Chapter 15 is here. I'll be honest with you, I'm not entirely happy with how this one turned out, but I can't really put my finger on why (I feel like it's paced weirdly somehow). Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Feyre went home after breakfast, hugging Lyra and kissing Rhys at the door.

"You can stay you know, Lyra likes you, I don't think she'll mind," he'd whispered, but she'd shook her head.

"No it's okay. I need to go home, and I want you to enjoy being with your sister while she's here. Call me?"

And just like that, he was alone with Lyra. They watched a movie at first, then she dozed off again and he called Cassian and Azriel while she slept. They were arriving at his place when she woke up.

"Hey you little runaway!" Cassian said when she was hugging him. "Did you miss us so much that you felt the need to lie to come see us?"

"Miss you? I missed Azriel the most!" She teased him, finishing her greetings before sitting back on the coach.

"Sorry Cas, you know I've always been more of a charmer than you," Azriel said, taking the spot besides Lyra and smirking at him.

Rhys went to the kitchen to make coffee and smiled. It was always easy to be with them. Cassian and Azriel had already been part of the family when Lyra was born, and for her, there was no difference between the three of them, they were just her brothers, blood related or not.

"So Lyra," continued Azriel, "What the hell happened at home?"

"Oh you know, I talked about how I wanted to go to the mountains this summer, dad told me he'd made inquiries about a summer camp on the East Coast, I said I wouldn't go. And then he told me about his grand plan for my life: to go to college, meet a boy, get married and have children. You know, because that's the only thing a girl might want in her life."

Cassian laughed. "Oh obviously. But you and your father have this exact same argument about twice a month these days. What made you storm out and come here?"

"I didn't just tell him about med school, I told him about Doctors without Borders. He totally freaked out, and he told me he'd never planned on agreeing with me going to med school in the first place, and that he certainly wouldn't agree now that he knew I wanted to waste my life away."

Cassian rolled his eyes at Rhys who'd come back from the kitchen with coffee and some leftovers from breakfast, and said: "A real prize, your father."

"Tell me about it. By now he should know that our Lyra here is going to do whatever she wants."

Azriel snorted and added: "I'm honestly surprised he's still trying. You're too much like your mom Lyra. Doesn't he know how stubborn she is, and how she always gets what she wants?"

"I think Dad sometimes forgets that Mom's parents didn't want them together, and that they ended up having to accept because of how stubborn she is." Rhys poured two mugs of coffee and some orange juice, before continuing. "If he thinks the women in our family will simply bend to his will, he's in for a ride."

"Yeah well I can disagree all I want, he's still the one that's going to refuse to pay for school, so he wins."

"Lyra, there are other means to pay for your education you know," Rhys answered, "You can take up a loan, you can work for a few years before you start, and worse comes to worse, I'll lend you some money if you don't have enough."

"I don't want you to pay for this."

"Did I stutter? I said I would lend you money, not give it to you."

She gave him a shy smile and said:

"Thank you. Dad's still going to be pissed when I'm thirty and don't have the husband-and-children pack secured."

Azriel, who'd been sipping his coffee in silence, said quietly: "Don't worry Lyra, Rhys is on his way to securing this for himself, you'll have a few years of tranquility once he gets married."

Thankfully, Cassian and Lyra laughed loud enough to cover the strangled song that came out of Rhys' lips.

"What?!" He managed to get out.

"Oh don't be shy, bro, we all know you have a girlfriend," Cass grinned.

"Yes I do, a girlfriend. That I met less than three weeks ago. Can we all stop planning my future for a second?"

They only grinned wider and Lyra spoke:

"Actually, seeing you two together this morning, it really doesn't look like it's only been three weeks."

"'This morning', huh? Interesting," Cassian said.

"It's not 'interesting'. She spent the night here, that's all. I understand Lyra smirking, but you two are adults, why should I be ashamed of having someone over?" For all that he said to them, he still felt his cheeks burn.

"She didn't just spend the night though. She made breakfast. Pancakes and orange juice."

"She did? Interesting."

"You're such an ass, Cassian."

"Don't listen to him, Cass. And yes she made breakfast, and it wasn't too bad. I mean, her pancakes were a bit dry and undercooked, but it was good enough with maple syrup."

"How does one manage to make pancakes both dry and undercooked?! That's completely illogical." Azriel said, and this time, Rhys didn't repress his chuckle. It was illogical, but Feyre was exactly that way: an illogical marvel, sweet and funny and witty. And maybe some parts of her were a bit broken, but she was healing herself, and maybe he would be able to help her, if she let him.

The weekend was over before he wanted it to be. With Lyra here, they'd spend their time walking around in Velaris, buying waffles and eating them seated on benches in front of the Sidra. He loved when she was around, laughing and chatting endlessly, a lighthouse beckoning him to her, and he couldn't suppress his joy when he was with her. Plus, it didn't hurt that his brothers and Mor had joined them most of the time, and seeing them all together always warmed his heart. Only Amren was absent, his business partner that had somewhat become a friend over the years. He considered her part of his family, but she would never agree with him, this solitary creature that didn't like admitting she cared about them. So she hadn't come for more than an hour on Saturday, greeting Lyra, lunching with them and then leaving again.

Lyra and him had spent the entire following night binge-watching a TV show, and she was still obsessively talking about it when they arrived at their parents' house on Sunday afternoon. He parked in the driveway and as they approached the front door, Lyra grew silent and lingered behind him.

"Come on sis, it's gonna be fine."

"They're mad, I'll be grounded."

"Of course you'll be, you ran away from home, what did you expect?" Still, he took her hand in his and didn't let go when their parents opened the door.

His mother beamed with joy when she saw them both, hugging them in turn and leading them inside. His father was leaning on the wall closer to the kitchen, behind her, and said nothing while they took off their coats. He nodded quietly to his son, but his eyes didn't leave Lyra, who approached sheepishly. When she was standing in front of him, he didn't give her time to open her mouth before he took a step towards her and crushed her into his arms.

They didn't speak for a while, his father simply hugging his daughter against him, his eyes closed. Then he gently let go of her, took her face in his hand and finally spoke:

"Lyra, please don't ever disappear like that again."

She seemed as baffled as Rhys was when she answered: "I'm sorry, Dad."

He gave her a kiss on the brow and led them all to the kitchen table. When they were all seated, their mother spoke:

"Lyra, we're glad you're back, but what you did is unforgivable. Did you think about how worried we would be? Did you think about everything that could have happened to you?!"

"Mom I'm sorry. And Rhys already gave me the talk about how stupid what I did was."

Wrong thing to say, and Rhys winced as he saw his father's eyebrows narrow.

"Oh and you think that because your brother scolded you for probably a minute before showering you with presents all weekend, you're off the hook?"

"No, Dad, that's not what I meant, I…"

"Go to your room. I don't want to see you down here until dinner, we'll talk punishment then."

Lyra left, giving him a miserable look, and when he looked back at his parents, they seemed wary, tired, older that he'd ever seen them. They were holding hands and looking at each other, relief straining their faces. He watched them for a moment before speaking:

"Dad, you need to stop."

They both looked at him at the same time and his father spoke:

"What?"

"You need to stop pressuring her. She knows what she wants in life, she has a purpose to work towards. You can't force her to be someone she's not."

"Rhysand, that's not what I'm doing, I want what's best for her."

"And you think stifling her every decisions is doing what's best for her?"

"She's too young to realize that she's making wrong choices."

"You really think that wanting to be a doctor is a wrong choice?" And before his father could answer, he continued, "and even if it was, then let her make her own errors! You can't coddle her forever, not when she doesn't want you to."

"She's too young to know what she wants to do with her life, she still has time."

"And sending her to the other side of the country for two months will help?"

"It's better than spending two months in the mountains."

Before Rhys could answer, his mother spoke.

"Honey, I grew up in those camps. Illyrian is a part of who I am, of who our children are. You can't keep them away forever."

"I don't want our daughter coming back covered in ink."

"Dad, she won't. I know you think of my tattoos as the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life, but they're not. And Lyra is not me, anyway. She's not going to take part in the Rite, and she's not going to get tattooed next summer."

They sat there for an eternity before his father answered: "I'll think about it."

Hours later, Rhys was driving through Velaris, stopping only for food before arriving home and eating on his couch. He'd imagined this weekend going a lot differently. He hadn't imagined his sister showing up, hadn't imagined a family reunion over waffles, or a heart-to-heart with his parents. Mostly he'd imagined spending the whole weekend with Feyre, not much else in mind that her smiling at something stupid he'd said, or rolling her eyes when he flirted shamelessly with her. He was glad of how these two days had turned out, but he did miss her terribly. He picked up his phone and dialed, already hearing her beautiful voice sing in his head before she answered.