When Iris huffed, Cas braced himself for another round of protests, but luckily, she gave up after a moment and closed her lips around the end of the fork. He supposed it had taken feeding her himself for her to finally start listening to his advice. If she had just followed the directions the first time, he wouldn’t have had to resort to this, but at least [i]something [/i]had worked to get her to stop being so stubborn. He couldn’t complain as long as she was eating and drinking. Besides, it would have been a lie for him to say that no part of him enjoyed sitting by her side, offering her mouthfuls of a meal he’d cooked for both of them. Even though he hadn’t meant it to be romantic, he wasn’t dull enough not to notice that they were acting like an infatuated couple.

Bringing the fork back down to the plate to collect another small bite of vegetables, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that it was the first time he’d ever played doctor for a woman he had feelings for. The thought brought another bout of color to his face. [color=#b97703][i]I’m never going to get over this stupid crush, am I?[/i][/color] He wondered with a soft sigh. No matter what he did to move on from her, his heart always dragged him back down into the depths of puppy love. If he was honest, he [i]wanted [/i]to take care of her as a boyfriend rather than just the man whom she was helping escape from the rebellion. Status and affiliations aside, she had all the traits he was looking for in a partner, and it killed him to know that they couldn’t be together—especially since she had told him she still had feelings for him too.

At first, he had denied the possibility that her feelings had been real at all, but as they spent more time together, he could see that she really was the same girl he’d fallen for in the capital. She had been manipulated and confused by the people closest to her, but she was still sweet and caring and impossibly beautiful. In a way, he almost wished she was a horrible person. At least then, it would have been easier for him to move on from her. Instead, he had to keep wrestling with emotions that shouldn’t have existed, all because she was exactly the same as the amnesiac he’d found in the woods that fateful night.

Lost in his thoughts, it took him a moment before he lifted the second forkful of food to her mouth, his dark eyes lingering on her lips that were flush with color because of the fever. He both loved and hated that he knew what those lips felt like when pressed against his own and that he wanted to remind himself of the experience again. He had to keep his promise to Maisie though, for her sake and for Iris’s. And even for his. So, taking a deep breath, he did his best to push the enticing thoughts aside and focus on making sure she ate her lunch.

[color=#b97703]“Just a couple more bites,”[/color] he beckoned her, his voice slightly softer than it had been before. [color=#b97703]“After that, you don’t have to eat any more. I just want to see how your stomach does with a little food in it.” [i]And then I’m going to need to take a cold shower,[/i][/color] he added to himself, swallowing as he tried to calm his still-racing heart. He hoped she got better quickly because he wasn’t sure how much longer his willpower could last if he had to spend many more days with her. The feverish blush on her cheeks was much more attractive to him than it should have been.