"Did Cassian just call for me?" Mor said with an apologetic smile towards you. "I better go."

You wanted to kill her as she practically ran out of the room leaving you alone in the room with Azriel. With a deep breath, you span on your heel to face him, hoping desperately that he would have followed behind Mor and left you in your self-pity. He hadn't. Azriel was still stood in the doorway and for once you were annoyed to see him.

"How much did you hear?" You asked, hoping that somehow, he had become deaf and hadn't heard anything you had been talking about. It was a stupid hope but there was part of you that wanted to cling to that.

"Well, Mor didn't really wait long before she started your conversation about me," he shrugged.

You really didn't want to hear that. You knew that it would ruin your friendship and just cause issues amongst everyone as then it would become common knowledge of them all now that Azriel was aware; although if Mor already knew, maybe they did too.

"I... I don't know what she was talking about, it was a completely hypothetical conversation without any basis in fact," you claimed but it was almost as useless as when you had tried to lie to Mor previously.

"Would you change your stance on that if I told you that Mor wasn't incorrect?" You asked.

You raised an eyebrow at him. "Incorrect about what?"

Azriel took a step closer to you, limiting the gap between the two of you.

"That I like you, actually probably more than that," he stated. "Frankly, I'm surprised that you didn't know. I wasn't trying to hide it."

"You don't have to pity me and lie to me."

He closed the gap between you so that he was able to touch a hand to your cheek, his scarred fingertips running across your skin.

"I would never lie to you," he said softly. "Although I did not try to hide how I felt, I didn't want to overstep a boundary by telling you directly. I wasn't aware you were trying to hide how you felt either but as you didn't say anything, I assumed you had a reason to not wish to speak to me on the matter."

"Well, I didn't think you cared for me as anything but as a friend."

Azriel smiled down at you. "I care for you for more than as a friend."

~*~

Written by Charlotte.