Rhys woke with a groan and reached over to the other side of the bed and found it cold as had happened countless times in the past, but over the last six months it had become unusual enough that he sat up and looked around trying to locate his wife. But Feyre's side of the bed was neatly made as if she hadn't even slept there. And now that he thought of it, had she even come to bed?
He rolled out of the bed and padded through the dark house looking for the one room where the light was on. On the third floor, looking out over the courtyard garden, was Feyre's home art studio. One of the two studios he had gifted to her as a wedding gift. The other studio stood on the banks of the Sidra looking out over the water. She used that studio to teach any underprivileged children Velaris had to offer three days a week. Two more days a week she went back to the Slip to teach painting in an afterschool program that Rhys had started in her name.
He pressed the door open just a bit further to watch Feyre in her element. She wore one of his old t-shirts, now completely stained with acrylic paint, and a pair of leggings while she stopped to assess the canvas she was working on. Her long golden brown hair was twisted up in a knot and skewered with a long handled paint brush. Rhys had no doubts that she had paint likely in her hair, smudging her face, and on her hands and arms. It was a sign she was invested in whatever she had decided to paint.
There you are, Darling. I've been looking for you. The words flitted through his mind once again, as they did often. The words that had changed the course of his life as far as he was concerned. If anyone were to argue that his life was no different because to all outward appearances it wasn't, the words had certainly changed the course of Feyre's life.
She had been skeptical of him at first despite that spark of recognition he had witnessed in her eyes. She didn't truly know where she had seen him before but even now she still pondered on how she could have known him so well, how he had known her so well before they had truly met. She would have blamed her sisters, he knew since he had met them first, but Nesta and Elain knew little about her in reality. They hadn't known her desire to draw and paint had gone beyond a hobby. They hadn't even known where she was working. So she couldn't say that he had some sort of connection with her before truly meeting her. And she viewed any attempts of him telling that he met her in a dream, in many dreams, as teasing and only teasing. But there had been and still was no denying their chemistry. Even his own family thought Feyre and Rhys had to have been crafted to be with each other, as silly as it sounded.
They had only dated for a couple of weeks before he had moved her away from the Slip into his house, less so from being eager and more because she had developed a bad cough that wasn't uncommon with the smog polluting the air. On top of treatment at Dawn Hospital, if she truly wanted to avoid the cough returning she had to limit her time in the Slip until the air quality improved.
Moving her into his house had caused their courtship to go far faster and kept their relationship from the media until he had turned up to a speech with a wedding band on his finger only six months after meeting Feyre. His family had at least been able to attend when they had married on a whim one night. Feyre hadn't wanted to spend the money on a big wedding nor had she cared for one. She wasn't interested in planning any sort of wedding either. So Rhys had called his family and a judge to his house and they had married in the sitting room, and that had been enough for him and certainly more than enough for Feyre.
"Feyre, you need to sleep," Rhys reminded her when she stepped back from her painting once more. She turned one pointed ear towards him and he saw a smirk light her face at being caught.
"I just wanted to finish this one up but it's proving to be difficult," she informed him.
He waited until he was sure she wasn't about to start painting again and walked up behind her, bracketing her hips with his hands to look over her shoulder at the painting of the night sky. As his eyes wandered over the starscape, he let his hands wander over her hips, across her stomach, and down her thighs just to touch her.
When Feyre had first let him hold her, he had been struck by how small she truly was. How so many missed meals had worn on her body making her unhealthily thin. It had taken several months of convincing to get her to eat more than the bare minimum as she had trained herself to live on. She could eat until she was full now and Rhys had made sure she never felt guilty for how much she piled on her plate. Now her body was filled out to a healthy degree and he enjoyed the supple flesh beneath his hands and against his body.
"Don't you have a bill to present in the morning?" She asked, turning in his arms to press her body against his.
"Yes," he bent to press his lips to her brow.
He had spent a good amount of his political career over the past year working on a bill to help clean up the Slip. He used the notes on Feyre's very preventable medical conditions and the statistics from the clinics in the Slip to explain the need for improving the air and water quality and improve worker conditions. Since he had married Feyre, he had taken to shamelessly presenting her to his fellow senators, letting her tell her story without prompting from him to win them over to the cause. With her help, he was certain the bill would pass and beyond that, several corporate tycoons were reported to have started charities in the Slip to help with some of the glaring poverty. He blamed all of the success on her charming personality.
"Then you should get to bed," she peered up into his face and he couldn't help the smile that spread across his lips. "I don't want to hear that you fell asleep while presenting your big bill."
"Only when I have you with me," he pulled her in closer. "You know how I hate sleeping without you."
He did hate sleeping without her. After they had met, she no longer visited his dreams. It had led to some very long nights where he hadn't been able to stay asleep for long. It had only remedied when they had started sharing a bed.
"I honestly thought I'd be finished with this tonight," she sighed, setting her paint brush in the water cup. "But it doesn't seem to be cooperating."
"Maybe some sleep will make things easier in the morning," Rhys promised her. He kissed the top of her head and smiled at the painting.
To be perfectly honest, when he had first seen her work, he had been blown away. For someone that hadn't had much access to supplies or time to practice, Feyre had been exceptionally talented. He almost offered to send her to art school but he doubted she would actually learn much. So instead, he supported her as much as he could with the exception of having to stop her for food and for sleep.
At least she seemed to agree with him that it was time for bed and happily followed him out of her art studio and down to the bedroom where he promptly stripped her naked and deposited her in the bed. She smiled up at him and he couldn't help but want to kiss her senseless.
As he finally settled down next to her, wrapped as much around her as he could get, Rhys smiled and felt his whole body relax. The bill would pass tomorrow. Life would improve for the people in the Slip, not quickly, but it would happen. And he and his dream girl would spend the nights for the rest of their lives entangled just as they were now with her already slipping into sleep and him not too far behind. Before he fell completely asleep, Rhys thanked the Cauldron, the Mother, and the stars above that he had been given the opportunity to find his Feyre as he had done every night since meeting her and would continue to do so until the day he perished from this world.
A/N: This is the final piece of this story. Thank you for reading and I love all reviews. If, for some reason, you see broken text on any of my stories as has been a constant issue for me here, I cross post all stories on AO3 under the same titles and fandoms. Thank you!