"Hey, Lucien! Come on in! Rhys is dealing with something first but he'll be ready for you any moment! Come on, you want something to drink?" Feyre excitedly hugged and dragged Lucien into the living-room where the rest of the Inner Circle, her sisters and Nesta's friends Gwyn and Emerie were gathered.

"No thank you. I'm just here to drop off some documents and after that some stuff at my appartment." Lucien answered, adjusting the duffelbag slung over his shoulder.

He could have sworn it was far heavier than it was supposed to be, but whatever.

"Hey~ There's my favorite redheaded male! I knew you couldn't stay away for long!" Cassian grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

For some sort of reason the illyrian had taken on the habit of flirting with Lucien who on a good day humored it and on a bad one simply tolerated it.

"Oh, but of course I couldn't stay away from my favorite warrior who's as beautiful as powerful." Lucien answered with a charming smile as snickers were heard around them, Cassian beaming back.

"How are you doing, Nesta?" he pointedly turned to the oldest Archeron sister who smirked without looking up from her book.

"Just fine, Lucien. Thanks for asking." she answered, ignoring the way her mate was pouting at her as her friends on either side of her giggled.

"Ladies." Lucien nodded at them too before exchanging greetings to the rest of the inner circle.

And to Elain, who was sitting by herself and who barely looked up from her lap to spare him a short glance.

Like always.

"Anyway, I asked what's up earlier." Feyre snapped him from the depressing thought by bumping her hip against his and he could have sworn his bag moved more than it should have.

"I would like to know that as well." a new voice purred and turning around everyone found Rhysand making his way to them.

"Well, I assume you brought what we discussed, little Lucien?" the High Lord asked with an amused smirk that made Lucien have to struggle not to roll his eyes at.

Instead he nodded with a "Right here, High Lord," and dropped his bag from his shoulder to the ground.

He however didn't expect it to squeal as he did so.

And judging from the looks around them neither did the others.

"What the hell?" Cassian asked what everyone was thinking before Lucien knelt down and slowly unzipped the bag, ready for anything when-

"Oh, for the love of-! Seriously?!" he yelled as seven furry little heads popped out, some whining and yipping at each other and some looking around and sniffing at their new surroundings.

"A-Are those actual foxes?" a stunned Rhysand asked, his earlier swagger completely gone as he stared at the animals.

"Indeed they are," Lucien sighed, rubbing his temples as the kits managed to wiggle completely out of the bag and stretch their paws, "I apologise. They must have snuck into my bag earlier back at the manor. Let me just- Ack!" he went to say when he was suddenly bowled over by some force and send flying backwards a few feet.

"Oww! Fuck!" he groaned as he got up from where he landed, ready to fight whoever knocked him back, only to find six of the seven females in the room kneeling in a circle around the foxes, cooing and squealing at the animals, with Amren the only one standing back, though she did look interested.

"Lucien, they're adorable! Where did you get these foxes?" Feyre asked excitedly and then all eyes were on him again.

"I found them near the manor I share with Jurian and Vassa. Their mother was killed by hunters and left there. Since these little ones are too young to survive on their own I decided to take them in for now." he explained.

"Wait," Cassian grinned slowly, "So you're saying you adopted them?"

"No, I didn't adopt them! I'm just temporarily taking care of them till they can take care of themselves!" Lucien snapped, growing tired of having to already constantly tell his human friends and now the Night Court too.

"I suppose that as a High Lord's son from the Authum Court, you would know how to survive in a forrest and be able to teach them as well." Amren stated, not really a compliment, but simply stating a fact.

She was also the only female not openly swooning at the kits.

"Right, and only for teaching them to survive and then be on their own again." Lucien said firmly, glancing the room, frowning at the disappointed whining he recieved from both foxes and fae.

"You sure about that? I mean, most people wouldn't put cute colorful bows on animals they didn't plan on keeping." Mor pointed out.

"Those weren't my idea! Vassa put them on them!" he shot back, despite at the same time kneeling down and fixing the purple bow one of the female foxes was hearing around her neck and was sitting by his leg whining louder than the rest, muttering a quick, "It's okay, Kanti, no need to shout."

They were all wearing bows around their necks, the four boys having green, dark blue, light blue and yellow bows at the front and the three girls purple, red and pink bows at the back of the neck.

"And you gave them names too!" Emerie grinned.

"Again, Vassa did so!" he shot back.

"Still, can you tell us all their names?" Gwyn asked and he sighed, knowing they weren't going to drop it.

"Fine," he groaned, "Ladies first I guess. You heard how the one with the purple bow is Kanti. The one with the pink bow is Sandy and the red one is Matilda. The boys, in order of green, light blue, dark blue and yellow are Enzo, Orion, Gizmo and finally Jun." he gestured to each fox when calling their names, each of them perking up as he did so.

"So that's your names! Hi, Enzo! And hello Matilda!" Feyre cooed at the green and red kits that were wrestling in front of her, reaching out and laughing when they both started lightly biting her hands.

"Lucien, you have to bring them over more!" she then announced and Lucien felt like banging his head against a wall, especially at the agreeing cheers she gathered.

Seriously, what part of only keeping them till they could care of themselves did nobody understand?!

"Feyre Darling, hang on a moment," Rhysand was surprisingly the one to come to Lucien's sanity's defence, "This isn't a petting zoo. You can't possibly want them around all the time."

For some reason, even when the High Lord was technically on Lucien's side regarding the matter, he couldn't help with feel slightly insulted at his words.

"Come on, Rhysie~ You just gotta give them a cuddle and you'll change your mind!" Cassian laughed, holding Jun in his arms who was licking his face.

Rhysand didn't say anything as he glanced around the room, finally looking at Lucien and giving a small shrug before kneeling down, reaching to pet Orion.

Nobody however expected the little fox who had one moment been looking up at Emerie to suddenly crouch down low and growl at him.

"Maybe you don't match with him. Here, try Jun." Cassian held out the yellow bow wearing fox, only for Jun to growl too.

"Well, it seems like none of them like me much." Rhys stated in a bored tone, though Lucien could have sworn his shoulders slumped a little like he was disappointed.

"Guess they got good taste in people." Nesta smirked, not backing down at the glare she got back.

"They'll just need to get to know you more! Only more reason to have them around more!" Feyre declared.

"Well, I suppose I'll then have to apologize to Lucien since I'm switching sides. I just can't go on knowing they hate me while they love you guys." Rhys decided and Lucien face-palmed as the others cheered.

"You agree too, right Az?" Mor asked.

Lucien had honestly forgotten the Shadowsinger was even there, standing in the corner of the room and not having said anything since he had come in.

"Hm." Azriel simply hummed, face blank as he walked over to the group, eyes on the foxes who all seemed to shrink back, some growling like they did with Rhys.

Then Sandy decided to to brave and slowly walked over, keeping her eyes on Azriel's even when she carefully sniffed his hand.

And promptly gagged and ran straight back to Lucien, jumping in his arms as the others all growled at Azriel together.

"I say they leave and never come back." Azriel huffed as everyone else laughed at him.

Lucien did make a mental note to give all foxes extra treats.

"Well, too bad, cause you're outnumbered." Feyre said and looked up at Lucien again.

"Could you please bring them over more often?" she asked, "You've got both my and Rhys' permission!"

"Feyre..." Lucien sighed, ready to reject her.

"Oh please, Lucien!" Elain then cried and he froze.

"M-My lady?" he asked nervously, brain short-circuiting as he looked into her big brown eyes.

"I think it's amazing you're taking care of them, and that you want to let them be free again but they're so small and cute! Could you really not bring them to visit sometime while you still can?" she asked, taking Sandy from his arms and hugging her to her chest, the little fox melting right into her embrace.

"I-I suppose I could bring them with me again maybe a couple times." Lucien finally gave in, be it just from his mate's effect on him or the fact that nearly everyone else looked close to begging as well.

As soon as he gave in the room errupted in loud cheers.

"But!" he yelled over them, "Now it would be better for all of them to come home with me. Come here, you guys." he said and started herding the foxes into his bag, ignoring the protests of both foxes and fae.

"Guess it's time to go with your dad, huh?" Mor said as she handed Gizmo over to Lucien.

"Not you too! I'm not their dad and they're not my kids!" Lucien groaned.

"Sure, you're not!" Cassian laughed, slapping him on the shoulder.

Lucien decided he wasn't even gonna bother arguing about it. It wasn't worth the effort.

Instead he reached into his bag, snatched the documents Rhys needed (that were covered in tiny muddy fox paw-prints) and tossed them over, sending papers flying and stuffing the foxes into the bag till only their little heads were poking out.

"Well then! This has been an eventful visit if I do say so myself, but we will be taking our leave." he announced, slinging the bag with kits over his his shoulder and turning to leave.

"Bye Lucien! See you around!"

"Till next time!"

"I'll miss you, Jun!"

With another sigh Lucien winnowed himself and the kits away.