little bit drunk. Alcohol, he was beginning to think, should bear just as much blame as the limited number of bathrooms in this saga.

A saga he was about to end.

The fact that Lucien had learned nothing from the stories around the dinner table earlier that evening truly was a testament to the power of whisky and male pride.

It was the same male pride that wasn’t willing to admit why he was only pursuing seeing Feyre naked and not Nesta. Lucien, unlike Cassian, was not a fan of fear-based erections.

As he let the door to what he believed to be Feyre and Rhys’ bathroom swing slowly open, he reflected that perhaps he should have paid more attention to which floor of the house he was on. He was one down from where he should have been.

A damp Shadowsinger stared with unyielding eyes at him from a claw-footed bathtub, where he was soaping and combing Gwyn’s hair.

She yelped. 

Azriel growled. 

Lucien mumbled an apology before backing slowly away. Worried that any sudden movements would send Azriel into an animalistic rage response.

The Shadowsinger and the Priestess? Interesting.

It would seem that Lucien was not the only one keeping secrets about his ablutions and who he shared them with. Lucien had to admit he was glad it wasn’t his older brother that he’d found the Shadowsinger soaking with, it looked like the tension between Azriel and Eris truly was just tension.

The next morning the entire household was gradually assembling for a late breakfast. Elain had truly outdone herself: pastries, porridge and piles of bacon. Eggs: fried, poached and scrambled. Fruit cut to resemble flowers. The table looked as though it should be bowing under the weight of all the food.

They were all seated in their usual spots. Quietly conversing or awkwardly avoiding eye contact as they poured tea and coffee for one another when Nesta said, “Wait, where is Cassian? He was right behind me and Gwyn when we walked down the stairs.”

Cassian, having impeccable dramatic timing, chose that exact moment to fling the double doors into the dining room wide open.

The late-morning winter sun alighted upon every rippling muscle.

Every rippling muscle.

“Oh fuck.” - That was Nesta.

The screams were from Gwyn, Elain and Emerie - they would claim terror, Cassian would always claim delight.

The laughter was Feyre, Mor and Amren.

Various degrees of choking sounds were Rhys, Azriel and Lucien.

Meanwhile, Varian appeared to just be appreciating the view.

Cassian grinned, winking to the table at large before announcing, “I think we’re all even now.”

“Why did Mor, Amren and I have to be dragged into this?!” Elain moaned.

Amren cackled, before adding, “Cassian go put some clothes on. Some of us were trying to eat.”

“I’ve always been involved,” Mor said simply. At the general look of confusion across the table, she continued, “Power of truth? Apparently clothes, hairstyling and makeup are all lies. I’ve seen through it all.”

She slowly made eye contact with everyone at the table. 

The awkward silence was broken a few beats later by the boom of the front door closing.

“Brilliant, you’ve started the party early!” Helion laughed as he entered the room, slapping Cassian’s arse as he passed.

Just like that the awkwardness evaporated. The room exploded in easy laughter.

After all, was it true friendship if you hadn’t seen each other naked?

Elain slid deeper into the warm water of the bath. Sighing, she said, “Well, today was less awkward than I thought it was going to be. I suppose we have Helion to thank for that.” - she took the soap and moved it slowly over her arms adding to the suds and bubbles of the bath, a floral scent filled the room - “Hopefully I won’t have to hold my breath underwater this time.”

Lucien laughed in response before sliding in opposite her. Tangling their limbs together and flicking some bubbles at her face. 

Elain laughed too, her sisters had no idea what Elain wasn’t avoiding.