Chapter 121: It’s a little too late to apologise, don’t you think?
"Fine. You’re both allowed to stay." Cass muttered and the look of relief on their faces was palatable. Lady Fiona let out a sigh of relief, while Draken bent, pressing a kiss against Cass’ cheek.
Cass let out a screech, while Lady Fiona’s eyes widened. Draken smirked, happy.
"Thank you Cassian. You are so forgiving." Cass knew his face had to be burning. What the fuck was he thinking? When did he think that was a good idea?
Cass flung his gaze towards Lady Fiona, who now had a hand over her mouth, her other still on her chest. Her gaze was wide, and she was glancing between Draken and Cass quickly.
"Wait. I have...a lot of questions." Lady Fiona said carefully, her gaze finally landing on Cass and Cass furrowed his brows, trying to calm himself down. He could still feel Draken’s fucking lips on his cheek even though the man was back in his seat. Damn it. Fuck. Ugh.
This was almost as bad as if she had arrived when they had been kissing!
"You can ask me those, once Draken has left." Cass said pointedly, and he swore the other man pouted. He pushed his chair back though, sighing heavily and pitifully, before picking it up and brought it over to the wall. He glanced back at Cass, his orange eyes big and pitiful.
"You’re going to chase me out? After you just said we could both stay? We can’t talk about this together?" He asked and Cass did his best to show that he was not wavering on the outside.
"No, Draken. We can talk about other topics with you around, but not this one. Lady Fiona and I need to discuss this alone." Cass reinforced and Draken let out a dramatic sigh.
"I see. You don’t care about my feelings, even though I try so hard to care about yours." It was a stab, and Cass was upset that it found its mark. He narrowed his gaze at the other man.
"Draken, you told me that you and Lady Fiona had discussed this without me around, do you not think it’s fair if we do the same?" Cass asked, and Draken flinched. He looked even more pitiful as his shoulders drooped and he dragged himself towards the door.
"Fine. You two can have a talk without me about me. It’s only fair." Draken sighed dramatically again, grabbing onto the door handle before he tossed a sad glance behind him. "I’ll be waiting outside, like the neglected dog that I am." He opened the door and left before either Cass or Lady Fiona could make a comment about his last words.
Cass sat in shock, while Lady Fiona stood in her own shock.
"Was he...throwing a tantrum?" Cass asked out loud, before Lady Fiona slid her gaze to him, and burst into laughter. She covered her mouth with her hands, her shoulders shaking.
"I believe that he was." She got out between her giggles, and Cass couldn’t help but smile. Damn it. The man had broken through the tension between them, and Cass was pretty sure he didn’t know about it, or if he did, he didn’t know where it came from. They laughed together, shaking their heads at his antics, before both sobered up and came to realise that they needed to speak.
Cass realised that if they were going to talk, having her stand before him with a strange power dynamic wasn’t it. Sighing, he pushed his chair back, getting to his feet and wobbled, but managed to stay upright. Lady Fiona’s face dropped all humour as she realised what kind of condition he was in and she rushed towards him, ready to catch him, but she didn’t put her hands on him.
Cass felt his lips twitch, but he didn’t smile. They were all learning, and honestly, Lady Ava was right. It was strange as hell that they were all pivoting to caring about him as soon as he got injured. It was like they had only just realised that he was a human with emotions, which was wild. Cass had spoken to Lord Blackburn.
He had seen how he responded when spoken to. He had emotions too. Maybe not as obvious as Cass was in comparison to the other man, but he clearly had depth to him. He was just...more careful, where Cass didn’t really give a damn. That was the true difference. Lord Blackburn cared a lot about his image and how others perceived him, while Cass didn’t really.
He was just putting on the show of caring, for Lord Blackburn’s sake. He didn’t think he was doing a particularly good job in that category, but he was doing the best that he could.
Cass continued to wobble towards the loveseats, before he finally sat down with a sigh, and gestured for Lady Fiona to sit across from him. She’d followed him the whole way, standing behind him like he couldn’t feel her presence, ready to catch him at any moment.
"Have a seat, Lady Fiona." He said, and she glanced at him, at the sweat on his face, before she nodded and sat across from him, much like Draken had done just yesterday. She didn’t look as serious as Draken had yesterday, but that didn’t mean anything. Who knew where this meeting was going to go? He also had a feeling that Draken only had patience for so long, so they better get speaking. "You had some questions?" Cass prompted and Lady Fiona nodded, his gaze grave as she looked over Cass.
"I did. I do. Uh...Are you okay with it?" She asked and Cass was surprised that was her first question. He burst into laughter.
"That is your first question? Really? I’m tempted to agree with Lady Ava, Lady Fiona. Why are you so caring about me now?" Lady Fiona’s face flushed at Cass’ poke and she dropped her gaze. She clenched her hands together, squeezing them together tightly.
"I am allowed to change my mind, aren’t I? Especially if I realise that I’ve been doing the wrong thing this whole time." Lady Fiona responded, her lips tight and in a thin line. It was clear she didn’t like having her intentions questioned, while Cass thought it was hilarious. Now? Now she cared.
Fucking hell. That was so-
Cass laughed lightly again, glancing down at his bandaged hands, before he laughed harder.
"Who am I to say that people aren’t allowed to change, Lady Fiona? I just find it rich that it’s now, is my concern." Cass smirked, and Lady Fiona flinched.
"I’m sorry." She said quickly "I realised that I hadn’t actually said that to you. That should have been the first thing I said. I’m sorry for what I did, Lord Cassian. I should have...There are many things I shouldn’t have done. I should have listened to Edgar, or Gideon, and instead I rushed in, believing what Lady Ava said. I’m sorry I painted you as a villain. You’re just a person, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions at the prompting of..." She trailed off and Cass knew that his eyes had to be sparkling.
It had nothing to do with her apology, and everything to do with the juicy gossip he just got a kernel of. Were they still together? Had they broken up? She wasn’t making it clear at all.
"Lady Fiona, can I be honest?" Cass asked, adjusting in his seat until he was slumped back, his hands in his lap, and his body was on an angle. She watched him, concerned, and nodded.
"Of course." She replied readily, wanting to please him. Cass smirked.
"I think it’s a bit late for an apology, don’t you?" He said and Lady Fiona went white. Her mouth dropped open, and she began to grow flustered.
"B-But I don’t-I was trying to respect your boundaries and-I’m so sorry!" She apologised again and Cass chuckled.
"We had passed the point where you should apologise as soon as Draken thought you had given him the green light as his wife to pursue me." Lady Fiona’s brows furrowed.
"The green light?" She questioned and Cass waved his hand.
"It basically means you gave him the sign that it was okay. That his next behaviours were going to be approved, and you weren’t going to discipline him." Cass said casually, and Lady Fiona swallowed.
"Well, I did have an inkling that...maybe he was searching for that kind of approval but I had no idea..." She closed her eyes tightly, her hands clenched before she dropped her head, slumping over. "No. I did know, I was just intentionally trying to ignore it." She muttered glumly. "Shit. I’m such a bad partner and person. I’m sorry Lord Cassian." She sounded like she truly meant it, and Cass felt his lips turn up slightly.
"So you do know that Draken thinks that you approved of his behaviour, and despite our current human laws, he thinks he can have a husband and a wife at the same time." Lady Fiona groaned.
"Why does he think that?" Cass shrugged.
"I believe he only uses the law when it suits him, anything else, he doesn’t care about." Lady Fiona let out a choked laugh, sounding more than a little upset.
"Yeah, that does sound like him." She muttered, and Cass was faced with the realisation that she knew him a lot longer than Cass, or Lord Blackburn. Oof. That didn’t feel good. Lady Fiona looked up at him, her gaze serious. "Do you want me to say something? Get him to stop? I’m not sure if it’ll make a difference, but I can try. I’m sure I’ll have some impact as his official wife." She scanned Cass’ face, waiting.
Cass chuckled.
"Lady Fiona." Cass started and she tensed, ready. Waiting. "He’s curious about me." Lady Fiona paled as Cass gave her a sad smile. "Nothing either one of us say will make a difference." Lady Fiona’s mouth opened, before she reached across the table, grabbing onto Cass’ wrapped hands.
"That’s not true! Please don’t look like that! Even if he is, that doesn’t mean he’ll force you! He just needs to learn your boundaries!" Her eyes opened further as she realised at the same time that Cass knew Draken could get curious, and she gasped. "Wait. Wait wait wait. You know he’s-"
"I know that he’s a dragon, yes." Cass completed. "He saved me from a dire wolf attack. There were some things that were...hard to ignore after that." Cass lied easily, and Lady Fiona looked ill all over again.
"Ugh. As your wife, I should have protected you too. Instead I got mad at you and-" She cut herself off, shaking her head. "I’m really terrible at this relationship thing. Why did I think it would be a smart thing to be married to four people when I can’t even manage one person’s happiness, let alone my own." Uh oh.
Cass may not know enough about this romance, or harems or what have you, but he knew, for his own safety, it wouldn’t be good if the hero of the book suddenly lost all will to continue said book.
Lady Fiona released his hands, sitting back on the loveseat and giving a soft, self-deprecating laugh.
"You’re even a better hero then I am. You’ve already helped so many people without having to advertise it. I heard from a merchant that you’ve begun sponsoring the orphanage, and that you’ve helped so many companies get off of their feet who also support the town, and what am I doing? Lying to everyone who cares about me? Flaunting to others that I’m strong and pretty? This isn’t what I signed up for." Cass was so not ready to deal with this.
Fuck, he hoped that Draken stormed in right now, because Cass did not want to deal with a crisis like this. He had no idea what would happen if Lady Fiona stopped being the heroine of the story, but he did not want to find out. The problem?
Cass wasn’t all too great at comforting others.