Alone in his room, Cas stared at the door Jacob had just disappeared through, reflecting on his obscure warning. It had been an odd thing to say when it had seemed like the guard had chosen to take his side. If he had decided that helping Iris was the right move, then why would he act like there were going to be consequences to hiding her from the soldiers? He stood up from his seat and headed into the bathroom, deciding to think about it while he got ready for the day. Hopefully a hot shower would help him get rid of the lingering hangover that made it difficult for him to piece his thoughts together.

As he stripped off his nightclothes and stepped under the warm stream of water, he wondered when his father was going to have him resume the private lessons that had ended when he’d been abducted from the capital. So far, the king hadn’t mentioned anything about his tutors, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he would be expected to further his studies. His father would never risk allowing him to forget all the ‘crucial’ information that he needed in order to successfully ascend the throne.

[color=#b97703][i]Maybe he’s waiting to find out from Dr. Foster if I’m even mentally competent enough to continue learning,[/i][/color] he thought dryly, closing his eyes and tilting his chin up as the water rolled off his head and shoulders. Even though the idea had only come to him because he was still bitter about it, he wouldn’t have been surprised if it was true. Atlas was so focused on molding him into the perfect successor that he was probably panicked that his son had come back from the other districts with new thoughts and opinions in his head. [color=#b97703][i]It doesn’t matter that I came back alive when I also came back refusing to follow in his footsteps.[/i][/color]

Then there was the matter of what Jacob had said. Though the guard had agreed to keep quiet about Iris’s location, it was obvious that he had reservations about something. As Caspian stood in the shower, he mulled it over, repeating the guard’s words silently to himself until he realized it. Jacob hadn’t been talking about rescuing Iris; he’d figured out that he and Iris were closer than he’d let on. The color drained from his face. For a moment, he felt the urge to find the guard again and make sure that he wouldn’t say anything about their taboo relationship to his father. However, the impulse was short lived. If Jacob wasn’t going to tell Atlas that he was the one who had broken her out of the hospital, there was no way he would tell the king that they were seeing each other romantically. The warning hadn’t been a threat, it had been made out of genuine concern. Jacob was worried that he was going to find himself in deep waters if he didn’t break things off with Iris.

[color=#b97703][i]But I’m not going to do that,[/i][/color] he thought stubbornly, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist. He knew the odds he faced by attempting to be with Iris, and he’d already decided that she was worth it. He was sick and tired of letting everyone else dictate the decisions he made just because he was the crown prince. For once, he was going to take control and do something that he wanted to do whether the other people in his life thought he was being wise or not.

With that thought in mind, he finished up the rest of his routine hygiene, popped a couple ibuprofens to ease his headache, and dressed himself before he headed to the kitchen for breakfast. With any luck, Atlas would buy the lie that Iris and ‘the other rebels’ had escaped the capital, and another lockdown wouldn’t be put in place.

--

While he waited for Iris to get out of the shower, Miles eventually began glancing toward the bathroom door, wondering what was taking her so long. It had been a while since she’d disappeared around the corner, and he’d thought she would have been done by now. A thought of her slipping on the slick tile surround and hitting her head crossed his mind, and he fidgeted with his phone anxiously. If she actually had hurt herself, he had no idea what to do. It wasn’t like he could just waltz into the bathroom and check on her, after all. If she was fine, that would have been the absolute worst thing he could do.

He glanced at the door one more time and shifted his weight restlessly. [i]If she doesn’t come back out in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll make sure she’s okay,[/i] he thought, deciding that was more than enough time for her to finish up.

Almost as soon as he made the decision, he blinked as a flicker of motion caught his eye, and Iris stepped out of the bathroom. She was wearing the same clothes he’d given her the day before, making his t-shirt fashionable, as she’d put it earlier. He stared briefly before standing up from the sofa. “I have no idea what you like to wear, so I brought you lots of choices,” he told her, gesturing to the heap of clothes he’d left on his bed. “Take whatever you want. My sister has so many, she’ll never notice these are gone.”