[h2] Cason and Esme[/h2] - Collab between Annabeth and Wolvena to not clog the thread. :)

Cason raised his eyebrows as Esme caught his eyes.  He wasn't used to her being willing to have a conversation with him.  For that reason, he didn't know how to answer her question.  He rolled the question over in his mind, coming up with answers that made him cringe, and others that made him glance down briefly at her gun.

Peering back up at her eyes, he scanned the length of her face and shrugged, "You're a tad intoxicating, honestly.  I noticed it the first time we were in a room together."

Esme watched him, waiting for him to answer the question. She could see his wheels turning on how to answer the question and even caught the glance at her gun. Had he learned to choose his words wisely yet? She wouldn’t know until he answered her, and he soon did. “Intoxicating?” she repeated the word with one eyebrow raised. Was this supposed to be some sort of pickup line? She inwardly cringed at the thought as her face slightly changed to a look of ew.

Cason was taken aback by the look on her face, as she realized what he said.  He had to admit, it hadn't come out the way it probably should have, but it wasn't completely untrue.

"Um...yeah, intoxicating is a good word.  It's like a drink of whiskey or a cigarette.  You know?", he explained, scanning her eyes to see if her facial expression changed at all.  He hadn't wanted to have this conversation just yet, with her.

Esme’s face changed very little as Canson explained what he meant by she was intoxicating. Was he comparing her to whiskey and a cigarette? If anything, his entire explanation confused her even more, and it was showing on her face. She felt like he was trying to avoid the question and was dancing around it. 

“So, are you saying you get warm and tingly?” she asked, as one brow raised again. After she said it, she felt strange. A demon getting warm and tingly around a human, especially one that was a hunter, was just plain strange. She stood there, trying to wrap her head around it.

Cason rolled his eyes at Esme's retort, feeling oddly self-conscious as she continued to look at him as if he had three heads.  He shrugged heavily, leaving his shoulders raised as he tilted his body to the side and looked away from her eyes.

"That's a very human way of putting it.  I feel worried, all the time, like now.  I want to kill everything and everyone near you, when there's actual danger...just in case.", he explained with a slightly higher-pitched voice, "So, I guess you could say it's warm...and tingly..."

Esme watched him, taking in his eye roll to her retort, his shrug, and the way he averted his eyes from her. Was that it? Was that how he was feeling while around her? That sounded like he was…… No, he couldn’t be. She focused back on him as he spoke, her eyebrows raising as she listened. It was just as she had thought. 

His voice going to a slightly higher pitch said it all. It now explained why he had become so possessive and clingy towards her. She sighed and shook her head with a little laugh. “Dude, you got it bad,” she whispered softly. “And I was the one that brought it on, lucky me.” she sighed. She then looked over at Sarah and rubbed her shoulder. “Did you happen to catch on to this?” she asked her.

Cason sighed heavily and placed both his hands on his hips as she laughed at him.  It was a far cry from shooting him in the head, but ouch.  He narrowed his eyes at her and bit his lip, "Shut up.  You're lucky to have me..."

He continued to stare at her, scanning between both her eyes when she made her little quip and then turn to Sarah, "Don't bring her into this.  You're deflecting..."

However, as Esme turned to her, Sarah nuzzled against her side, basically giving her the answer of 'yes' as she accepted the petting.  Cason rolled his eyes with a loud groan, "Great.  So, what...you use this against me?  I make a nice comment, and it totally makes me seem like some sort of junkless sap, right?"

Esme almost laughed again as Cason said she was deflecting by asking Sarah the question, but she held her composure as she waited to see if she would really answer her. When Sarah nuzzled against her in an answer of basically yes, she almost wanted to hug her. It seemed that her laugh and asking Sarah her question had struck a nerve. Esme collected herself more before she looked back at him, and she gently shook her head at his questions. 

“No, but I could if I was that type of person.” She sighed as she thought about his other question. “No, it doesn’t make you look like junkless sap. It shows that you actually have a heart,” she told him. It probably wasn’t something a demon, like Cason, wanted to hear, but it was the truth. She looked back at Sarah for a moment to scratch her head and behind an ear. This was an awkward conversation to have with Cason, especially with the upcoming fight that was on its way.


As Esme spoke about his weakness for her as a human, as if he had some sort of soul, Cason scoffed, "It shows I have a heart.  I protected Annabeth for a reason...a pretty selfish reason.  I actually feel relieved that she's safe with Sam Winchester."

His eye twitched as he spoke the words, turning back to her.  The way she scratched Sarah's ear made his lips turn up into a smirk.  It was strange to see a human interacting with such a vicious creature, as a Hellhound, but something about it was endearing, also.

"Since we're all going to die tomorrow, I might as well go out on a redemption arc, right?", he quipped, still smirking fondly at her.  He was being a realist about his odds of not going out in a blaze of glory.

Dean chimed in from nowhere, crawling up the stairs to point at Cason, as his head rounded the corner, "You watch your mouth.  That's my line..."

Cason narrowed his eyes in confusion, as Dean slid back down to sit next to Mika once again.  He then realized what he had said, and laughed, "I'm um...not...seducing you or anything, contrary to what your ex says."

Esme sighed a bit as Cason scoffed. Her smile faded a bit as he talked about what it was like with Annabeth. Though she couldn’t blame him for being relieved that Annabeth was safe with Sam. That should have been more proof of what she had said. “That just goes to show that you care for her,” she told him. “There is nothing wrong about caring for someone.” She looked at him to see his reaction to what she said. Then turned back to Sarah. 

“But there is a point where caring turns into obsession,” she added. “I’ve seen it and I’ve experienced it before meeting up with this group. It wasn’t pretty,” she admitted with a small shiver. She shook her head lightly to keep the memory from invading her thoughts. It was in the past and should stay there. She could feel him watching her with Sarah, and could almost feel his smirk. She then whirled around to face him at his words, her eyebrows almost in her hairline.

 That was a line Dean would use if she ever heard it. Esme looked at the stairs at Dean’s sudden appearance, then smiled and held back a laugh at his words to Cason. She then saw the realization hit Cason after Dean slid back down the stairs. Her eyebrows lowered as he spoke. “Yeah, sure you 're not,” she said with one raised eyebrow. She didn’t even bother to comment about him calling Dean her ex. She told him before that he wasn’t, and that the last time they met it was brief.

Cason lowered his eyes to the ground, realizing she was warning him a bit about his obsession.  She was right, honestly.  He needed to stop treating her like the fragile human she was physically.  No matter how much he cared about her, she was capable, and wouldn't be under his wing constantly, whether he liked it or not.