“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Miles shrugged, unperturbed by the fact that people beyond the city walls didn’t celebrate much. From what he understood about the districts, the commoners who lived there were bland, pessimistic individuals who wasted their days working and complaining. “But that just means we’ll have to show you how we party in the capital. Celebration is a form of art, and that art requires a bottle of bubbly. It’s the law!”

Cas shook his head amusedly at Miles’ exclamation. It was true that they usually popped champagne when they had something to celebrate or someone to honor, but there was no law. He wondered if Miles expected that he and Jay would finish the entire bottle without any help. If they were opening a new one, they were going to have to, since that particular drink didn’t keep very well after the first day. If they were planning to dabble with drugs on top of that, they were going to be extremely inebriated by the afternoon. He just hoped they wouldn’t do anything too stupid while they were crossfaded, since he didn’t feel like stopping them from trying to leave the mansion today.

When Iris accused Miles of being spoiled, the high born barked a laugh. “More spoiled than the man who’s going to inherit an entire country from his dad?” he snorted. “Good effort, but I don’t think that’s even possible.”

At his words, Cas averted his gaze uncomfortably. He had already known what his friends thought of his position as the crown prince, but they were far off their marks. While he couldn’t deny that there were perks to the royal status, the weight of his insurmountable responsibility was practically suffocating. He had never looked forward to being crowned king. Even when he’d been to the other districts and felt the pull to change things in Aspiria, he still recoiled from the thought of actually stepping up and doing it. As soon as he took over for his father, every eye in the nation would be on him, waiting to see if he would succeed or fail. To the prince that was entirely too sensitive to the way others perceived him, the pressure was crippling.

So, when Iris changed the subject, he was happy to move on. [color=#b97703]“I don’t know if I would call that hardy,”[/color] he disagreed with a laugh, finding it funny that she would use her condition as proof for being tougher than either of them.

“Yeah, that just sounds clumsy to me,” Miles snickered. “Maybe you need one of us hardy men to keep you company, so you don’t step in a pit fall next time.” Meaning the statement in a joking manner, he nudged her again before hitting ‘send’ on his text and stuffing the phone back into his pocket. With any luck, Jay would join them within the hour.

Trying to ignore the other high born’s obvious flirting with Iris, Cas nodded in response to her question. [color=#b97703]“You were gonna try to pay, but I already told you I wasn’t going to let you do it,”[/color] he reminded her stubbornly. Taking his own phone out, he pulled up the restaurant’s webpage to order delivery. [color=#b97703]“What kind of pizza do you guys want? If Jay is coming, I’ll get two, so we have enough for everyone to eat as much as they want.”[/color]