Even without looking at her, Cas knew Iris wasn’t any happier about the situation than he was. She had said that she was fine with being with him for just a few days, but he knew he couldn’t disregard the feelings he had for her so easily. He had a sneaking suspicion that she wouldn’t be that nonchalant about it either if they actually tried to go through with her idea. She was too caring of a person to have a fling with no strings attached. He knew because he was the same way.

His friend, Jay, had had a few hookups with girls and had encouraged him to ‘just try it’ on multiple occasions, insisting that he’d have fun. However, the furthest he’d ever managed to get was locking lips with a woman at the bar. Of course, someone had caught a photo of the event and it immediately hit headlines that the crown prince had “gotten some strange,” but he’d regretted his drunken actions after he’d sobered up. The girl had meant nothing to him, and he’d meant nothing to her aside from becoming part of a story she had probably told all her friends. Even though he’d thought she was hot, he’d realized that he couldn’t just hook up with women and carry on like nothing had happened like Jay did. He was too deeply entangled in his romanticized vision of being with someone whom he truly cared about. That paired with his budding feelings for Iris meant that it would be impossible for him to have a casual relationship with her before they parted.

Sometimes being an emotional person was a pain in the ass.

Setting his clean plate next to the sink to dry, he let out his breath in a sigh and glanced back at the sofa, only to find that Iris had completely disregarded his instructions. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it out of spite or if she was genuinely having a hard time with the list he’d given her, but either way she wasn’t doing herself any favors by foregoing nourishment and tossing away her blanket. When he’d finished cleaning his dish, he’d planned to retreat to one of the bedrooms to put some more distance between them, but he couldn’t do that as long as she was refusing to take care of herself.

[color=#b97703]“I know you’re mad at me, but protesting isn’t going to change anything,”[/color] he frowned, walking around the counter to approach her again. He stood on the opposite side of the coffee table and reached down to pick up the bottle of water she’d set aside but faltered before his fingers brushed the edge of it. As he looked down at the container, he furrowed his brows. The water inside almost looked like it was vibrating. In the next moment, he tensed as the vibrating grew more intense and was followed by a load roar outside.

Eyes wide, he spun around to face the window as a formation of Aspirian aircrafts flew overhead. They were bulky in shape, built to carry heavy objects rather than maneuver quickly like fighter jets. [color=#b97703][i]Bombers,[/i][/color] the realization made his heart skip a beat. He’d seen them before, on the ground when they weren’t being used, but never in flight. The color drained from his face as he watched them drift menacingly over Bel Bicis like massive birds of prey. Surely his father wouldn’t have sent the military out to strike while he was still missing though? Atlas didn’t know where he was, so it was dangerous to start bombing districts when he could have been in any of them. [color=#b97703][i]Maybe he’s just trying to scare the rebels,[/i][/color] he thought, clinging to a thread of hope. [color=#b97703][i]He wouldn’t launch an attack when I could get caught in the crossfire…[/i][/color]

As he watched, his hopes were immediately dashed when the hatch on the bottom of the center bomber slowly opened, and a black mass fell from within. Time felt like it slowed down as the bomb hurtled into the next district over—the one he and Iris had been making their way toward less than an hour ago. In the back of his head, he knew what was coming, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. He was too dismayed that his father seemed to be resuming the war without a care as to where he was. It almost seemed like the king wasn’t even trying to bring him back alive.

When the bomb struck the ground, he was ripped from his thoughts by a shockwave that made the entire housing complex quake violently. Not holding onto anything, he lost his balance and fell to his knees with a startled yelp. The image of the decimated plaza filled with corpses flashed through his mind, and his heart began pounding wildly in his chest. There were still two bombers left who hadn’t released their loads. If they dropped one much closer, the building might collapse on top of them, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. They were sitting ducks.