Cass found himself stuck between a dragon and a hard place.
After the men had bickered for a bit, and then finally eaten the dinner that had stirred everyone in the first place, it was time to wrap it up for the night and go to bed. When it came time to do so, Cass was put in the safest spot for several reasons. The first was being who he was, and the second was because he was the reason that everyone was able to survive without any worry right now.
The lighter sleepers needed to be by his side, and that was Lucian and Gideon. Edgar was, self-admitted, a heavy sleeper. Something that Cass hadn’t realised, but now it did make sense since he had been able to escape from the bed several times without Edgar stirring.
Lucian had to answer for himself, and begrudgingly, the man admitted that he had woken up, but he just liked to hear Cass struggle to get out of bed and not wake either of them up. He even liked it when he asked Sam to help him a couple of times.
Cass’ face flamed at the recollection, making it clear to him and to the others that Cass was kind and sweet when it came to the men in his bed. That wasn’t supposed to be something that others knew, even the men involved.
Lucian had just laughed, his fingers playing with a few strands of Cass’ hair as Cass frowned, his eyebrows drawn together and his face flaming.
So, somehow, he’d gotten help getting undressed by Edgar, Gideon flushed and turned away as the two skinner men changed while Lucian kept a blanket wrapped around his waist.
He didn’t want to put clothes on, and didn’t see the point. He mostly slept naked, and if they were just going to go to bed after this, and it was just them, he didn’t give a fuck.
So Gideon got changed, Edgar and Cass got changed, and then they were faced with sleeping arrangements. This seemed to be something that the boys had discussed without Cass, but given the situation, that practise was out of the window.
Cass had to be monitored in case something happened, same with Gideon and Lucian. Edgar was the only one who didn’t need to, but he was exhausted due to his own personal condition. Everyone was going to sleep together in the tent, and Cass was going to be in the middle. Edgar was going to be the furthest from the door, then Gideon, then Cass and then Lucian near the entrance of the tent.
Not that they thought anything bad would happen since Cass had made this space, but just in case, better to have the dragon near the exit. Cass had wanted to argue, and it was clear that Gideon wanted to give him his two cents as well, but Lucian wouldn’t hear it.
Edgar just crawled into the tent, gathering up some blankets and then smiling at the other men warmly, patting the bed that he’d set up.
"Are you lot going to join me?" It was a honey trap if Cass had ever seen one, and none of the men were able to resist it. So, here Cass was, on his back, Gideon with his back to Cass and facing Edgar, and Lucian on his side facing Cass. Cass was holding his blankets around him, his heart racing at the same speed his mind was going.
Lucian looked like he was already asleep, but Cass knew better than to trust him. Cass stared up at the ceiling of the tent, his eyes having already adjusted to the darkness around them in the time since everyone else had turned in.
Cass could hear that Edgar was already asleep, and he had a feeling that Gideon was as well. His body had relaxed, slowly at first, until he looked comfortable in his sleeping position. When Cass glanced at Lucian, he found one orange eye open and staring at him.
"Go to sleep, Sweetness." Lucian whispered and Cass made a face. He could find it in himself to go to sleep. He knew he needed to, but his mind was too busy racing.
"I want to." Cass admitted and Lucian smiled at him, shifting slightly. Cass noticed how his pecs bounced as he adjusted himself, the plumpness of the muscles attached to his chest sloping slightly towards the ground given the angle he was at. Cass swallowed, flushing as he realised he was staring again. Lucian chuckled.
"Do you want to snuggle? Will that help?" He asked and Cass glanced at him, knowing that he was joking. Cass went to tell him off and found that Lucian was just smiling at him, no teasing glint in his eyes. "I wouldn’t mind. It would honestly make me feel better. That way I’ll know immediately if something happens to you, and you’ll know the same for me." Cass heard what he said, felt what he was saying, and swallowed thickly.
Would it make him feel better to cuddle up to the giant heater? Yeah, from a basic viewpoint. He would also get to know if anything changed with his condition, like Lucian had said. He wasn’t sure if it would help him sleep easier, but honestly, he wasn’t above trying anything right now.
"What kind of cuddling?" Cass asked quietly and Lucian chuckled.
"Are there different types of cuddling, Cass?" He asked and Cass scowled at him.
"You know that there is, just no one talks about it." Cass muttered. Lucian chuckled. Lucian’s arms reached for Cass, tugging the man onto his side and then carefully pulling him closer to Cass as well. Until Cass’ face was almost flush with the other man’s chest, the heat and scent of the man’s skin, not his sweat, familiar and foreign all at once.
Lucian let out a heavy, content sigh as he shoved his leg in between Cass’ thighs, a position that Cass was familiar with, but from behind. Cass wasn’t quite sure what to do with his arms, so he kept them against the chests and Lucian settled in, getting comfortable.
"Go to sleep, Cass. Nothing bad will happen while you are in my arms and Gideon is at our back." Cass fought against sleep for a little bit more, but the warmth from the other man and the steady, rhythmic sound of his breathing finally lulled Cass to sleep. He wasn’t aware of how the man holding him had his eyes open, scanning the area above his head until he felt the smaller man relax.
It was only then that everyone in the tent fell asleep.
~
Getting out of the hole they had made wasn’t as hard as everyone else thought it would be. Thankfully, no other monsters had come to check out the mini Boss room, which was the standard reaction once the mini Boss was defeated. Cass wasn’t sure if the dungeon was going to play by the rules, and the others weren’t so sure themselves.
Cass had let them know his theory that this dungeon might be based off of Lucian, and the man had heard what Cass said, and then had nodded.
He casually dropped that he had been weaker when he’d come across the beast back in the day and that he had lost two friends and his arms while fighting them. Cass had nearly lost his damn mind, and it was Gideon who calmed down both Cass and Edgar.
Both men were pissed at the dragon for not taking that seriously. Gideon wasn’t as skilled as Ava. He had all the power, but none of the practise. That wasn’t a dig at Gideon, just a truth that the man embraced. He even scolded Lucian, and that seemed to be the point where the man understood that he had fucked up.
Either way, the group was now operating under the loose assumption that the dungeon was based off of Lucian, so they were on high alert.
Funnily enough, after the first day, they hadn’t run into another mini Boss in the three days since.
That didn’t mean that nothing had happened. Oh no. The monsters that had been regularly attacking them changed. They went from the vicious mermen that were a little too close to the shark side of things to beings that were barely humanoid. They had giant fish heads, kind of looking like what would happen if someone made a fucked up version of a mermaid. They just also happened to have humanoid arms and thus meant they could hold human weapons.
They were easy to deal with when there were only a few of them, but they had come across a few large rooms or empty spaces where a large swarm of them resided and it became a problem. They could cast magic, it turned out, and it was a wind/water type magic.
They made little water spouts that would target certain people. They could be intercepted, but they didn’t seem to stop chasing someone until they made contact with either the person or something close by. Or the caster died.
That was the most common way that the magic died in its tracks since Cass was getting a little fed up with the dungeon. Everyone was so on edge that Cass was just done. It didn’t help that as they tried to track the dungeon Boss, they appeared to not stay in the same space.
That hadn’t happened before, not even for Lucian who had a lot of experience with dungeons. That hadn’t even happened in any of the dungeons that Fiona and the others had cleared in the book either.
It was annoying, and meant that the dungeon was dragging on. Cass could tell that Lucian was slowly deteriorating, but keeping a brave face on. Cass knew how painful it was to suppress one’s heat, and Cass had no idea what it felt like to add a shed onto that.
It was just the night before that Cass noticed a thin, almost transparent glimmer to Lucian’s skin. Like scales coming out to play. Lucian didn’t seem to notice, which told Cass that it wasn’t intentional. Cass knew himself, and he knew that if Lucian had done it intentionally, he would have glowed under Cass’ attention if Cass had noticed it.
However, the man didn’t react at all.
Edgar and Gideon were doing just fine. In fact, Gideon seemed to be getting a crash course in how to control his holy power and that was a good thing. He hadn’t drained himself since the first night when he used his holy power. Edgar did say that he was still using far too much for very basic things, but he was getting better.
Gideon was glowing under the praise, while Cass?
Cass wasn’t telling anyone how much his magic abilities were developing here, because they didn’t need to know. He knew that they would praise him if they did, and he didn’t need it. He needed to get this dungeon closed so Lucian could go take care of himself and come back as soon as he could.
The dungeon was an inconvenience at this point, so no one protested when Cass began wielding his magic like it cost him nothing. The large rooms? It wasn’t Lucian clearing them, it was Cass.
He’d stand, protected by the others as he waved his hands and created ice storms and wind tunnels that would make others scream and cry in terror. Instead, the rest of the hero party protected him, and collected the loot when it was all done.
It was a silly thing to find out. That if Cass used his magic and touched a chest, that counted as a hero touching it. They had been slowly gathering up quite the spoils. Cass just wanted to get the fuck out of here.