Thank you.

"Some flowers need the light to grow. Some flowers only bloom for the moon."

— B. Damani

. . .



As Anton begrudgingly closes the door behind her (no doubt not wanting to get involved with what seemed to be a major drama), Cassandra’s lips slowly curled into an amused smirk, her eyes gleaming a dazzling silver for a split second amidst the glaringly bright, artificial lights in her office.

Her gaze practically reads, well, what do you think?

At hearing the footsteps finally fading away, Damian smiles after a moment, smart save, “Quite a little bit of late with the rebellion phase going on, don’t you think?”

“Better late than never, or so they say,” Cassandra scoffs, moving to sit down on her desk as she tore open the bags one by one to inspect the cupcakes, as if to judge if they were to her liking–because yeah, she’s picky like that.

And as she did so, Damian’s smile fades as he looks over her, then at the AST’s coat she still has on. She hasn't even bothered to change out of her school uniform. Judging by the now-faint dark circles under her eyes, he supposes she really is swamped with her duties.

Suddenly, he feels bad for her.

“So… is it true?”

“Yes.”

There was no need for clarification about that.

He heaves out a grand sigh. Knowing her, she probably woke up and chose violence when she thought of this idea. “Thank you.”

“You and I wouldn’t have worked out, anyway,” Cassandra muttered as she bit into one creamy cupcake, somehow not falling victim to the messiness of the frosted whipped cream, much to Damian’s annoyance. Damn Lunamors and their natural affinity to perfection. “…and I refuse to be stuck on a loveless marriage.”

…Like her parents.

Damian was aware.

And he had been so scared.

Hell, even Colorado himself was dreading the day their families would look at Damian and Cassandra and think that, hey, since the kids get along, why not get them married? Win-win!

He had wanted an out ever since.

While Damian has nothing against Cassandra–don’t get him wrong, he actually finds the principessa kind of pretty, in an unattainable, fairytale princess sort of way.

Not to mention, she was actually fun to trade barbs with (especially since she's one of the very few who can look past him being an actual prince and call him an idiot in his face)–he just couldn’t quite see the two of them being anything more than just friends.

He’s happy with what they have.

With what they are right now.

The girl’s literally his best friend’s little sister too… and by that extension, the baby sister Damian never get to have. She was someone he had played and practically grown up with. And in his humble opinion, it’s just so weird and so wrong in so many levels to think of Cassandra Lunamor as his wife.

But what Cassandra just did...

This.

This was something Damian had wanted when he was a teenager and something he very nearly thought to be impossible as an adult.

And while Damian knows that he should be grateful, that he should be happy his friend was the one taking the initiative to shoot down their engagement before it even began (something that was very clearly going to end up in tears and broken friendships), he still couldn’t quite calm down… especially with such an–ahem–unorthodox approach Cassandra had chosen to tackle in order to fix their issue.

For sure, she had made enemies with such a bold move.

Cassandra might as well have placed herself in the line of fire.

And forget about Cassie punching him, Colorado himself is going to punch him once he finds out Damian was letting his little sister go ape shit across the continent, unsupervised.

With that lovely thought, he pointedly lowered his voice just in case her bodyguard’s still lingering by the door–wouldn’t be the first time it happened, “But having a fake boyfriend is alright with you? Cassandra, this is bullshit. Are you sure about this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, her tone as dry as a biscuit.

“Enlighten me.”

“…I like this person,” Cassandra suddenly says, at last, the gravity of her words completely at odds with how she just delivered them.

“And…?”

She only stared at him.

“I see.” Damian deigns to say when his mind finally caught up with him in a way that he most certainly did not see just what the actual hell she’s talking about, “Well… that explains everything," and somehow nothing at the same time. “And what does your fratello have to say about this?”

Cassandra continued to eat her cupcake in silence, still staring at him dead in the eye as she did so. Almost challengingly, if he might add.... only Cassandra Lunamor can look so menacing while eating a cutesy cupcake.

Defeated, he shakes his head at her.

Oh, well.

At least when (not if) Colorado finds out, Damian can honestly say, in his defense, that hey, at least he tried. And, well… it wasn’t really Damian’s idea to go crazy this time around. But to be honest, he had to hand it to Cass, she seriously went up a mile and a whole lot more for someone she likes.

Now, that’s dedication…

He wonders what they were like…

“Why are you really here, prince charming?” she finally asks… once she’s done eating, “And don’t tell me it’s to celebrate… this, whatever we are–or I swear I will punch you.”

“Wait. S-Seriously? I just brought you a whole bag of–” when Cassandra unceremoniously crumpled the foil packaging rather easily, Damian began to sweat and fidget with his cuff links, avoiding her eyes for a moment, “I j-just thought it would be nice to celebrate as I remembered how hard you’ve been working here. It’s your first time living abroad on your own, after all…”

One of her hands clenched into a fist.

At that, he began speaking quickly in a mild panic. “I miss you and I haven’t been able to see you much since our grandparents gave us our wedding date and Ithoughtyouhatedme–”

Other than her furrowing eyebrows, her expression still didn’t change, and Damian began to stumble over the rest of his words like a broken vinyl. He only paused from his word-vomiting when he saw, when his brain finally caught up and processed the faint dusting of pink running across her face as she glared at him.

The way her gaze drilled against his would have made for an intimidating picture, but the blush was quite too prominent against such pale skin.

“…thank you.”

Damian swears he just about died as his heart melted to mush there and then. Oh, his princess is just so cute sometimes! He beams brightly at her, not bothering to resist the tempting urge to pinch both of her cheeks the same way he’d always do when they were little children.

“Aw, sei la benvenuta, mia principessa!”