They eventually came to some kind of agreement. The first thing that they agreed on was the fact that this was incredibly suspicious. They, as a group, were going to have to poke and prod around the city to see if there was more information on the demons infiltrating the higher ups.
Cass had a feeling that he had that information at the tips of his fingers, he just didn’t know he needed it until now. He had thought that he needed to train Byron, he had a feeling that he was wrong.
The plan was to stay in the capital for a little bit longer, just to gather more information, but they were going to go home soon. Edgar was done with the capital, and Lucian was finding it stuffy. Lord Ridgewood had looked like he wasn’t coming back with them, and honestly, that was something he needed to discuss with Fiona, alone.
Cass didn’t feel comfortable leaving someone who knew so much about him personally, alone. He knew secrets about all of them. While he had training, if he fell into the wrong hands, i.e. Cass’s grandfather?
Cass didn’t want to know what that would spell for him. It was at the minimum, a headache. At worst? Lucian would have to get involved with that big mouth of his.
During the discussion of going back to the estate, Fiona and Lady Ava remained silent. Cass was a little surprised that no one else noticed, but they seemed to have their own concerns. Lucian just wanted to get out of the city, Edgar was running away from something, and Lord Ridgewood was focused on himself and Edgar’s behaviour.
Cass was a little concerned about what that meant for him. He had a sneaking, terrible suspicion, call it intuition, that something was going to go awry. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
As everyone else was getting up and getting ready to leave, including the people he wanted to talk to, Cass remained seated and cleared his throat.
"Fiona, if we may have a word without the others?" Cass asked, looking at the other hero. Cass noticed how she stiffened before quickly relaxing, and that alone was a telling sign.
Something was going on, and Cass didn’t know about it. It was a deviation in the original plot. He didn’t need to be a genius to figure that shit out. This whole scenario was a deviation in the original story. That was making Cass feel anxious, that had to be.
He clearly didn’t like not knowing what Fiona was thinking. For a moment, he felt like he wanted Lucian’s power, and then brushed that to the side as he watched Fiona and Lady Ava share some kind of a look while Lucian pouted about them talking alone.
This was fine. He’d only just woken up. He’d had a moment of peace, he’d spoken to the nursery tree, everything was going to work out. It had been surprisingly, working out pretty okay up until now.
This anxious feeling as he watched Lady Ava and Fiona interact at this moment would fade. Maybe he was just anxious that they would get caught now that Fiona was ’pregnant’? They had forgotten to speak on that issue, so maybe Cass would just speak to her in private.
The room cleared out, leaving just Sam, Cass and Fiona. Cass glanced at Sam, and the man got the hint, nodded, and quietly left the room.
"Make sure that Lucian and the others are far enough away from the door." Cass called after the man. Sam nodded as he was leaving.
Cass remained seated in his spot on the couch, meaning he was a whole couch and a person away from Fiona. Fiona had sat back down in her spot at the third couch, looking about as awkward as anyone could.
She looked like a little kid who had gotten caught, and Cass did not like that.
"Fiona, is something going on?" Cass asked softly, watching her. She flinched, her eyes darting to the table as she avoided his gaze. Cass watched as she placed her hands on her knees, giving the fabric under her hands a squeeze. Her throat worked as she swallowed, her brown hair falling around her face as she looked more and more ill as Cass stared at her.
Eventually, she let out a shaky breath and raised her face, meeting Cass’ gaze.
"Well, I can’t say that nothing is going on." Fiona told him with a mumble. "The...the ball really did a number on all of us, didn’t it?" Fiona’s lips turned up slightly as she looked at Cass. Cass felt his own lips curl up slightly. He shifted in his seat, leaning back against the couch as he continued to examine her.
"It really did. I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did." Cass told her, and watched as her eyes widened slightly.
"What? But you held out so well for the whole night." Fiona said and Cass chuckled.
"Yeah, because we caught on quickly that I should limit who I was talking to and touching, and pure spite was keeping me together. This...heat that I have is terrible, Fiona. Truly. That’s also the first time I’ve attempted to resist it in earnest." Cass told her, and watched as Fiona’s face went through a series of emotions. Shock, horror, pity, relief, and then back to something softer that Cass couldn’t quite place.
She bowed her head again, giving a large, loud sigh.
"I’m glad to hear that you have found a way to deal with it." She said sincerely. Cass felt his face heat immediately.
"W-Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it ’dealing with it’. It’s not a normal method, and-" Cass was rambling, he knew he was rambling. So did Fiona. Her eyes sparkled when she raised her head, a smile on her lips.
"Cass, when has anything the hero party done been normal? You know I don’t care. I couldn’t give a fuck if you were fucking all of them. They never belonged to me, because people can’t belong to another." That was idealistic, but wrong. Slavery existed, but Cass didn’t think that right now was the time to be pointing that out. He felt like he’d just heard something rather incredible.
"I-I’m uncomfortable with it." Cass blurted out. "I hate feeling like we have to tip toe around you and others. I hate the fact that you have to use them to hide the fact that you and Lady Ava are an item. I also hate the fact that you two can’t go on ’date’ dates without being frightened for your lives." Cass told her, speaking from an honest part inside of himself. The words tumbled out, and Fiona stared at Cass in shock.
Her hands tightened on her knees, the grip looking painful before she sat back and laughed. It sounded slightly hysterical, and very concerning, before Fiona looked at Cass, her gaze warm and her smile wide.
"You feel like you’re helping them cheat on me, aren’t you?" Fiona’s gaze narrowed in amusement as she leaned in closer to Cass, smiling as Cass felt his eyes widen. "You feel like the other woman, don’t you?" It took Cass a moment to realise that she was teasing him. Cass let out a shaky breath.
"Well, it’s not like this is a normal situation, Fiona." Cass hissed, and Fiona laughed loudly.
"I think, Cass, it’s far more ’normal’ than either of us are aware. Do you know what they would call our marriage? A marriage of convenience. We both know that nobles do that kind of thing all the time, and you can’t honestly say that you can’t sense the undercurrent of homosexuality that was in the room of the ball, right?" Fiona was teasing him, he was sure of it.
Cass hadn’t sensed a thing, but then again, he had been rather preoccupied with having to worry about the state of his body, running into big players in the room, and making sure that Fiona didn’t get outed, and that Lady Ava didn’t get married off. It should be a good thing that she was calm enough that she could notice how the rest of the room was behaving.
"I wasn’t aware. Was it quite obvious?" Cass asked and Fiona nodded, her eyes still soft. It was...nice, in a way, but that feeling was back in Cass’ gut. That anxiety was there, and it was lingering.
"Mm, if you knew the hallmarks. I’m sure the nobles that overheard that I was with child were quite surprised, given how the other men were looking at you throughout the whole night." Fiona said and Cass felt his face flush again.
"Fiona, you really can’t be saying things like that! We’re all sons of Dukes. That kind of thing is-" Cass knew that this rant was coming from his own anxiety, his own feelings, and a mixture of the way that Lor-Cassian had been raised. He’d grown up in the most homophobic household probably in the Kingdom.
There was no way that his grandfather wasn’t going to drill ’don’t have gay sex’ into his head.
Cass cut off when Fiona gave him a pitying look. His mouth snapped shut and he felt his chest heave with emotion. Fuck. That wasn’t what he wanted to say, but Fiona seemed to also know that. She gave a soft sigh.
"It’s not good for any of us that this is continuing the way that it is." Fiona said softly, and Cass felt something shift. The air suddenly felt charged, vibrating with something that Cass wasn’t getting.
"What do you mean?" Cass asked outright. Fiona’s lips curled slightly.
"This whole arrangement, Cass. It doesn’t benefit you to be married to me, and it doesn’t benefit Lady Ava to be unwed. She nearly got married off to a fucking demon, and I had no right to interfere." Fiona said, and Cass realised that this was the true issue. The core of the problem.
Cass felt his chest tighten as he inhaled. Oh god, it was time. It was finally fucking time.
"Then we should just get divorced. If this isn’t working, we should-"
"How in the world would that help, Cass? Then I would also be unwed, so would Fiona, and do you think for a second that that madman of a father of mine wouldn’t try to sell off his own daughter to the highest bidder? He did it when I wasn’t even aware I was his daughter! Granted, you four are rather nice to have as husbands, but still!" It was terrible that Cass had said the words, and Fiona had shot it down immediately.
Fuck this shit.
"So what are you planning to do? Live in this purgatory state forever, Fiona? Where everyone feels like a damn asshole because of our upbringings, where we all feel like we’re cheating on each other, just because we’re scared?" Cass asked and watched as Fiona’s face twitched. Something hardened in her gaze, and Cass realised that she’d had this conversation with herself already.
She had an answer, and Cass felt a shiver run down his spine. He didn’t think he was going to like this.