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Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

His character is really fun to write, haha. Atlas and Cas are pretty opposite

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Finally got my post done ^^ Atlas isn't happy

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Dad, come on,” Caspian pleaded as he walked with his father down the hall. “Iris has already been through a lot since she lost her memories, and you know how ruthless the interrogators can be. It would be cruel to send her to them when she hasn’t even done anything wrong.” And, more personally, he hated the thought of exposing someone he was growing fond of to questioning by the military. The soldiers wouldn’t go easy on her, and he had seen the aftermath of their inhumane methods before. It would have been hard enough to let them take charge of her if she had been a stranger to him. Now that they were getting close to each other and had even kissed, the idea of subjecting her to veritable torture made him blanch in horror.

“The timing of it all is too suspicious to ignore,” Atlas asserted, turning to his son with a stern frown. “If you’re going to succeed me, you have to start making strong decisions. What’s more important: Sparing one girl or protecting the crown?”

“The crown…” Cas averted his gaze, trailing off as he scrambled to think of a way to convince his father not to send Iris to the interrogators.

“So you understand,” Atlas nodded sagely. “If it turns out that she’s innocent, she may return here. If she is found guilty, we will have stopped the Scourge from dismantling the monarchy. It is what’s best for everyone.”

Everyone except Iris, the prince squirmed under the mounting pressure. “What if there’s a way to compromise?” he suggested, grasping at straws in his desperation to keep the amnesiac safe. There had to be something he could do. He spoke slowly as a half-formed idea developed in his mind, “What if… you question her first? I’m sure the interrogators already have their hands full with the two prisoners in their custody. If she says anything that makes you think she’s part of the rebellion, then… you can send her to them for further questioning.” He swallowed nervously. “But if she doesn’t, then you have to accept that I was right and that she’s just a normal girl who happened to get wrapped up in this mess against her will.”

Atlas was quiet as he considered the proposal and then shook his head, “It would be more efficient to send her directly to the soldiers.”

“Not necessarily,” Cas objected, his heart racing as he remembered a piece of information that might make his idea more appealing to the monarch. “There’s an interrogation scheduled for the prisoners at ten this morning—in eight minutes. Wouldn’t it be more convenient to speak to Iris here, while the soldiers question the rebels at the same time? I’ll even keep my earpiece turned on, so I can relay any updates they give me while you’re with her.” He tapped the device, which he had placed back in its spot before he’d left his bedroom that morning. For the first time, he was glad he was the one who had been communicating with the military all night. Maybe his knowledge of the internal affairs would be enough to persuade his stubborn father.

Again, Atlas was silent. After a moment, he exhaled, “Very well then. But if she says or does anything to rouse my suspicion, I will have security escort her to the holding facility.”

“That sounds fair enough,” Cas agreed, still slightly anxious. He didn’t like the fact that interrogating Iris wasn’t off the table, but at least the king was no longer pushing to send her to the soldiers right away. As long as the questioning went well—and he felt fairly confident that it would—the amnesiac would be just fine.

As Atlas approached the room, the prince fell in step behind him. He fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt with one hand and reached into his pocket with the other, holding down the fingerprint scanner on the handheld end of his com device to gain access to the security team’s frequency. The sound of voices hummed in his ear, and he listened to the guards speaking back and forth about the scheduled interrogation while his father knocked on her door.

“Iris, open up,” the monarch spoke brusquely. “It’s your king. I need to have a word with you.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Unfortunately for Crow, there is now a whole team of people who won't let him sleep in during the mornings xD
Also, canon sidenote: Percy was distracted because he was reveling in the fact that he got to share a bed with his crush lmao

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

The following morning, Crow was awoken by the sound of rustling blankets and the creaking of a mattress as Otto and Rayner got up from their shared bed. He pulled his own blanket over his head, reluctant to leave the comfortable spot so early in the morning. Aside from the interruption of his nightmare, he’d gotten plenty of sleep the night before, but he was still tired and a little sore from riding for most of the previous day. If he could get even a few more minutes of sleep before they set out on the next leg of their journey, he was going to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the baron didn’t give him the chance.

At the sound of Otto’s commanding voice, the viceroy groaned irritably. He would have been tempted to ignore the call to get up if Percival hadn’t followed it by making their bed lurch slightly as he sat upright. “Collin,” he said the former thief’s name as he gently shook his shoulder. “We need to get going.”

“That doesn’t work,” Preston informed the knight with a yawn, getting up from the floor. Despite the uncomfortable arrangement, the attendant seemed to have slept well through the night. He stretched his back and stepped over to the bedside to yank the blanket down from the viceroy’s body in his usual method of waking him up.

“Hey,” Crow snapped, shooting the boy a glare as the cold air in the room swept over his uncovered torso. “Ungrateful brat, I gave you my coat to sleep in.”

“And I’m repaying you by making sure we reach the next town in plenty of time,” Preston shrugged, lifting a hand to tug the shoulder of the oversized clothing back into place as it slipped. The surcoat was comically large on his smallish frame. In the back of his mind, Crow thought it made him look like a little kid wearing an older sibling’s hand-me-down. At least the thick fabric seemed to have kept the servant warm enough to get a full night of rest.

“You’re a real pain in my ass,” he said dryly, though he sat up on the bed and stretched his legs in preparation to get up anyway. At his side, Percival watched the exchange in silence, and Crow frowned at him, “What?”

The knight blinked, seeming caught off guard by the abrupt question, and turned away. “Nothing,” he answered, quickly standing up to put his armor back on.

The viceroy studied him bemusedly for a moment longer before getting up as well to put on his boots and take his surcoat back from Preston. With a verbal prod from the attendant, he reluctantly put his hat on too, wondering to himself if anyone would notice if he “lost” it during the trip. Somehow, he had a feeling that his servant would find a way to stop him even if he tried.

Once he was done dressing himself, he crossed the room to greet Penelope by wrapping his arms around her middle and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Morning, love,” he smiled at her fondly, forgetting his earlier foul mood at the sight of her face. “How did you sleep?”

~Bonsoir~

Vail could hear the hesitation in Victoria’s voice when she responded to him, but he was too enthralled by the thought of drinking her blood again to take a metaphorical step back and question if she was prepared to endure a feed that eve. Assuming that she was just nervous about being bitten, he pushed the detail aside as he primed her skin. He knew how to be gentle in the midst of his lust for her blood, and she had recovered quite a bit since Lord Spencer had taken too much. As such, he wasn’t concerned about hurting her like he had the last time he’d impulsively ignored her weakened condition.

When he finally pierced her flesh with his long canines, he felt the quiver run through her body and held onto her instinctively to keep her from slipping out of his grasp. Unlike the last time, her blood flowed much thicker and tasted just as rich as ever before, and he lapped it up zealously. The metallic tang on his tongue and the intoxicating scent in his nose made it difficult for him not to lose himself to a frenzy, but he took intentionally slow breaths to stay grounded as he fed. Her frightful whimpers didn’t escape his keen ears. He didn’t want to fray her nerves any more than they already were by gripping her too firmly and leaving bruises or taking too much of her blood.

However, her shivering didn’t seem to stop. He licked the scarlet liquid from his lips and glanced at her sideways as she continued to tremble in his arms. Her veins were still producing a steady flow, so he was reluctant to quit just yet, but it bothered him to see her act so scared of him. He thought she knew that he would never bring her close to death’s door like her fiancé had. He cared about her deeply, and even though he couldn’t suppress his nature, he did everything in his power to make the experience less unpleasant for her.

Careful not to let her see the blood on his jaw, he lifted one hand to hold her head against his shoulder, trying to comfort her. “Victoria, you need to calm down,” he spoke gently. “The bite is over. I’m not going to take more than what is already flowing, but if you hyperventilate, you could pass out.” His gaze returned to the weeping punctures in her neck. During the time he had paused to address her, some of the blood had trickled down her shoulder into the bathwater. He used his other hand to wipe the thin dribble from her skin and passed his tongue over his fingers so as not to waste the excess.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

He's definitely a source of frustration, haha
I also decided to throw in a little intrigue during the night cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

For the first half of the night, Crow slept more soundly than he usually did. Between his own body heat and Percival’s, the bed they shared was comfortably warm against the cool night air that lowered the overall temperature in their room. He slumbered with one arm folded beneath his pillow, unperturbed by the rhythmic snores that came from somewhere in the middle of the room and the occasional tossing of the knight on the other side of the mattress—that is, until his regular nightmare made another appearance.

At the familiar fell swoop of Jaxon’s blade, he jolted upright on the bed with a quiet, strangled gasp and clutched his shirt as he tried to slow his racing heart. Distantly, he was aware of the other people in the room with him, and he took slow breaths to calm down before his panicking woke anyone else up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite fast enough.

“Collin, are you okay?” Percival whispered, sitting up beside him and frowning concernedly.

Silently, Crow cursed his nightmare for making a return when he was in the company of so many other people. Until now, Preston and Penelope were the only ones who knew he suffered from occasional bad dreams, and he had been hoping to keep it that way. “I’m fine,” he murmured with a slight rasp. Everyone else still seemed to be sleeping, so he didn’t think he had screamed this time, but his mouth felt dry regardless. “Go back to sleep. It’s nothing.”

The knight studied him for a moment long before he prodded, “Nightmare?”

The viceroy rolled his eyes, “Nightmares are nothing.”

“Not to the one who has them,” Percy rebutted. He paused again and then asked, “Do you get nightmares often?”

“I said go back to sleep,” Crow muttered cagily.

The knight pursed his lips. “If you insist,” he sighed, shifting his weight to lay down again.

As his bedmate complied with the request, the viceroy relaxed and laid on his back. His heart was still fluttering with residual anxiety, so he stared up at the dark ceiling as he waited for it to calm down. In the next moment, another thought came to him, and he turned his head toward the knight. “Percy?” he reached over to push the other man’s shoulder, testing whether he had fallen back asleep.

It seemed like he hadn’t. “Yes?” Percival rolled over to face him, lifting a hand to his mouth to cover a yawn. He might not have been asleep yet, but he was obviously tired.

“Don’t… tell anyone about tonight,” Crow winced as he made the request under his breath.

The knight held his gaze contemplatively and then nodded, “You have my word.”

“Thanks,” he let out his breath in relief. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

With the issue resolved, Crow tossed onto his side and closed his eyes to go back to sleep as well. However, before he could drift off, he stirred at the sound of the door opening and closing softly. Right away, he stiffened and opened one eye just enough to see a shadowy figure walk silently over to the middle bed and crouch down. In the lightless room, it was difficult for him to see the person, but after a moment, he realized the man was familiar. It was Otto, taking off his boots. The viceroy watched him with furrowed brows. He wondered what the baron had been doing out in the middle of the night after they had all gone to sleep. He didn’t remember hearing him leave the room.

Percival noticed as well. “Baron Theroulde?” he inquired, turning over again to look at the older knight. “Is there something wrong?”

Otto flinched at the unexpected sound of a voice and turned toward them. “Nothing is wrong,” responded softly, recovering his composure when he saw who had spoken. “There is no restroom here, so I went outside to use the privy.” He smiled at Percy amusedly. “Get some rest, Granger. There are still a few hours left before dawn.”

The knight grunted compliantly and turned over again, heaving his shoulders in a shrug when he caught sight of Crow’s open eyes in the darkness. The viceroy observed the baron for a moment longer before he drew the blanket back up to his chin and settled down to sleep as well. At least it hadn’t been a mercenary. Knowing that they were all still safe for now, he let himself drift off to catch a few more hours of rest before they had to leave in the morning.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Sorry for the wait! I've been majorly busy between homework and my friend visiting. It'll probably take me until tomorrow to get a post up for you ^^;

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Otto is starting to get frustrated with Crow's habits ^^;
He's the type to really believe in the social hierarchy and doesn't like the thought of a servant being treated better than a nobleman