[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/lp7lay3.png[/img]
[hr][i][color=LightSteelBlue]Time: Evening[/color] 
[color=LightSteelBlue]Location: Banquet Hall[/color] 
[color=LightSteelBlue]Mentions / Interactions:[/color] [@Tae] Kali, [@princess] Lottie, [@Apex Sunburn] Sjan-dehk[/i][/center]
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Cassius didn’t speak right away.

He just let her words hang in the space between them quietly like they were too honest to be spoken any louder. They sank into him, slowly...and for a moment, he felt seen in a way that made his chest tighten.

Not by judgment or by pity. Just seen. And, that should’ve made him feel better. Maybe even relieved. Instead, it made something in him pull back...and bury it. Not fully but just enough. It was out of instinct and due to the reality that it was the only way he was equipped to deal with these things. It was all he’d ever known. 

He gave a slow exhale through his nose, not quite a sigh, not quite as soothing as it should have been. His shoulders shifted, like maybe he could shake it off, even if just for now.

His eyes found hers again, the corners of his mouth twitching upward with the beginnings of a smile.

[color=lightsteelblue]“I could say the same about you, ya know.”[/color]

He said it with that low, crooked grin of his fully appearing on his face, and then turned his head just enough to glance toward Sjan-dehk. It wasn’t subtle...It wasn’t meant to be.

The wink he threw the man’s way was exaggerated, almost theatrical, like he was trying to make her laugh. Or maybe trying to keep himself from falling into something he couldn’t climb out of.

[color=lightsteelblue]“I see the way you look at him.”[/color]

He let that sit there for a second, then gave her an ornery look.

[color=lightsteelblue]“Guess we’re both in trouble, eh?”[/color]

He said it a little too softly, like maybe he didn’t mean to say it out loud. Like saying it made it more real. His gaze drifted, not to Charlotte this time, no, he didn’t dare in this moment...but rather to somewhere lower, somewhere safer. [i]Somewhere less like her eyes.[/i]

He rubbed at the back of his neck, letting his jaw flex before forcing a grin back into place. And then he bumped Kali's shoulder with his, a quiet nudge that said more than he’d probably let himself say out loud.

[color=lightsteelblue]“We’ll both be fine, right? Probably. [b]Maybe[/b].”[/color]

He looked at Kali again with the gift of a wink of her own. There was something flickering behind his eyes. Something few had seen from him.  

[color=lightsteelblue]“But seriously...Candy...or...something [i]harder[/i], would be just about perfect right now.”[/color][/color]