Of course, Iris took the opportunity to flatter him again, and Cas sat up a little straighter on the sofa, bolstered by her compliment. Before the meeting, he wouldn’t have believed it if someone had said he would do well, but now that it was over, he felt like it had gone better than expected. Apart from the setback of the prisoners’ escape, he had been able to facilitate the discussion well enough to cover all the topics they had needed to discuss in just three hours. His father probably could have done better, but as one who was still taking baby steps as a leader, he was proud of the accomplishment.

[color=#b97703]“Seriously, don’t worry about it,”[/color] he shook his head dismissively when she apologized for her motion sickness. In his opinion, it had been a best case scenario. She hadn’t vomited in the car, and she seemed to be feeling much better now. As far as motion sickness could go, he’d seen worse. [color=#b97703]“Really?”[/color] he laughed, glancing down at the sofa when she said she’d slept on it. The furniture was pretty comfortable, but so was the bed. [color=#b97703]“You have one of the most expensive memory foam mattresses in your room, and you passed out on this old thing? That’s almost blasphemous.”[/color] He shot her a teasing smirk.

As Iris rested her hand on his, Cas blinked in surprise and then averted his gaze awkwardly. Apparently she could read him better than he thought. [color=#b97703]“I wasn’t trying to…”[/color] he trailed off, biting his tongue. No, that was exactly what he’d been trying to do, and she’d called him out on it. While he hadn’t intentionally meant to be fake with her, it was true that he was covering up his stress and exhaustion from the eventful day. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. There was nothing more that could be done until the soldiers captured the escaped prisoners, so dwelling on it would just cause him unnecessary anxiety. That was the real purpose behind his false smiles.

[color=#b97703]“You’re ridiculously optimistic, you know that?”[/color] he smiled at her incredulously. If someone had just told him about potentially dangerous people loose in the capital, he wouldn’t have been nearly so cheery. He was also surprised that she chose to focus on their day in the historic district over everything that had happened since then. To him, the sort-of date felt like an eternity ago, like a distant memory lost in the chaos of the terrorist attack and long discussions that had followed. I small part of him thought she was crazy, but a larger part was inspired by her decision to use the happy part of the day to stay positive.

[color=#b97703]“Yeah, I’m sorry,”[/color] the prince’s expression turned sheepish when Iris offered him an out. [color=#b97703]“I’m too tired to go anywhere, and my friends can’t come here after what happened. Security has this whole place on lockdown. We’ll just have to find another time for them to come and meet you if you still want to do that.”[/color] With a sigh, he leaned into the cushioned crook between the back and armrest of the sofa, drawing one knee to his chest. For as stressed as he had been during the last few hours, his worries seemed to melt away when he was with her. He was still tired, but at least he wasn’t tense anymore.

She always seemed to have that effect on him, he noticed. It was the same reason why he’d tried to kiss her before the call from security had come through. He bit his lip as he thought back to it. At the time, he’d been feeling relaxed and confident, letting go of his concerns about the ‘what ifs’ because they hadn’t felt important enough to focus on. It had been just enough for him to throw caution aside and lean in. But now, he wondered if the move had been a mistake. His eyes flicked back to Iris. She hadn’t said anything, but it was possible that she was just non-confrontational. If he had made her uncomfortable, he didn’t want to leave things unresolved between them.

Steeling himself, Cas went on in a low voice, [color=#b97703]“I’m also sorry about… trying to kiss you.”[/color] He cleared his throat awkwardly, an embarrassed blush forming on his face. [color=#b97703]“I didn’t mean to make things weird between us. I just got caught up in the moment, and… well… I’m not gonna lie. I like you, Iris.”[/color] His heart raced as he laid his feelings out on the table. [color=#b97703]“I completely understand if you don’t feel the same way, and I promise this doesn’t have to change anything between us. If you just want to be friends, I’m okay with that. I’m not some delusional creep who would keep trying to make a move on you after you’ve told me you don’t want that. We can keep things platonic. It’s what I’ve been doing this whole time anyway.”[/color] He casted her a lopsided smile. [color=#b97703]“This isn’t an attempt to win you over or anything. I know you’ve got enough going on with your missing memories. I just wanted to apologize and explain why I did what I did. That’s all.”[/color]