When Iris asked if it was the first time he had cooked, Cas felt warmth creep into his cheeks. [color=#b97703]“Um, yeah…”[/color] he admitted, shuffling his feet bashfully beneath the coffee table. [color=#b97703]“Back home, we had professional chefs to do this sort of thing, so I’ve never had to cook my own food before…”[/color] He trailed off with a wince, painfully aware of how privileged he sounded now that he knew what life was like for people outside the capital. Not only did commoners have to cook for themselves, they also rarely seemed to have the ingredients to make a well-balanced meal. It was no wonder every person they had come across in Tongsen had been on the thin side.

[color=#b97703]“I know I must seem like a spoiled brat now, huh?”[/color] he sighed, dropping his gaze to the plate in his lap. The worst part was that if he’d had the option to have someone else cook for him out here, he knew he would take it in a heartbeat. He was proud of himself for throwing together a simple lunch for them, but he missed the gourmet food he’d dined on in the capital. That was something he couldn’t replicate even if they miraculously found all the ingredients, because he had never properly learned how to do it. In contrast, the stale bread and canned vegetables were practically flavorless.

Just as he’d suspected, Iris didn’t even move to touch the food on her dish. For a few minutes, he left it alone, giving her time to change her mind on her own while he polished off his own plate. The food may have been bland, but it was the only option he had, so he swallowed every last bite of it. Once he was done, he set the empty dish back down on the table and picked up his bottle of water, downing a few large gulps to quench his thirst.

[color=#b97703]“Come on, Iris, you have to eat something,”[/color] he turned back to her with a frown as he placed his drink back down beside the plate. He could tell by the amount of water left in her container that she wasn’t having much of that either. If she continued to reject any and all nourishment, there was a strong possibility that she would have to be hospitalized for dehydration, and he didn’t have the faintest clue where the closest hospital was. With their luck, it had probably been blown up in the last battle.

[color=#b97703]“I don’t want to treat you like a six-year-old, but if you’re not going to do it on your own, I [i]will [/i]stoop to that level,”[/color] he warned her, grabbing her full plate and collecting some of the vegetables on the fork, which he then held up near her mouth. In the back of his head, the part of him that was still smitten with her was reveling in how close they were on the sofa, but he ignored the thought. He was just doing what he had to do to keep her from making her condition worse. [color=#b97703]“Open up, stubborn,”[/color] he told her, poking her bottom lip with the forkful of food. [color=#b97703]“It’s for your own good.”[/color]