Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Cool cool. I'll let you know if I think of anything else, but we can go with that for now ^^

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“I was wondering,” Preston mused as he swallowed the last bite of food that he had tested on the viceroy’s plate. “The king gave you the choice to choose some of your guards, and Penelope is a knight. Why didn’t you ask for her to come with you to Younis tomorrow?”

“It would have been pointless,” Crow shrugged, digging into his food as soon as the attendant was done. “He wouldn’t have permitted her to join, because he would have seen her as a distraction to me. One of the conditions he made to allow me to court her was that I wouldn’t let it affect my work. I also didn’t want to ask him for too much up front and risk getting denied everything I wanted.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Preston frowned thoughtfully. “Being the king’s ward comes with quite a few tethers, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Crow nodded. Being the king’s son came with more, but he kept that detail to himself. Although he trusted Preston to keep quiet about the information, he didn’t want to let it change the way the servant looked at him. At the moment, they had developed a close camaraderie over their shared past in Myrefall and the fact that they’d had similar upbringings as peasants. He didn’t know much about how the taciturn boy viewed the members of nobility, but if he was as spiteful as most other villagers, he might resent him for his lineage.

The former thief was drawn from his thoughts when he heard Penelope’s voice beside him, offering Preston a greeting. He turned to her with a smile, glad to see that she hadn’t missed supper. After spending the whole day apart, he was eager to catch up with her. “I’ll forgive you this time,” he teased, pressing a playful kiss to her temple when she sat down beside him. He was still reveling in the fact that they could get away with such casual touches in front of the other people in the castle.

At her following question, he shook his head. “I think we scared everyone away,” he grinned. “Today was the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to sit down at an empty table without being approached by anyone. It was heavenly.” He picked up his drink and took a sip before going on, “Apart from making me wait, how was your trip to Bellmare?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas is the poster child for overthinking xD At least it made him confess his feelings though!

Yeah, that'll be fun! I can't wait to see what happens

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Of course, Iris took the opportunity to flatter him again, and Cas sat up a little straighter on the sofa, bolstered by her compliment. Before the meeting, he wouldn’t have believed it if someone had said he would do well, but now that it was over, he felt like it had gone better than expected. Apart from the setback of the prisoners’ escape, he had been able to facilitate the discussion well enough to cover all the topics they had needed to discuss in just three hours. His father probably could have done better, but as one who was still taking baby steps as a leader, he was proud of the accomplishment.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” he shook his head dismissively when she apologized for her motion sickness. In his opinion, it had been a best case scenario. She hadn’t vomited in the car, and she seemed to be feeling much better now. As far as motion sickness could go, he’d seen worse. “Really?” he laughed, glancing down at the sofa when she said she’d slept on it. The furniture was pretty comfortable, but so was the bed. “You have one of the most expensive memory foam mattresses in your room, and you passed out on this old thing? That’s almost blasphemous.” He shot her a teasing smirk.

As Iris rested her hand on his, Cas blinked in surprise and then averted his gaze awkwardly. Apparently she could read him better than he thought. “I wasn’t trying to…” he trailed off, biting his tongue. No, that was exactly what he’d been trying to do, and she’d called him out on it. While he hadn’t intentionally meant to be fake with her, it was true that he was covering up his stress and exhaustion from the eventful day. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. There was nothing more that could be done until the soldiers captured the escaped prisoners, so dwelling on it would just cause him unnecessary anxiety. That was the real purpose behind his false smiles.

“You’re ridiculously optimistic, you know that?” he smiled at her incredulously. If someone had just told him about potentially dangerous people loose in the capital, he wouldn’t have been nearly so cheery. He was also surprised that she chose to focus on their day in the historic district over everything that had happened since then. To him, the sort-of date felt like an eternity ago, like a distant memory lost in the chaos of the terrorist attack and long discussions that had followed. I small part of him thought she was crazy, but a larger part was inspired by her decision to use the happy part of the day to stay positive.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” the prince’s expression turned sheepish when Iris offered him an out. “I’m too tired to go anywhere, and my friends can’t come here after what happened. Security has this whole place on lockdown. We’ll just have to find another time for them to come and meet you if you still want to do that.” With a sigh, he leaned into the cushioned crook between the back and armrest of the sofa, drawing one knee to his chest. For as stressed as he had been during the last few hours, his worries seemed to melt away when he was with her. He was still tired, but at least he wasn’t tense anymore.

She always seemed to have that effect on him, he noticed. It was the same reason why he’d tried to kiss her before the call from security had come through. He bit his lip as he thought back to it. At the time, he’d been feeling relaxed and confident, letting go of his concerns about the ‘what ifs’ because they hadn’t felt important enough to focus on. It had been just enough for him to throw caution aside and lean in. But now, he wondered if the move had been a mistake. His eyes flicked back to Iris. She hadn’t said anything, but it was possible that she was just non-confrontational. If he had made her uncomfortable, he didn’t want to leave things unresolved between them.

Steeling himself, Cas went on in a low voice, “I’m also sorry about… trying to kiss you.” He cleared his throat awkwardly, an embarrassed blush forming on his face. “I didn’t mean to make things weird between us. I just got caught up in the moment, and… well… I’m not gonna lie. I like you, Iris.” His heart raced as he laid his feelings out on the table. “I completely understand if you don’t feel the same way, and I promise this doesn’t have to change anything between us. If you just want to be friends, I’m okay with that. I’m not some delusional creep who would keep trying to make a move on you after you’ve told me you don’t want that. We can keep things platonic. It’s what I’ve been doing this whole time anyway.” He casted her a lopsided smile. “This isn’t an attempt to win you over or anything. I know you’ve got enough going on with your missing memories. I just wanted to apologize and explain why I did what I did. That’s all.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I was also thinking that maybe one of the other men from Brerra takes a liking to her, and she notices him when she gives up on winning Crow over. They could arrange her marriage to him instead. I'm not set on the idea, but it could be an option ^^

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“Just making sure,” Crow laughed when he felt Penelope nudge him. All joking aside, he was just happy that they could even talk about a wedding like this. It had taken years, but after everything, things finally felt like they were falling into place. His gaze softened as he looked at her, the knight who had captured his heart so long ago and the woman who would soon be his wife. He’d never felt so strongly about anyone else before, and he couldn’t wait to find out just how much more his affection for her could grow in the years to come.

Across the table, Naida smiled broadly at them both. “I knew you were perfect for each other. You can’t hide chemistry like this.”

“We did our best, alright?” Crow rolled his eyes at her.

He and the princess bantered a little while longer as they ate, until Penelope announced that she needed to leave. The viceroy turned to her with a frown. He’d been hoping that they could spend more time together now that they were officially courting, but he knew he couldn’t ask her to stay. They didn’t have long to get ready to leave the castle, and he was going to be spending most of the following day with Albin in preparation for the trip as well. He should have expected that she would be busy too.

“I will,” he smiled when she kissed his cheek. “Have a good night, love.”

Slowed by his conversation with Naida, he had a few more bites of food to eat before he got up from the table as well, bidding his sister goodbye. Albin wanted him to leave bright and early on the day of the trip, so they would be spending most of tomorrow revising plans and inventory to make sure that the journey would go smoothly. He didn’t have to wake up sooner than he did on any other day, but he wanted to be well rested so that he could pay full attention to everything that was going on. With that thought in mind, he retired to his bedchamber to do his routine exercise and go to sleep.

--

The following day went by so quickly that it felt like a blur to Crow. He spent breakfast with Wayne, Robyn, and Percival, using the time to tell the knight that he would be accompanying him as one of four guards because of the last minute switch. After that, he tracked down Naida at a guard post on the second floor, having realized that he had completely forgotten to tell her that she would be coming on the trip too. Naturally, his sister was thrilled by the news and nearly abandoned her post to start preparing right away. It took some convincing on his part to get her to stay put until her shift ended.

From there, he made his way to his father’s quarters to review the plans for the negotiation. Albin quizzed him twice to make sure he didn’t forget any of the details, and once he seemed satisfied that his ambassador was prepared, they went down to the stables to brush up on horseback riding. The king had heard from John that Crow had excelled at commanding Baine once he’d gotten over his initial hesitation about riding, but he had yet to see proof of the former thief’s improvement for himself. So, they rode together from the castle to the woods that bordered the edge of the citadel.

During the ride, they conversed casually. Albin asked Crow about how he had been settling in at the palace, if the other noblemen and women had been treating him fairly—with underlying threats that he would get involved if they still showed prejudice because of his criminal past—and how prepared he felt to speak with the Younisian king. The viceroy noticed that his father seemed to be avoiding the subject of his new courtship, but he didn’t think too much of it. Penelope had been the spearhead in the campaign against the monarch’s plan to ally with Gorm, so Albin was probably still bitter about that.

When they got back to the castle, Albin took Crow with him to see the supplies he would be taking to the northern kingdom. Since all six members of the group would be on horseback, they didn’t have a wagon this time. Instead, all the tools and the food stock had been packed into saddlebags to make the ride faster. The viceroy sifted through each one, familiarizing himself with the locations of objects he would use most often on the trip, until he felt confident that he knew where most of the items he deemed important had been stowed away.

At the end of the long day, he parted ways with his father and headed to the Great Hall, eager to fill his stomach after all the activity. He was also looking forward to seeing Penelope again. Just the thought of her brought a smile to his lips as he stepped into the dining chamber and scanned the crowd. However, it seemed like he was the first one to arrive, so he picked the first empty table he saw and sat down to wait for her to join him, making small talk with Preston when the attendant brought him his food.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I ended up writing a lot faster than I thought I would xD

And yeah, that'll be interesting! He'd be torn between his loyalty to his family and his newer closeness with Iris.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

At least Iris was looking better than she had when Caspian had last seen her. He noticed that the color had returned to her face, and she was grinning with her usual cheery energy rather than looking like she was going to lose her lunch. He was relieved that she didn’t seem to be upset with him for taking off so suddenly after they’d had such a good time in the historic district. He felt like he’d done plenty of things worthy of being scolded even though most of it had been out of his control. The near kiss had been by choice. He still wished he could go back in time and hit himself for being so stupid. Trying to make a move on an amnesiac girl was weird. No matter how he looked at it, he should have waited for her to get her memories back before he tried doing something like that.

Coming back from his distracted thoughts, he cleared his throat and returned her smile. “I was just coming by to ask you that,” he said, stepping into her bedroom when she moved aside to let him through the open doorway. “I’m okay, but I’m pretty beat. We ended up covering security details for hours.” He couldn’t say much more than that, since everything the council had discussed was confidential. Iris didn’t strike him as the type to abuse the information if he confided in her, but he wasn’t allowed to tell her anything anyway. The fewer people knew about the military’s security methods, the safer they would all be in this civil war.

Ambling over to the sofa, he collapsed tiredly on the cushioned furniture and looked over the room. Although Iris didn’t have many belongings, he could tell that she had made herself at home since she’d moved in. There was just something different about sitting in a room that hosted an occupant than one that had been empty. It was warmer somehow. But, then again, maybe that was because everything about her felt warm to him.

He glanced up at her and gestured for her to sit down on the other side of the sofa, so they could talk without gazing at each other from different heights. He couldn’t go into detail about the changes they had made to the security in the capital, but there was still one thing he could tell her about.

“At the end of the meeting, we received word that the prisoners escaped,” he sighed, sinking down in his seat as the weight of Jacob’s news seemed to bear down on his shoulders. “They got out of their cell and are supposedly somewhere in the city. If you see or hear anything that sends up a red flag to you, tell one of the guards right away. These people are dangerous, Iris.” He frowned at her solemnly. “Although I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that, since…” He trailed off, remembering what she had told him about her mother. From the memory she’d regained, he’d concluded that her mother had been a casualty in the fight against the Scourge.

Not wanting to touch a raw nerve, he changed the subject. “Anyway, what have you been up to?” he asked, offering her a somewhat forced smile as he tried to lift the mood. “Did you ever get your appetite back for dinner?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I like all of that ^^ We've got so many ideas for this story, it's exciting!

I'll get started on a post, but I've got class in an hour, so I may not get done before I leave depending on how well I can focus lol

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

It'll also help that the Younisian king actually cares about his daughter's happiness. She'll be pretty miserable with Crow, since he doesn't want to be with her, so he would be open to renegotiating the contract.