Cass felt himself get distracted for a moment as he recalled how Lucian had transformed. He hadn’t even hesitated. One second, he was a man who felt a little too big for his body. The next second? A beast beyond his mortal comprehension was bursting out from inside of him. Filling the space so completely a shadow wiped out the fading sun and then, he was gone.
The sound of loud, powerful ’whooshing’ filling his ears.
Holy shit.
"Show off." It was quiet, and if Cass didn’t have spectacular hearing, he wouldn’t have heard it. But there it was, Lord Ridgewood whispering about Lucian. Cass glanced at Edgar to see if he caught it, but it seemed that Cass was the only one who did, or Edgar wasn’t making a big show of it.
Cass snorted.
Lord Ridgewood wasn’t wrong, Lucian was a show off, but it was a good thing that Lucian didn’t hear Lord Ridgewood, or else a jet of flame would have scorched the courtyard and Cass would have been able to do very little to stop it.
"Lord Ridgewood, what did you have planned?" Cass asked, stepping down from the pathway that Edgar and Cass were standing on to stay out of the sun and into the clearing. Edgar stayed behind, leaning against a stone pillar as he watched the two of them.
Lord Ridgewood had been putting the weapons he had gathered on a little wooden bench near the closest training dummy. He was slightly hunched over, organising things before Cass approached. As he did, he stood at his full height, glanced at Cass and then forced a smile.
"I was getting the weapons organised. I’m assuming you’ve seen a broad range of weapons in your time, yes?" He said and Cass found himself nodding. He had, as both Cass and Cassian. The ones that he’d mostly seen in his life had been on screen and whenever he’d run into the bad crowds, but he’d been relatively smart so that didn’t happen often.
"Sure." Cass said and Lord Ridgewood nodded.
"Well, we’ll go down the list then. We have a dagger, a short sword, a normal sword, a broadsword, an axe and a hammer. I would suggest staying away from the hammer and broadsword and move towards weapons that are easier to carry with one hand." Lord Ridgewood said. He offered the other weapons, Cass could see them with his eyes, but he was leading Cass away from them.
Cass felt a smile curl his lips. He knew his people well, in some regard. That, or he was used to dealing with Edgar’s Lordly attitude.
"I’ll take your advice on that. I won’t bother using them, or the regular sword. I know my own strength, and I am not capable of wielding those right now." He looked relieved to hear Cass’ words.
"I am glad we are in agreement. My suggestion is probably the short sword if you are looking for something with swinging power, or the dagger. They can deal a lot of damage and are easy to tuck away." He said and Cass found himself nodding.
"Alright. Are we going to do any warm ups or something?" Cass asked, and Lord Ridgewood gave him a slightly shocked look, before his shoulders relaxed.
"I thought that you would argue about doing a warm up. I am glad to see that isn’t the case. I’ll walk us through something simple, just to warm up your muscles." He said, and that was exactly what he did. He took about ten minutes doing the warm up, showing Cass the stretches. Cass was wearing the right clothes to do the workout, but Lord Ridgewood ended up having to strip his outer layer until he was in a billowy shirt very similar to what Lucian always wore. It was a bit distracting, but Cass focused.
By the time that he felt like his muscles were awake and ready to go, he could tell he needed a damn break. Damn Cassian and his twink physique. Twinks could be strong too. Whoever wrote that fucking book was stuck in a damn genre that Cass hated.
Strong bottoms existed. So did weak tops. Cass didn’t need to be backed into a typecast. Even if that was kind of the ’thing’ with this book. Even if Cass was actually exactly as they type-casted him.
Fuck. He was thinking about it again.
"Do you need a break?" Lord Ridgewood asked at the wrong fucking time. Cass panted, but shook his head.
"I have to get used to this. I can’t be weak forever." Cass muttered, wheezing and Lord Ridgewood looked concerned, but didn’t push his luck by arguing with him.
"Understood. Well, I’m going to show a few simple moves with the daggers, the axe, and the short sword, alright? Just sit on the bench and watch, then we can go through the motions together." Lord Ridgewood instructed and Cass nodded, sitting down as was instructed.
It was surprising, but only slightly, that Lord Ridgewood was a good instructor. After all, while each family had their own private guard, Lord Ridgewood had managed everything for the mansion. While there were some things that slipped through the cracks, the guards had respected him.
He was showing off a few jabbing techniques with the daggers when Cass asked him.
"Did you not have full control of the guard rotation at the mansion because of me? Or Fiona?" He asked and watched as Lord Ridgewood tensed, paused, and then continued.
"It was you, Cass." He said it casually, with no bitterness. However, Cass could sense the tension below that. It was clear he wasn’t happy about it, but that it was also just a truth and something he had to let go of. Cass leaned back on the bench slightly.
"Huh. Well, that’s probably going to change moving into the future." Cass said and that had him halting again. Lord Ridgewood slid his gaze to Cass, looking shocked.
"What? Why would you do that? You have your personal guard, don’t you?" Lord Ridgewood said, without animosity. He was pointing out truths and Cass smirked. This was why he had liked Lord Ridgewood in the book. He might have feelings, but they were buried deep. Like Cass.
"That might be true, but he’s my personal guard. He can’t make the rotation lists, make sure everyone is staying in line and that there aren’t any serious traitors amongst our people." Cass said and Lord Ridgewood swallowed, dropping his arms to meet Cass’ gaze.
"Were you having issues with that?" He asked, his tone serious and Cass smiled.
"It’s why Sir Forsythe is back at the mansion right now." Cass admitted and something dark churned his green gaze.
"Someone is attacking us? Or you, specifically?" He asked and Cass shrugged. He honestly didn’t know what his grandfather wanted, nor did he know what the others wanted either.
"I honestly think it’s a bit of both. Target me to get to everyone else." Cass said and Lord Ridgewood remained still for a moment, before he sighed.
"And you want to trust me with that? After I’ve betrayed your trust?" Lord Ridgewood asked and Cass felt his grin widen.
"Well, yeah. Obviously, or I wouldn’t be bringing it up." Cass said snarkily and Lord Ridgewood narrowed his gaze. "Also, I know one of your weaknesses." Lord Ridgewood looked a little confused at that until Cass turned his gaze towards Edgar pointedly. Lord Ridgewood blushed.
"That’s not-it would never happen. We’re childhood friends, nothing more, and he’s your partner now." Lord Ridgewood said. Cass blinked. Cass’ partner? Was that how he saw it? Was that how everyone else saw it?
"Did he tell you that?" Cass asked and Lord Ridgewood swallowed thickly. He was avoiding meeting Cass’ gaze, so that answered the question for him. "If he didn’t, then there might be hope. The best way to prove that you are worthy of his affection is to do better, Lord Ridgewood. Way better." Cass told him and watched as Lord Ridgewood stood there, in a billowy shirt, sweat on his brow, his green eyes dark simply from how deeply he was furrowing his brow, and his red hair blown out of his face by the gentle wind. Two daggers in his hand, both wooden, but his grip tight on both of them.
He looked like a romance novel model. Someone would just need to snap a photo of him above the waist and then smack a garishly written text over the photo and there it was, a classic romance novel. Cass almost smirked, but he kept it together. The man was clearly going through it as he pondered Cass’ words.
"I don’t know if that will simply ever be true. I...I care for him too much to do that." Lord Ridgewood told him softly, before he sighed. "Now, please stand up, Cass. I would like to go over the moves I just showed you." He was a damn drill sergeant.
He was a damn pro at suppressing his feelings, and Cass had a feeling all this working out was part of it. Cass grumbled his way through the motions that Lord Ridgewood showed him, even getting close to Lord Ridgewood as he showed him the simple jabs and slashes. Cass arms were fucking trembling as he did them, and fuck if he just wanted to stab the fucking dummy.
He couldn’t because his arms were jelly, but this was good too. He was getting exhausted by the physical act of it all.
He nearly dropped the short sword at one point, his hands giving out and Lord Ridgewood jumped forward, wrapping his arms around Cass as he caught the sword. Cass was so shocked that he’d nearly dropped the sword that he didn’t even know what to do or say. He just tilted his head back, looking up at Lord Ridgewood with wide, red eyes.
"I didn’t mean to do that." Cass told him and watched as Lord Ridgewood’s eyes widened slightly. A small, tiny smile touched his lips.
"I doubt anyone does. Are you alright? I feel we should take a break, for your arms sake. Anymore of this and I’m afraid I won’t be allowed to sleep at night." Lord Ridgewood said and Cass nodded weakly.
Edgar raced over, his big hat on and a hand on top of it so it didn’t fly away.
"Are you both alright?" He asked, worried, and Cass let out a heavy sigh.
"Lucian was right. I’m weak." Cass admitted bitterly and Edgar’s expression shifted from one of worry to one who was smiling.
"I wouldn’t be so harsh on yourself. You could barely eat, Cass. You’ll be strong in no time." Edgar told him and Cass shrugged weakly, his arms trembling. Lord Ridgewood backed up, giving him some space so that he could wobble his way over to the bench. Cass sighed as Edgar and Lord Ridgewood exchanged a few words as he stared at his hands.
Damn it. That was...Cass had been in a few situations that had felt like romance novels, but that was the first time he’d been in one with Lord Ridgewood, he was fairly certain.
His heart was racing, but he was sure it was because his hands had given out on him. Annoying, but expected. He wouldn’t be able to get his rage out so easily, so he guessed it was time to tell them in person. That was almost just as bad.
He’d just had a bonding moment with Lord Ridgewood too. It was probably going to go up in smoke now.