[color=#b97703][i]Great, I made her uncomfortable again,[/i][/color] Cas thought dryly when he heard Iris stutter. He really needed to learn to think before he opened his mouth. It would have been easy to brush it off like a simple slip of the tongue had he not already confessed to her once before that he’d developed feelings for her. Unfortunately, given the fact that she knew he found her attractive, he was sure he’d just drawn her attention back to the brief history that they both needed to forget about. Inadvertently reminding himself of the same thing, he averted his gaze as the memory of the night they’d spent waiting in her bedroom before they snuck out of the mansion resurfaced in his mind. It was bittersweet because it was the night he had felt like she was someone he could see himself falling in love with, but it was also the night she had betrayed his trust.

Not wanting to think about it, he happily latched onto the subject of her wellbeing to push the memory back down into the recesses of his mind. He frowned as he heard the nervous edge to her laughter though. He would admit that he wasn’t the best at spotting lies, but even he could tell that she was downplaying her condition to him for some reason. [color=#b97703]“Okay,”[/color] he said, not pushing her to explain herself. Whatever the reason was, she must have deemed herself to be in good enough condition to make the rest of the trip to the capital. So, trusting her judgement, he stepped out of the kitchen to recline on the sofa while she ate.

Usually, he was quicker to concern himself with other people’s physical and mental health, but it felt too weird to him to be so considerate of a woman he was trying to move on from. It was almost like traveling with an ex-girlfriend, even though they had never put labels on whatever had been going on between them in the capital. Despite the informality of it all, he’d still gotten more attached to her than he had with pretty much every other girl he’d dated. There had just been something about her that drew him to her like a magnet. She was sweet and funny and always seemed to say the right thing to him when he was in need of support or encouragement.

[color=#b97703][i]And I have to stop thinking of her like that, or it’s going to drive me crazy,[/i][/color] he shook his head, frustrated with how easy it was for him to fall back into old patterns. He really needed to get better at letting go of people. Trying his hardest, he focused on the people he would reunite with when he got home. His father was strict, but he was family; and Jay and Miles were the closest people he had to brothers. Of course, the relationships he had with them were all far from romantic, but they still made him happy. He didn’t need to hold onto Iris just because she gave him something the three men couldn’t. It wasn’t worth the inevitable heartbreak.

[color=#b97703]“I’m feeling a lot better than I was yesterday,”[/color] he nodded when she asked if he was ready for the long walk. With food and water in his system and a full night of sleep under his belt, he felt like he could handle anything—barring anymore psychotic rebels with knives, that was. [color=#b97703]“Are you ready for it though?”[/color] He posed, unable to help himself even though he was trying to back off. He didn’t want to leave unless Iris was confident that she could make it all the way to the capital.