What in the world was going on? This felt truly like Cass was inside of a damn romance novel today. The men treated him so well, helping him bathe and take care of himself.
Hell, when they went to go check up on Gideon, he felt like he got breakfast and a show.
Gideon was shirtless, his body rippling with muscles as he practised swinging the sword that Cass had caught him, his dark red hair clinging to his forehead. The fucker even turned, smiling widely at Cass and Lucian, flicking his hair out of his face with a movement of his head.
Cass swore he heard music playing as the man approached, tucking the sword away with a practised hand.
That was how Cass greeted Gideon in the morning, and Lucian didn’t even get upset! The man was cool as a cucumber, and even when Cass checked on his expression several times, the man was calm. Collected. It was unlike how the man had behaved even just the day prior.
That was when Cass started getting fucking suspicious again.
Had these motherfuckers gotten together, behind his back, and formed an agreement? Like they had done to Fiona? Like Edgar and Lucian had done to Cass once already? Cass wanted to ask them if they had, but Cass found that after they went to pick up Gideon, things got busy.
The sun was barely up, and they had so many things to do.
Sam took the book from Cass once he saw him, Sam and Edgar overseeing the stuffing of the bags, making sure to keep track of what went into what. Sam was making a list, each bag labeled with everything inside of it and thankfully, each bag a different style and colour.
The red bag was supposed to hold all the excess things. Like food, clothes, firewood, tents, blankets, those kinds of things. The blue bag was for medical supplies, fire starters, small tools, books, lights, smaller things that could get broken if mixed up with the things of the other bag. It also included the tonic that Cass drank when he was injured, vetted by the real Sam and Lucian.
Cass was also fairly certain that the nursery tree would not allow a different demon on their land, so Cass wasn’t too worried that someone else was going to poison him.
All in all, everything was going so smoothly that Cass felt like he blinked, and then suddenly he was on the carriage with everyone else, on their way out of the city and towards the coast.
Cass was even surprised to find himself in the carriage beside Lucian, Edgar and Gideon across from him as Lucian held onto Cass’ hand as they drove into the forest around them. Cass blinked, slightly dazed as he tuned into the men and realised that they were speaking to each other without tension.
That only made Cass super aware of them, and the words slipped out. It made more sense for him to speak about this then to worry about it for the rest of the trip. They were going into a dungeon together, after all.
"Did you three meet up and talk without me?" Cass asked, not realising how angry and bitter he sounded until the words left his lips. All three men turned to him, their expressions shocked, and Gideon at least, looked guilty. Lucian started soothing right away.
"We weren’t planning to keep it from you." He started softly and Cass couldn’t help the snort that left his lips.
"Weren’t trying to keep it from me? I don’t think I believe you." Cass muttered. "When did you do it? When I went to bed? When I got up and was visiting the nursery tree? Did it happen before now and I’m just an unobservant idiot?" Cass had no idea why he was getting so worked up and Edgar shifted quickly, moving over so that he was on the other side of Cass as Cass tried to shrug off Lucian’s hand.
"Cass, oh my gods, no. We weren’t trying to keep our conversation from you, we just thought it was better to wait until we got to our destination before we brought it up. We were planning to talk to you about it tonight." Edgar told him, taking Cass’ other hand in his own.
Cass knew he was scowling, knew that he was basically making a mountain out of a molehill, but he did not like being excluded, especially when it came to him. It made him doubt how they had treated him all morning, and damn it, Cass had been very emotionally vulnerable all morning. It was the nursery tree who had soothed him.
The behaviour had felt good, but it had also made him worried. They had treated him the same way that they were supposed to treat Fiona. The actual hero. Not the hero who had been swapped out with Cass for the moment. It had made him worried that the world was going back to ’normal’, whatever the hell that meant. Cass had already been worrying about that while coming up to this dungeon and now he was back to spiraling again.
"You were planning to talk to me about it tonight? Why not when we’re in this damn carriage for half a day?" Cass demanded and the trio shared a look. Cass felt his blood boil at the shared look. What the fuck was this? It was only yesterday that Lucian was pouting because of the treatment that Cass gave Gideon, and now he was behaving like this? Were they fucking serious?
"Um, well, we all kind of thought that you wanted to grill Gideon and I so...we thought we’d wait." Edgar admitted, his face warm. He was wearing his sun protection hat even in the carriage, so it made it a little harder to see his expression, but he didn’t hide his face from Cass’ scrutiny. It was like the man knew that if he did, that would only make Cass more mad.
"And I thought that maybe you would want to take a nap, or read before we had to work. You haven’t really had time to yourself, Cass, and you’ve had a busy couple of months. You haven’t been able to just...breathe. We wanted to give you a rest." Lucian sounded terrified as he spoke, like he was worried that he was going to say the wrong thing.
Cass glanced at the two men pressed against him, both holding onto his hands like a lifeline. When he glanced towards Gideon, even he looked a little extra pale. He wasn’t looking at Cass initially, but when he felt the weight of Cass’ gaze, he looked up and swallowed thickly.
"I have no excuse. I thought that we should have spoken to you right away. I didn’t realise that you would get this anxious about it, and I apologise. I...didn’t know that about you." Gideon muttered, appearing flustered and Cass just stared at the other man.
"Way to make us look bad, Gideon." Lucian muttered quietly. It would have normally been too quiet for Cass to hear but he was hyperaware right now. He could even hear the birds and animals running away from them as they passed by. It was a little overwhelming.
"Thank you for saying so, Gideon." Cass said carefully, before he realised that he was freaking the fuck out and it wasn’t like they were trying to keep it from him forever. But...he did need to make sure of that first before he calmed himself down. "You were honestly going to tell me tonight?" Cass asked and both Lucian and Edgar nodded aggressively.
"Absolutely! I really mean it! I saw what happened last time and I really didn’t want to do that again. I just knew that you were going to have a busy morning and afternoon and thought we shouldn’t bother you with our own problems." Edgar told him, practically begging Cass to believe him. When Cass turned his gaze to Lucian, he was nodding in agreement.
"Truly. We weren’t planning to keep it from you. I’m sorry that the delay in us telling you made you this upset and worried. I never meant to do that. I just wanted you to have a moment to relax." Lucian confessed. Cass let out a slow breath, his shoulders relaxing slightly.
"What did you three discuss?" Cass asked carefully, knowing that it was probably going to be something that made him anxious, but not knowing was only going to make him more anxious. They shared a look again, Gideon practically pleading with his eyes that someone else said it.
In the end, it fell on Edgar’s shoulders since Lucian had stiffened completely at Cass’ side. The sigh that left Edgar’s lips could have rustled a whole valley of plant life.
"Cass, we were discussing sleeping arrangements, rotations, and...how Gideon would fit into our daily lives once we came back and after Lucian left. Of course, we didn’t want to exclude you from the topic, but we thought you’d only get upset if we were arguing around you without end. After all, it took Lucian quite a while to calm down and have a civil conversation." Edgar gave Lucian a pointed look. Lucian looked unrepentant.
"My bond partner. My mate." Lucian muttered and Cass felt his face warm. He glanced at Gideon who looked equally flushed.
"Why was that something that you would need to discuss with me at night?" Cass asked and Edgar looked supremely uncomfortable. He shifted slightly, his face warm. He opened and closed his mouth several times before another wind-worthy sigh left his lips.
"Because I found out something yesterday and it’s...embarrassing to admit, but important for you to know." Edgar admitted, blushing more. Cass blinked, then looked towards Gideon, then back at Edgar as he realised both men were the colour of tomatoes. Cass glanced at Lucian and the man had this annoyed but pleased look on his face.
So something really did happen the night prior, Lucian knew about it, and Cass absolutely should be grilling these men now. He had a feeling he was going to find out anyway.
"What is it?" Cass asked and Edgar opened his mouth, made a soft noise in the back of his throat before he covered his mouth with his hand, looking flustered.
"Gideon tastes spicy now." Edgar muttered around his hand. Cass blinked. What?
"What does that mean?" Cass asked, confused and Gideon cleared his throat. It appeared he wasn’t going to let Edgar take on the full task of explaining, especially when it came to him. How admirable.
"Because of my holy power, my body fluids like saliva and blood taste spicy to Edgar, and we are assuming, also to you. Not...painful, or so Edgar says, but they have a heat to them." Gideon looked flushed. "We decided to speak at night because we could do so in the tents and...you could find out for yourself if that was the case."
Cass, who’d had his head in the gutter all morning felt his whole face go red as his breathing pause as he tried to wrap his head around what the fuck he meant by that. Gideon continued, not noticing Cass’ condition because he was staring at his hands on his knees like the good little knight that he was.
"Edgar told me that you can also partake in blood consumption and that it won’t hurt you, so I was planning to prick a finger for you to test it out." Gideon let out a sigh. "I’m sorry for keeping this from you. I had hoped to have been able to help you when Lucian was away, but I am worried that my current condition will only hurt you." Gideon sounded...sincere.
Cass let out a slightly strangled sound, causing all three men to look at him in concern.
"Ah. Blood. Of course." Cass said flatly. It only took three beats of silence before both Edgar and Lucian were laughing at him while Gideon, poor innocent Gideon stared at the two men in confusion. It appeared that Edgar hadn’t started with that part of Gideon’s reeducation yet.
Fuck. It appeared that he might be leaving that up to Cass.