[color=#b97703]“You too,”[/color] Cas nodded and then rolled his eyes when Iris ruffled his hair, successfully undoing the effort he’d made to tidy himself up after their make-out session. [color=#b97703]“See you tomorrow,”[/color] he said back to her, following her with his eyes as she exited the bar. As soon as she passed out of his sight, he shuddered and got up with a deep exhale. [color=#b97703][i]Yup, I definitely need a cold shower now,[/i][/color] he thought, smiling to himself as he gathered his suit jacket and tie from the other seat. It was getting harder for him to take things slow with the amnesiac as they grew closer. Since Iris still didn’t know exactly who she was, he didn’t want to move too quickly with her. Their first priority was still to help her regain the memories she had lost. Until that box was checked, he had planned to keep whatever feelings he was developing for her on the backburner. They’d confessed and kissed, but he didn’t want to inadvertently make her situation worse in the future by going much further than that. There was still the possibility that when she remembered who she was, something would come up that would prevent them from being together. For her sake, he couldn’t give in to his desire to pretend like nothing would change after she recovered from her amnesia. Tossing his jacket over his shoulder, the prince took a step toward the door and then paused when he saw Martin glance at him and hurriedly turn away. The furtive look made him shift his weight uncomfortably. In hindsight, he realized the bartender must have seen him kiss Iris. Martin had always been friendlier with him than with his father, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t tell the king about what he’d witnessed. Hoping to deter the other man from ratting him out, he offered him a smile, [color=#b97703]“Ready to call it a night, Martin?”[/color] The bartender nodded but didn’t look up from the counter he was wiping down. The smile faded from Cas’s lips, and he sighed, accepting that he was going to have to bite the bullet and approach the subject directly. [color=#b97703]“Look, I’m going to tell my dad about this soon,”[/color] he assured him, crossing his arms as he leaned in the doorway. [color=#b97703]“Just not until Iris moves out. You know how he gets… I don’t want him to kick her to the curb, so please don’t say anything.”[/color] “Do you think His Majesty will approve even then?” Martin asked tentatively, finally meeting the prince’s gaze. It was common knowledge that Atlas wanted his son to have a political marriage. The opinions of the other high borns varied wildly on the subject. Some believed it was best for the royal line to continue the tradition of using their weddings to strengthen the kingdom, while others, like Cas, thought the approach was outdated. He and Martin had never openly discussed their views, but he suspected the servant was somewhere on the former end of that spectrum. [color=#b97703]“We’ll find out when I tell him,”[/color] he shrugged, nimbly dodging the question. They both knew Atlas would never approve, but he didn’t want to say it out loud. [color=#b97703]“I’d prefer it if he finds out from me rather than anyone else though.” [/color]Glancing out the doorway, he reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. He stepped back over to the bar and withdrew a one hundred credit banknote, which he slid across the counter. [color=#b97703]“So, nothing happened. Right, Martin?”[/color] he simpered at the bartender. Martin’s eyes flicked down to the banknote, and then back up to the prince’s face. “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” he smiled, slipping the money into his own pocket. Cas relaxed. Bribery wasn’t usually his go-to strategy, but in the capital, money talked. He’d learned how to use it to his advantage on occasion—not to do anything illegal, of course, but to get around a few of the expectations his father had placed on him that he found suffocating. Being forbidden from dating was one of them. [color=#b97703]“Great,”[/color] he stepped back again to head for the door. [color=#b97703]“Goodnight, Martin.”[/color] “Goodnight, Your Highness.” -- The next day wasn’t as calm as Caspian had hoped it would be. His father had scheduled another lesson for him with his economics tutor, so he spent the entire morning playing catch up to make up for the private class he’d missed the day before. After that, he had a break for lunch—he ended up napping as soon as he cleared his plate—followed by a meeting with the king’s council. By the afternoon, Atlas was well enough to attend the meeting, but since the prince had been heading everything in regard to the rebels, they had needed him to show up too. The next two hours were spent with him repeating most of the information in his speech to the council members, who seemed to have been convinced that there was more going on than he had told the rest of the capital during the address last night. Once he managed to persuade them that there was no secret conspiracy going on with the Scourge, he spent the rest of the day in his room working on a plan to get past security so he could keep his word to Iris. He would have done so with her if not for his fear of dragging her down with him if he was caught. If any of the guards or his father discovered that he was trying to sneak out, they’d go easier on him than they would on her. So, to keep her safe, he plotted alone, so the lie that she had nothing to do with it would be more convincing if he had to explain himself to anyone. Fortunately, no one stopped by his room, so no one found out what he had been up to, and by the time night fell, he had a fairly solid plan to get them both out of the mansion without raising suspicion. Feeling confident, he threw on a pair of black jeans and a dark blue shirt and made his way downstairs to get dinner. He expected that the night was going to be a long one, so he needed to fuel up before he and Iris went back to the woods to look for her ID.